After exploring their Silver Island Yoga for the travel tips in our Spring Summer issue, we wanted to find out more about the sisters running the retreat and asked Claire to tell us her story. And generous as they are, they offered all our readers a discount for their retreats this summer – simply send them an email with COOLER MAG in the subject line. 

Interview by Anna Langer

Every journey starts with a single step.

My journey with yoga started when I was 18 and I have been practicing on and off for the last 20 years. Like all journeys, sometimes the road is well traveled and other times less traveled!

We inherited the island from my father when he died 7 years ago. In order for us to pay our inheritance of death tax, my sister and I decided to open up the island to the public and create a yoga retreat center, so that everyone could experience the magic of the place. My sister Lissa and I both gave up our lives to put all our energy into creating our dream with love.

I am a registered nurse by profession and have worked as such for the last 16 years. I have been blessed as I have had the opportunity to work in many different places and countries doing what I love. Being in service has been a beautiful gift and being a there for people when they are their most vulnerable, to be able to help and make a difference has enriched my life. Leaving nursing after so many years and starting this retreat centre with my sister has been a steep learning curve! From running a trauma unit to sales and marketing! The best thing about life is that we can make a change at anytime…every journey starts with a single step.

Being in service has been a beautiful gift and being a there for people when they are their most vulnerable, to be able to help and make a difference has enriched my life.

Silver Island yoga is a privately owned, untouched dream island offering the most unique yoga experience in sublime tranquility to those in search of a sense of inner peace and an escape from the hustle and bustle of modern life. Silver Island Yoga is about getting away, magic, nature, wellness, transformation and rejuvenation. Our wish is create an experience that inspires peace, serenity and mindful living.

What I love most about yoga is that there is something for everyone. Yoga has so many different styles and ways of being practiced that there is something for everyone. Yoga is a very personal journey, a way of being.

We believe that practicing yoga is a gift to one’s self. 

Yoga helps dissolve tension, allowing us to anchor into the stillness of our being. We discover inner harmony, regenerate cells and heal, thus feel revitalized and energized. Leaving a soft glow on the face and sparkling eyes.

 Retreats allow you to go deeper because we leave the usual distractions behind and arrive into a space of self-reflection where we return ‘home’, to the very essence our true nature, which is freedom and pure joy.



Once we step back from a sensory world that absorbs us, all arises from within and our tendencies amplify. In this way we develop clarity where lucidity of the mind is revealed. It is in this space we can release unwanted habitual patterns created by stress from modern day living.

 Stepping back once in a while, we find comfort in our home again, living in the body and mind with freedom, making the most of our life.

Your practice is a personal journey. And Silver Island Yoga offers a practice for everyone, whether you’re a complete beginner or a regular practitioner, we invite you to relax at your pace as we guide you to explore deeper.

 Yoga offers vibrant combinations of spontaneous movement using the body, breath and energy of the mind.

Silver Island Yoga offers a practice for everyone, whether you’re a complete beginner or a regular practitioner, we invite you to relax at your pace as we guide you to explore deeper.

My favorite yoga posture is Matsyasana – it is the destroyer of many diseases. The physical benefits are plentiful, it expands one’s lung capacity, opens the chest, corrects round-shoulders, strengthens the back muscles, stretches and stimulates the muscles and organs of the belly and front of the neck and throat and it improves posture. It helps to regulate emotions and stress and also aids digestion.

Be inspired – be inspiring. “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” One of my favourite quotes by Howard Thurman.