Nirmala Mayi was born in the Newport Beach, California USA . At the age of 7 yrs, Nirmala and her family relocated to Sydney, Australia.

From the age of 16 years, Nirmala developed a serious interest in yoga and spirituality.

Nirmala in that time became a top model in Australia for Vivian’s Agency in Sydney and worked for the best magazines and television commercials and runways  both locally and overseas. However that lifestyle quickly bored her as she continuously delved in search of a more meaningful life.

At 18 years of age, Nirmala traveled to Asia for the first time and visited India and Indonesia. Nirmala instantly fell in love with Asia, its exotic culture and lifestyles. She found she preferred the more laid back tropical style of living in Asia than the striving fast life of the West. She loved getting in amongst the locals and share experiences, learn about their cultures and assist where ever she could to help and inform.

After training as a remedial masseuse at Nature Care College in Sydney, at 22  Nirmala decided to move to Bali.

Over a ten year period, Nirmala gave birth to four children. She routinely continued her yoga practice and continued  traveling around Asia. Nirmala became well known on the island of Bali being part of the original expat community.

Through her voyages and by meeting people from different backgrounds, she taught herself and became fluent in the French and Indonesian language. 

Nirmala was involved in  a large clothing production business for eight years in Bali with her partner, she continued to model and she also started a restaurant in Bali, 'The Golden Angel Cafe'  which is still successful to this day.

Nirmala through life experience learned that life offers one a set of choices and that each choice has a consequence.

In  a wild search of love and passion, Nirmala experienced hard knocks of life attracting the wrong partners and alot of personal suffering. Through all this,  Nirmala learned that each suffering is only  mirroring ones inner self worth. When she realised this, she thanked her hardships because they became the tools for her to become more compassionate , deep and understanding person.

Nirmala has experienced many styles of yoga such as Iyengar, Kundalini, Vinyasa  and Siva Raja.

In 2007 Nirmala became a qualified teacher in Siva Raja yoga through the ‘School of Santhi’ in Trivandrum, Kerala, India and found her yoga master Sw. Santhi Santhiprasad . Santhi is a spiritual master and the time that Nirmala spent by his side only brought her into a deeper connection with her true path and her acceptance of herself.

In 2009, Nirmals became also certified in Vinyasa flow through Jacqueline Heisel from the Frog Lotus Yoga School.

On her travels, Nirmala naturally gravitated towards ashrams in India such as the Osho Asram in Pune. After receieving an 'energy transmission' simply by reading  a few pages of and Osho book, she flew to the ashram and stayed there many months.

On recent trips, Nirmala visited briefly the Amritrapuri Ashram, the home of  the world renown spiriual leader, Amma, 'the hugging saint'  in the state of Kerala, India. Nirmala felt, as she was being hugged by Amma that she receieved love that had lacked from many lifetimes. She was touched by Amma's selflessness and her true expression of the real meaning  of service and unconditional love.

As a yoga teacher in the Southern Highlands in NSW, Australia, Nirmala taught at Solar Springs Health Rereat, Bundanoon;  Petrea King's Quest for Life Centre (for cancer patients and those who are terminally ill) , Bundanoon and at Sangya Yoga Centre,  Bowral.

Nirmala also partook in many various training, Non Violent Communication; Neuro Linguistic Programming , Avatar and after completing her bronze medallion Nirmala became a qualified surf lifesaver and teaches first aid.

Nirmala now resides in town of Seminyak in Bali where she holds regular retreats through Shankari’s Bali Retreat. Nirmala is available for private tuition and can be contacted in Bali at +62813377 90180.

Through her love affair with Asia and  traveling, hosting events, cuisine and primarily yoga, and a deep quest for truth,  Nirmala decided to tie all the things she loves to do together and start the 'Spirit of Shanti'  website creating a worldwide yoga and spiritual online resource community.