Your guides at illuminenation

Meet Your Teachers

We explore the interplay of our individual and collective evolution with authenticity and reciprocity in the spirit of collaboration.

Lisa Matthews
Senior Yoga Teacher

Lisa is a Senior Yoga Teacher who lives in Mt Dandenong with her family and 4-legged friends. She is passionate about embodying the practice, teachings and experience of yoga through everyday life.

  • My early life was strongly influenced by the world of dance, in particular classical ballet, which I began practicing at age 4. It was a magical world of beauty, majestic music, discipline, dedicated practice and performance. My ballet teacher was not only a beautiful dancer and accomplished teacher, she also embodied qualities such as kindness, joy and most of all, a heartfelt love for our uniqueness and individuality. I was motivated and inspired to emulate those qualities in my teaching, my mothering and the way I met the world around me – to live a life of creativity, beauty and purpose.

    My great and enduring love of yoga was born after being introduced to the teachings of Siddha Yoga in 1997. A deep longing for healing and transformation was kindled. I bid farewell to my loving fiancé and corporate career and embarked on a 12 month immersion in an Indian Ashram as a student of yoga studying philosophy and yogic scripture, meditation and chanting, karma yoga and hatha yoga. It was remarkable, transformational and by no means easy. I was well served by the discipline of my early practices. On my return I married my husband John, had two beautiful sons and continued on the path of self discovery through love and dedication to the art of living yoga.

    I’ve had the absolute privilege of studying and training with many inspiring local and international teachers from a diverse range of yogic styles and traditions. As an experiential learner, life remains my greatest teacher. I’m feel I’m constantly expanding the boundaries of my own limitations so that I can be the most loving, compassionate and positive influence on the world around me in service of the highest good for our humanity.

    • Yoga Australia registered Level 3 Senior Teacher

    • Yoga Alliance registered RYT 1500 Senior Teacher, EYRT 500+

    • Creative Dance Teacher

    • Light Space Yoga 200 hr Teacher Training Program Faculty Teacher

    • Served as Director of Yogahood Australia

    • Certificates in Holistic Counselling, Life Coaching, Chair Yoga and Meditation teaching

    • Trauma Informed Certificate Course, Sounds True

  • lisa@illuminenation.org

“No matter what you’re going through give others your greatness, for that is what must be shared. Your present efforts are more significant than your fate, your present efforts draw Grace into your life”

— Gurumayi Chidvilasananda

John Matthews
Corporate Executive Coach

John is a senior Corporate Executive Coach and Leadership facilitator. He is a student of the human potential movement integrating work and spirituality for the upliftment of humanity.

  • I grew up in a deli in New York City where I developed a love of food and all kinds of people. Being very ill, I had a near death experience at 4 yrs old and experienced a greater reality beyond death and what we call “life”.

    My mission to understand and share what I have learned has lead me on several adventures including; working with drug addicts and mentally challenged institutionalised people, 5 yrs seminary training to become a missionary, a high school teacher, university lecturer, charismatic prayer group leader, youth minister, adult educator, national speaker in US, McKinsey Consultant, Senior Executive Coach with 11,000+ experience in the public and private sectors, the founder of an Institute and director of a publicly listed company.

    My passion is to discover the depths of Divine Love with my wife Lisa and to help you, myself, and all of us who are being called to evolve Humanity. I believe we are on the verge of creating a world more aligned with nature, the cosmos, our innermost being, and our collective consciousness and I believe we are being called to create this new world together.

    • Professional Certified Coach with International Coaching Federation 11,000+ hours

    • Co-Founder of The Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership

    • Keynote speaker on Leadership and Human Potential

    • Served as Director of Club of Budapest Australia

    • Bachelors of Arts in Religious Studies, Masters Degree in Religious Education

  • john@illuminenation.org

“Celebrate Diversity, Embrace Unity ”

— unknown

Robert Langworthy
Meditation & Philosophy Teacher

Rob is a professionally trained musician and served as a monk in the Saraswati order for over three decades. He's grounded in the ancient traditions of mantra and yoga philosophy.

  • From a very early age I have been intrigued by the big questions of life. Why are we here? Who am I?

    What is the purpose of life? To name just a few. I remember even back in my second grade in primary school trying to figure out the concept of infinity. The idea that there was no beginning and no end to something fascinated me. Ultimately, the contemplation of these questions led me to the practice of meditation, yoga and yoga philosophy, and I have been practicing and studying yoga and meditation now for over four decades.

    In early 80's I traveled to India and lived there for 15 years where under the guidance of masters and scholars, I studied and practiced the great philosophies of Kashmir Shaivism, Vedanta and Patanjali. While living in India, I took the vows of a monk in the Saraswati order and lived as a monk for thirty-four years. During that time I traveled all over the world giving workshops, courses and retreats on the practice of meditation and yoga philosophy.

    I am passionate about learning; it is a timeless journey that never stops giving my life enrichment and contentment and I love sharing with others how this journey unfolds uniquely in everyone's life.

    • Served as a monk in the Saraswati order for 34 years

    • Manager of National and International Ashrams

    • International teacher of workshops and retreats based on the philosophies of Patanjali, Kashmir Shaivism and Vedanta

    • Bachelor of Music Degree, Latrobe University

    • Musician, Shakuhachi Flute

  • rob@illuminenation.org

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

— Buckminster Fuller