motocross

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

Why is yoga important to me… How can I put that into words? Yoga has shown me me. Not the external, label oriented me, but the me that’s beyond words and thoughts. The me that is beyond the physical body.

I began yoga in high school. My sister suffered from an illness that no one could cure. It got to the point where we had to help her sit up when she ate, and the doctor recommend walking without breaks for 3 minutes a day, and even that was unbearable. Before the illness, my sister was a go getter. She wanted to be a part of every club and every sport. She had so much passion and so many dreams.

I found myself living for my sister. I was so involved because I felt almost a need to do the things she couldn’t do. I mean, how lucky was I to be alive and able to walk?

One day, we were at a doctor (we had visited hundreds), and once again he has no answer. I was so frustrated I left, and began walking the streets of downtown Fort Collins. Then, I saw a yoga studio and something inside of me just had to go in. That day, has completely changed my life. In class, the teacher said something that really changed my outlook on life. She said “What you do to improve yourself, improves your surroundings, improves the world.”

Yoga has taught me to give you must be well. To love you must love yourself. Being selfish is not only a good thing, but it is necessary.

At that point in my life, I was 15, and didn’t have much money. I didn’t want to ask for money from my parents because I knew they were spending a lot on my sister for all the surgeries and doctor visits. So I bought a $3 yoga mat from Ross, and would take class once a week. Right after class, I would write down everything I learned and practice in for the rest of the week. If I wasn’t practicing yoga I was reading about it. I was so consumed.

The beauty of yoga is the more I know, the more I realize I don’t know. I’m so grateful for yoga, for yoga showing me the love that’s within me, and within every object, person, and animal around me.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?:

I knew I wanted to be a teacher basically the first class I took. At 15, I started my savings account for Teacher Training that I ended up getting at age 19 (or 20.. I forget haha). To me, this was truly a dream come true. My first class was so powerful.

What made me transition? It just felt right. I never questioned it. I just knew I was meant to teach.

Later on, in 2016, I received my 300hr. I could write a book on how powerful that training was personally and professionally. I never want to stop being a student of yoga.

3. What makes your classes unique?:

Space.

Space to breathe. Space to slow down. Space to fail. Permission to be vulnerable, and completely you.

My classes tend to be explorative, intense, and meaningful. It is hard in such a fast paced, distracted world, to find the space to breathe, and explore yourself.

See the love that’s within you. Breathe, practice, and with time you will.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?:

I love music. I use music gently and intentionally. Not as something to distract, but something to encourage a greater depth to your practice.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online:

I currently moved to San Fransisco and am looking for teaching opportunities. I am planning a retreat that will occur Summer of 2018, which I am super excited about!

My IG is @Dawnmichelleyoga
Website: Dawnmichelleyoga.com

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why it important to you?

I first practiced yoga when I lived in Amsterdam and it was the first time in my life that I experienced such a profound physical and mental transformation afterwards. Although my yoga practice was as sporadic as the fickle nature of most backpackers, I fell into it again years later when I was a professional dancer.

Regular rehearsals would sometimes injure my body whereas regular yoga practice would soothe my muscles and calm my mind. Eventually I stopped oscillating between the 2 extremes and decided to be a full time yoga teacher. It’s so important to me because even after so many years, its the most pure setting for an honest dialogue between my body, heart, mind and soul. I still feel challenged and I still discover something new every time I take a class.

From a personal perspective, I have a regular 40 day practice that I am devoted to which helps me stay focused on a goal or on a block I’d like to shift. I do the same thing every day for 40 days, and then I start something new again after a few days of rest. Its the cheapest form of therapy and I highly recommend it.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?

I started teaching about 2 years ago and the transition into a leadership position evolved naturally after teaching at big festivals and being a regular lecturer on yoga teacher trainings across Australia.

My desire to go deeper with my students also meant that I was no longer satisfied with teaching regular 1 hour classes, so my offerings morphed into workshops, then longer workshops, then an online course, and now regular retreats.

3. What makes your classes unique?

My classes offer a fusion of kundalini yoga, sound healing with a gong, energy clearing techniques, along with a few kinesiology exercises to help my students shift any heavier emotions that they’re ready to release.

My classes are generally themed to match the season by cleansing the meridians, heal the chakras or pay tribute to a new or full moon, as well as an equinox or a solstice.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?

Music is EVERYTHING for me! My playlists have been put together meticulously so that I can devote myself to being present for my students instead of feeling like I need to search for a song. I’m very fastidious about the music’s vibration matching the theme and the energy of what I’m teaching.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online?

I’ll be running a retreat called REST, RELEASE & RESTORE next year from 16 – 18 February in north west Sydney. One of the MANY reasons why I’ve been inspired to host this retreat is to invite like minded souls who are ready to take a break from their environment and their comfort zone, so that they can be held in a deep, safe and reverent space during the shedding of old beliefs, integration of new activations and soulful rest of their tired and weary souls. All the details can be found here: http://pattykikos.com/rest-release-restore/ It would be wonderful to see you there!

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

When I was a child, my mother would read biographies of yogis, spiritual masters and people doing amazing healing with vegan diet, Energy healing, and meditation, and then tell me their stories. I was inspired by those stories and watching her rheumatoid arthritis go into remission. I was an athlete and had a natural inclination to improve physically, mentally, and spiritually. What

started as means to be successful football when I was young and as a track and field sprinter in college and elite level turned into my primary focus of my sadana to self realization, God realization, and how much can I fully embody the divine presence in every thing I do. Growing up our family, Guru was Sri Sathya Sai Baba. I taught Sathya Sai Education in human values (like a Yoga Sunday school) while I was in college at San Diego State University. In the summers, I went to college courses in India at Sathya Sai Baba College where Sai Baba was the teacher learning Indian culture and spirituality. In between seasons competing and semester breaks I got certified in clinical Hypnotherapy, NLP, Rieki master teacher and Pranic Healing. This training went perfectly with my degree in physical education/ fitness and training. So right after college I taught in schools as a PE teacher and coach, and started a business ‘Inspirational Hypnosis’ Energetic work, where I teach yoga and trained athletes for speed and conditioning. Still at it 22 years later. It’s a lifestyle of healing and service as natural as breathing.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?:

I never took a yoga teacher training. But before teaching, I had a lifetime from childhood with the teachings of Sathya Sai Baba, Hinduism, Yoga (inner Yoga), Buddhist and Taoist healing and spirituality, training in hypnotherapy, various meditations, and energetic medicine; plus my physical education major understanding how to teach exercise, movement and physiology.

So my cousin’s yoga teacher/ girlfriend was going back to school and asked if I would take over her yoga classes. I already had an idea of how I wanted to teach and the physical and spiritual experience I wanted to share with students through the medium of a hatha yoga class.

3. What makes your classes unique?:

I definitely have a unique asana flow sequence. Like everyone, it’s how a teacher guides students to notice inner awareness, breath and asana that makes us all unique. You may notice the mindfulness, hypnotherapy, and energy healing background in the language I use in my yoga classes.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?:

I grew up singing and chanting mantras and Hindu Bhajans, so I personally love this fusion of east and west. Good music puts me in the zone where my words are flowing with the music. When the music is new and I really like it I can barley teach because I’m so drawn into a meditation.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online:

My next big event is Tuesday 11/14. An awesome evening:
6:45pm Yoga with Me
8:00pm Energetic Healers Network, where energy workers from different modalities gather to connect share knowledge and experiences, and learn different ways of applying Energetics in a free mini session. All are welcome.

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

I was introduced to yoga when I was dealing with depression following a sexual assault in my teens. Yoga brought me back to myself, reconnected me to my body and helped me get back on track better than therapy alone ever did for me.
In my 20s I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and became extremely disconnected with my body. I felt like I would be sick all the time and became depressed. I decided to dive deeper into my yoga practice and through a yoga teacher training I became myself again. I became more connected to my values and to my true self, and I began to live a yoga lifestyle. Yoga continues to heal me everyday, every time I step on my mat.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?:

I began teaching yoga in 2011 and have lots of experience as a teaching in Boston, MA and Houston TX. I teach yoga because I want others to feel the healing benefits of the practice and lifestyle that I have experienced. During my graduate work in psychology and clinical social work I began to develop my own style of therapy that combines traditional behavioral therapy techniques with chakra yoga movement, mantra, meditation and breath to process trauma and remove emotional blocks.

3. What makes your classes unique?:

My classes are unique because I emphasize flow and movement with breath to cultivate mindfulness. Each of my classes makes the connection between what asana teaches us on the mat and how we can live it off the mat. For example, if we can balance, breath and stay calm in an intense pose on the mat, we learn to breath and stay calm when faced with intense situations in our daily life.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?:

I use music to set the mood and energy level of the practice. I will often create playlists that have a build-up, a peak and a cool-down period. Hearing the style and tempo of music is a cue to the mind and body to either increase or decrease your energy and your heart rate. This helps to keep the class energy cohesive and allow students to get into the flow.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online:

My next event is called Flow with Gratitude. It is a yoga party at a beautiful art gallery in SoWa Boston. We will have a gratitude meditation, a slow flow yoga practice and healthy snacks and drinks after while we hang out in the gallery. I am super excited for it! People can find out more about it on my site www.laurenfarenga.com and facebook.com/laurenfarenga/

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

One usual day in 2005, I’ve got a phone call from the clinic saying that my Pap smear result was abnormal. At first, I couldn’t believe that, worried and sad. Later I started to find different ways to take care of my body, practicing yoga is one of them. Through yoga, I feel and connect to my body like never before, I felt so peaceful listening to my breath, feeling all my emotions and sensations. Learning to relax completely with conscious, paying attention to some of the muscles that I had never cared about, like my eyebrows, jaws, shoulder blades, etc. That was how I started my yoga journey, it became part of my life. Half a year later, I took another test, everything was normal and healthy.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?:

I took a teacher training courses 3 years after my yoga practice (2008), it was simply because I wanted to learn more and deepen my knowledge in yoga. I didn’t think I was ready to teach at that time. Through all these years I kept learning and practicing, teaching friends and family. After 12 years, I finally realize yoga is my passion and I like to share everything I know to everyone. Now I am working hard to start new classes and events, taking the leadership position to spread the love of yoga.

3. What makes your classes unique?:

We are all beautiful in different ways, helping my students to bring awareness to their bodies, spiritually and physically is very important. I like them to feel good with their bodies and be grateful and happy. It’s my pleasure to be part of their yoga journey, we don’t share only yoga but love and friendship.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?:

I believe music can help us focus more than silence, especially in a city like Hong Kong with its innumerable ambient sounds: car horns, sirens, noises from construction sites, etc. battling our auditory attention constantly, a good soundtrack becomes our reliable friend. It helps a lot with setting the mood and pace of my classes. Music is in all of our lives, all the time.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online:

Yoga for Shoulders and Upper back
18:30-19:30 on 15 Nov’17
@Tamar Park, Hong Kong

Please follow my
ig: jinisyogi
fb: Jinis Yoga

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

I started my Yoga path a few years ago while working Monday to Friday in the City of London. I had what it’s commonly believed as a successful life: a ‘good job’, lots of friends, a partner to share life with and enough money to travel and go out every weekend. But there was still a void inside me, something was missing. It’s like this how I started practicing yoga and mindfulness meditation. Both practices helped me to overcome back pain, become grounded and taught me to enjoy life. One day I realized I had found my path in life, decided to train as a Yoga Teacher with Yoga London and finally quit my 9 to 5 life. At the moment, I teach yoga everyday and I am also training to become a Tantra Teacher.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?:

I began to teach yoga in 2016, I used to combine my teachings with office job for a few months until I decided to become a full time yoga teacher. At the moment I feel changing my lifestyle was one of the best decisions I have made in my life. I am happier and full of energy and love spreading the yoga love around the World.

3. What makes your classes unique?

I have advanced training in yoga and specialize in Vinyasa Flow and Ashtanga principles. My classes are a dynamic and energetic flow, incorporating aspects of Mindfulness and Tantra principles. I work with the body, the mind and the soul as a way to create strength, flexibility, relaxation and union.
Bringing spirituality into the physical aspect of yoga, make out of my classes a real journey through the Chakras and the senses. Expect to feel relaxed, yet energized after my class and with a great sense of groundedness.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?:

Music is always the base of my classes. I reckon is very important to have music holding the class from underneath. When it becomes too loud that you cannot even hear the teacher is too much. I play chants and every week try to find something interesting to play during savasana, mainly spiritual songs or chants with a meaning to the class.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online:

I am planning to start teaching Tantric Yoga classes and workshops in the next few months. I will be keeping everybody updated about it in my social networks such Instagram or Facebook.

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

As an adult Yoga has always showed up in my life, I never looked for it. It just sorta appeared randomly throughout stages in my life. Yoga was very present but I wasn’t. I actually hated my first yoga class and said, I’d never come back…It wasn’t until I hit rock bottom for the third….. ok, ok, maybe 4th time in my life is when my entire relationship with myself changed. I wanted better. The next time yoga came back into my life is when I lived in Florida in 2013 and there was a studio literally across the street from my apartment. I went one time and fell in love with the ambiance of the studio but my instructor was DOPE! I still call her my first spiritual teacher. I took 5 classes a week for a while and I began changing. I noticed My clothes were different, shaved my head to grow my natural hair, makeup was less and my days were peaceful. I was discovering how to love me without condition. I was accepting my faults and owning up to my responsibilities. I was changing and in a way that landed me in India for my yoga teacher training in 2016. Why is yoga important to me? Well, it transformed me into living the highest version of who I am.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?: I began teaching yoga right after I came back from India in February of 2016. I was born a natural leader I never really transitioned. I can say with my wisdom I am now confident enough to take on a leadership position.

3. What makes your classes unique? : My classes are unique because I bring a Rashidat Flavor to my classes, I bring energy, comedy and permission to be free.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?: Music is definitely a vibratory sensation so the more I can add higher vibes the better my students feel after leaving me class. Plus, if I am digging the music, my vibration rises and it pours into my students.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online.: My next event will be my Rise Minneapolis-Yoga & Meditation Workshop 11.4.17
Please go to my website www.rashidat.com
IG @iam_rashidat & @yogawithrashidat
FB iamrashidat

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

Yoga is important to me because the ability to reconnect within is such a beautiful healing experience, whether it’s lifes everyday experiences or something more that you need clarity with, it brings everything into a grounded awareness that nourishes the spirit. The flow of the asanas allow my heart to dance.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?:

I unofficially taught as a kid (18) to my girlfriends but solely for playful fun. After my divorce I enrolled into IYT’s 200 hr and even though we were encouraged to teach that year I wouldn’t until my certification hit my hand. I’d seen many things that could go wrong in gymnastics competitions, I didn’t want the responsibility over someone’s body until I was fully trained in 2015

3. What makes your classes unique?:

I bring a big dose of Shamanic techniques from my cultural background, which is woven into an intricate tapestry of IYT’s traditional yogic philosophy, shamanism, holistic/reiki healing and overall positive hippie~chick vibes….with a Peruvian twist!I also gauge my classes to meet All levels so that everyone is welcomed, I take each asana into phases to meet everyone’s needs.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?:

Music is a big influence for me…Peruvians love their music! I feel that music invoked the mood in any space. In a yoga class it can help guide the journey into a particular path. It allows us to feel uplifted, relaxed, joyful and peaceful depending on the teachers needs. Music has the ability to make others at ease, which is like a warm fireplace welcoming you when you first enter~ a loving touch for my students.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online.: I’ve been working on some exciting projects in Tulum but decided last summer to focus on finishing my 800hr. Internship to graduate in May. Stay tuned because I will be announcing more about that closer to Dec/Jan. You can follow me online at www.peruvianlilyyoga.com and on IG: PeruvianLily

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

My passion for yoga, movement and breathwork began at the age of three as a dance student. Unbeknown to me, my instructors (who were yogis before being a yoga was mainstream), incorporated asana and breathwork into our class instruction. It wasn’t until much later when I took my first yoga class that I realized I had been doing yoga all along.
Yoga is important to me because it helps to keep me balanced in my mind and body. I know a daily practice of yoga and meditation grounds me and allows me to be more present for whatever the day brings. A regular practice of yoga has also kept me free from the lower back and neck pain I once felt. I have not been to the chiropractor in years!

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?:

I thought about getting certified for many years, but it was the birth of my daughter that ultimately compelled me to go to teacher training. I loved how yoga and breathwork connected me with my baby, the physical practice took care of my body and the meditation and mantras kept me from going crazy on many a sleepless night. I loved it so much, I wanted to share it with others! I began by leading yoga hikes where moms and baby could breath and move with their babies in tow. Before I knew it I was leading yoga hikes, teaching family yoga and traditional vinyasa yoga classes. I guess I’d have to say there was no real transition, teaching yoga just became a full time part of my life.

3. What makes your classes unique?:

Truthfully we are not all recreating the wheel here. So if I had to say what make my class unique…what makes any teacher’s class unique…is the energy that we bring when we step into the room. I like to think I specialize in creative sequencing, safe transitions and the ability to read a room to know what people need. When I show up to teach my goal is to leave my students with glowing skin, a positive energy flow in their bodies and a smile in their minds!

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?:

I LOVE music! Although funny enough, some of the best advice I received in teacher training was to not use music. My mentor said music could be a crutch and a distraction from the actual instruction. Without music I found my voice and became very conscious of the importance of silence in a yoga practice. Once I found my voice and learned that sometimes the best instruction was to say nothing at all, I cranked the music up! For me music is energy. Music, just like our breath, acts like a guide to our practice. Every playlist I make has a rhythm that matches the asana flow. I love nothing more than sequencing an asana flow to music and watching it dance around the room.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online:

www.alisonburmeister.com

“Balance and Peace Retreat”
November 11, 2017
11-4 pm
Temescal Canyon Gateway Park

http://themissingpeace.squarespace.com/workshops/xl4eu3w3tcvytwheib7kej7xlr6axv

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.

1. Tell me about your personal journey with yoga. Why is it important to you?:

I started practicing yoga shortly after college and immediately fell in love with everything about it. Regardless of the format, I love how it feels to sweat out the day and disconnect from an otherwise very connected life. Yoga provides me a platform and a space to look inward. That time and space is so precious to me because it has shaped my outlook on life and has helped me find the confidence to be authentic and true to myself.

2. When did you first begin teaching yoga? What made you transition into a leadership position?:

I just recently began teaching yoga! After years of contemplation, I finally took the plunge and took sculpt teacher training and my 200 hour power training this past year. I always knew it was something I wanted to do to deepen my own practice, but was not sure I actually wanted to teach. Within just a few days of training I suddenly felt a strong calling towards becoming an instructor. Yoga has such a unique ability to inspire each individual it touches in a different way. My practice gives me a way to continually grow physically, spiritually and mentally. I wanted to be able to share my passion for yoga and help inspire introspection through yoga for others.

3. What makes your classes unique?:

I always try to find ways to add on to basic poses or exercises to help students find a different perspective. I genuinely believe people are so much stronger than they believe and always aim to empower my students to find strength they may not have known they had. I try to encourage students to focus on the strength they are building rather than the challenge they may feel in that moment, whether physically or mentally.

4. How does music benefit your guidance in a yoga class?:

Music is so important to my classes! In my sculpt classes I teach to the beat to help students find pacing and have fun with it. In my vinyasa classes I use music to help energize and keep students present.

5. Tell me about your next event and where we can follow you online:

I’m so excited for my live music class with DTO coming up this Tuesday Oct 10th at 6PM at the CorePower Del Mar studio. You can follow me on instagram (@michele_maley) and please come take my class anytime!

Attention Yogis and Yoginis: Are you interested in doing a 5Q Interview?  Fill out your unique responses here.