YOGA TREE - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Director / Teacher / Retreat Facilitator / Student

If you are open to a more traditional approach to Yoga, you will enjoy a practice guided by Ritu Babbar. Her class is strong yet kind and will leave you feeling recharged and calm. You will notice greater strength as well as flexibility in mind, body and spirit. Before Ritu Babbar began teaching Yoga she attained a Bachelor Degree in Aviation & Air Transportation Management. She worked as a Flight Planner/Dispatch Officer for a major airline. With the support of her parents, both being Bhakti Yoga practitioners; she transitioned to being a full time Yoga teacher in 2010. Ritu has always had a great sense of curiosity that began from a very young age. Her grandfather introduced her to mantra and pranayama before the age of 5, primarily to help with her over active mind. Since these seeds were planted she continued to study throughout her lifetime and lovingly continues to do so. Blessed to have studied alongside some of the most renowned teachers in the world, she has participated in several teachings with His Holiness the Dalia Lama XIVth both in Australia and in his home town of Dharmsala, India. She has also been an active participant in a wide variety of teachings at the Tushita Meditation Centre in Dharmsala. In addition to these teachings in 2017, she took a 10 day silent retreat at Dhamma Aloka Centre of meditation. In 2000 Ritu experienced a cervical spinal injury which after 2 years of various drugs and treatments, she discovered to postural yoga. After 12 weeks of a daily Bikram Yoga practice her movement increased from 25% to 100% free of pharmaceuticals and therapies. This was the beginning of the transition from a life of physics and engineering to a life of sharing the healing powers of Yoga. This journey had twists and turns along the way as all stories do but inevitably she found herself at a Bikram YTT in California, 2010; this was her first 500 hour Certificate. Her curiosity grew from attempting to master the 26&2 to discovering the advanced 84 sequence. She attended 2 advanced courses with Bikram Chowdhury in Malta & Thailand . The next chapter included a Teacher Training in Yin with Jen Crescenzo as well as further study at Rishikesh Yog Peeth with Krishna Sikwhal as the lead teacher Here she attained a further 300hour YTT certificate. She also has done a couple of one on one intensives. The first was in the Astanga Method. Her most recent immersion was with Mahinder Prasdad. This was a combination of Iyengar and Hatha. Ritu Babbar has taught postural yoga in every corner of the globe, from South Asia to the South Pacific and beyond. After being a travelling teaching for nearly a decade she is currently the lead teacher and director of Yoga Tree Elsternwick. The Yoga Tree being her home studio, the same place where her postural yoga practice began in 2002. Her mission at the Yoga Tree is to bring back authenticity to Yoga & to educate the community in all aspects of yoga both on and off the mat.