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Photos: Nir Livni Clothing: Carbon38 & Lululemon

LAYOGA TEACHER PROFILE: AREE KHODAI

Its 9:30am on a Wednesday morning as I make my way into the class of a yoga teacher who aficionados say can transform outlooks and, more profoundly, lives.

As I enter Aura Yoga Studio in West Hollywood, I can feel the pulse and the heart in the room. As I enter the space, my ears are welcomed by, “I Wanna Sex You Up” by Color Me Badd, setting the tone with the musical stylings of 90s pop. I chatted with other students as we waited for class to begin.

Here are a few things I heard:

Tino DeMartino said, “Some teachers tell you what you want to hear, Aree tells you what you need to hear.”

Allan Fanucchi affirmed, “Aree gives students no choice but to confront their ability to achieve greatness and work hard.”

Janet Crown’s testimonial offered a glimpse into the transformational: “I am not a yogi. I am impatient. I like to run and move fast. Less than 24 months ago, I thought yoga was a slow, boring, painful stretching class for people who didn’t really like to work out. And then I took Aree’s class. In 60 minutes, Aree obliterated every preconceived notion that I ever had about yoga. She offered an experience beyond the normal or physical level. Her classes have changed my body and my perspective.”

Then, Aree Khodai herself walked in, the leader of Aree’s Army, a transformative nouveau practice of yoga, which begins with the core fundamentals of yoga, then adds a twist (on both sides).
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Like many of her students who take to the mat to find solace and themselves, more than a decade ago Aree found refuge in yoga at a time when she was unhappy in a corporate job, unable to quit, and weighed down from a chip on her shoulder. “Yoga was my safe haven.” Formerly a finance executive, Aree went through a time when she loved her career, “I was the first person in the office and the last person to leave.” But Aree hit a point when, “I lost who I was. Through the practice of yoga I was able to find my true authentic self again,” Practicing yoga every chance she could, she realized what made her most grounded and connected was her practice. While still in her career, she began teacher training to take her practice to the next level, and began looking at all areas of her life differently. She reached the conclusion that it was time to take a leap and pursue her passion. Yoga.

Along the way, Aree acknowledges important mentors. Jason Winn (who is no longer with us) was her first teacher in Laguna Beach. “He instilled so much in me when I was a student, and then later as a teacher. He was a voice in my practice. One that still very much lives in my voice and spirit.” Kumudini was another important mentor encouraged and empowered her to teach when she didn’t think she could. Aree says, “Her positivity and magnetism are truly powerful.”

When Aree talks about David Ezekiel, she laughingly refers to him as her yoga husband. “He continues to make me realize to practice what I preach and not to be complacent. He reminds me to always live a life without fear or doubt.” She continues, “He challenged me to have a sense of balance between my personal life and professional life. I was the type of person that had a hard time finding that balance and partly it was because I was not being authentic to myself.”

In her quest to find balance, Aree regularly joined people lining up mat to mat for Vinnie Marino at YogaWorks. “I would drive from Orange County during rush hour traffic to take his class in Santa Monica.” She admires Vinnie and names him as one of her mentors. “His focus on alignment, technique, and presence are magical to me, and I appreciate his musicality and sequencing.”

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Music plays an integral role in how this vibrant teacher leads the charge for her army. She refers to the movements and transitions from pose to pose in yoga and cites how music plays a complementary role of telling a story to increase immersion in the experience and that just the right song becomes a motivator to stay focused in the pose. “I love looking over at a student who is in a pose and they begin to sing or dance while in class. I just live for it.”

Aree finds her musical inspiration in all facets of life and creates her playlists through numerous avenues. Her musical selection is then put to work to support a themed class, a specific mood, the students, or the environment, and sometimes she’s just plan spontaneous. “I could be sitting in my car from class to class, and I listen and search for music as my inspiration.” Music is her therapy and yoga is her outlet. “My musical range stems from me loving all types of music. I can mix in some hip hop, soul, funk, and transition into electronica, and finish with love songs.”

The playlist works for the students; Aree relates to people whose journey mirrors her own. People looking for inspiration who are ready to dance. People who are looking for empowerment and the transformation that they may not even realize they are seeking. Aree sees herself as being a bridge between the conventional and unconventional.

Just as yoga helped Aree find happiness, she holds the intention while part of her teaching to help her students find happiness and success on and off the mat. She cares about how people handle their personal challenges and integrates these ideas in her intentions, themes, and creative sequencing. Aree maintains her inspiration with gratitude, particularly for the commitment, willingness to change, demonstrated accomplishments, and emotional vulnerability that her students bring to class. I understand what her students shared with me before class.

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Everyone with an open mind, an open heart, and a willingness to work on their optimal self is welcome to enlist in  #AreesArmy. Aree Khodai currently teaches at Hot 8 in Beverly Hills, Aura Yoga in West Hollywood, and the Soho House, Worldwide. Find Aree and her Army at: www.areesarmy.com
Facebook: Aree Khodai
Instagram:  @revolutionaree
Twitter: @areesarmy

Mito Aviles is a seasoned designer based in West Hollywood with over a decade of design/styling experience. He considers himself an artistic entrepreneur lending his talents to different publications.

Instagram: @mistertreat 

Nir Livni is a Los Angeles-based yoga and portrait photographer with more than a decade of experience in photo and video. Currently, Nir works with prominent yoga teachers from around the world: bigcameraman.info.
Instagram: @bigcameraman

The post TEACHER PROFILE: AREE KHODAI appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine Online.

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Photos by: Jeff Skeirik, RAWTOGRAPHER

Yoga Rocks: The Driving Beat of Eric Paskel, owner of Yoga Shelter Studio

A playlist that includes Rage Against the Machine isn’t necessarily the type of music you expect to hear in a yoga studio, but at Yoga Shelter in Studio City, it isn’t at all unusual.  Owner Eric Paskel likes his yoga to rock, and he attracts a group of students who clearly love it loud.

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Clik here to view.The students in the studio aren’t the only fans.  In 2014, Paskel brought his Yoga Rocks Bootcamp to Ford Field in Detroit, for an event that broke records for the largest-ever indoor yoga class.  And at BhaktiFest Midwest, the infectious energy of his teaching and music brought in hundreds of happy yogis, “The class just kept growing!” laughed Paskel.

Eric grew up in Detroit, Michigan.  He was always curious, a self proclaimed “escape artist.” In his teens, he became addicted to drugs, and then found sobriety just shy of his 18th birthday.  Rock-star handsome, he was encouraged to move to California to try his hand at acting but his heart just wasn’t in it, particular when it came to the endless audition process that seemed like such a waste of precious time.  Eric was always searching and he needed an outlet for all of his boundless energy, so he tried yoga.  At that time, the fit wasn’t there.  He enrolled in college and earned a degree as a marriage and family counselor, still going on auditions and continuing to feel restless and unsatisfied.

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In 1998, Eric returned to Michigan, where he gave yoga another chance.  Always a zealot in his approach to life, he committed to attending 90 classes in 90 days.  This time the practice fit.  Eric says, “I learned 12 years into my sobriety that yoga was going to be essential in my ongoing recovery.  As soon as I stepped onto the mat, I couldn’t hide from myself anymore.  Yoga and recovery are spiritual kin.  It is all of the practices: Karma Yoga is the action of selfless service, Bhakti Yoga is the acute awareness of the infinite blessings that surround you, and Jnana Yoga is the study of the universal principles of living — these yogic traditions are the heart of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12 Steps.”

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Clik here to view.In 2001, Eric started his first “official” Yoga Rocks class after teaching different variations of the class for three years.  To his surprise, 135 people showed up, and Eric knew he was on to something.  His playful classes added some high-energy fun to the practice.  Three years later, Eric opened the doors of his first Yoga Shelter Studio in West Bloomfield, Michigan.  There are now seven in Michigan, and one in Studio City.

Traveling around the globe teaching, lecturing, and leading retreats and trainings is a large part of Paskel’s passion.  On his blog, he shared his thoughts on an inspiring trip to Africa: “I have literally lived in palaces, tends and today, I sat in a prison in Zanzibar.  I have reflected.  I have learned.  I have witnessed the ‘quit’ in me, the desperation to avoid discomfort in so many ways.  I have witnessed the strength in me to keep going; the power to carry on; to journey forth and to keep moving forward.”

Each year, Eric travels to India to spend time with his teacher/guru Swami A. Parthasarathy.  Swami Parthasarathy is an acclaimed expert in Vedanta, one of the ancient philosophies of India and his life is spent in dedication to the study, research, and propagation of this philosophy.  Yoga Shelter operates by all the principles of the Vedanta philosophy.  Vedanta points out that “all sorrow and misery you experience in a life belongs to your egoistic self.”  Paskel adds, “Let us drop that little “I”, the “me”, and the “my.”  Yoga Shelter was founded and is run with a “we” attitude.

Often, Eric will quote his teacher, “To be sorrowful is a social, moral, and religious crime.  You do not spread the disease of melancholy to your fellow men.  Your highest duty, your religious duty in the world, therefore, is to keep yourself peaceful and joyful.  This is the duty demanded of you by your nation, society, family and yourself.”

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Eric had just returned from a recent trip to India when we met for tea in Studio City.  This journey was special, he said, because he was accompanied by his love, Rina Jakubowicz, and his sister Caren, who is a teacher and a leader at Yoga Shelter in Michigan.  Rina and Eric met at a Yoga Journal conference in October, 2013, and although she lives in Florida, the two are devoted to each other.  “Living at such a distance is no obstacle,” says Eric, smiling.  “Moderation and regulation of contact is imperative to keeping any relationship healthy.  Mose relationships fade because we indulge, we smother each other and the enjoyment disappears.”

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Paskel plans to take Yoga Shelter to new heights this year.  His new company will franchise Yoga Shelter studios, and a repeat performance at Ford Field is on the books.  There are also plans to add some new classes and new training formats, including a 500-hour program.  Eric is also a featured teacher at upcoming Yoga Journal Live, Wanderlust, and Kripalu events.

Eric offers some simple advice when asked for any last words of wisdom.  He says, “Yoga is not about standing on your head or hands, it’s about learning how to stay on your feet and being able to stand for yourself.”

Read more about Eric and Yoga Shelter: www.yogashelter.com

HAIR, MAKEUP AND STYLING BY Dawn Sorenson

MATS BY LULULEMON AND MANDUKA

PHOTOS BY Jeff Skeirik, Rawtographer

Jayne McKay is a writer, photographer, and documentary film producer.  She is currently producing a feature-length documentary and developing a series for cable television.

The post Yoga Rocks: The Driving Beat of Eric Paskel appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine Online.

Bizzie Gold: A leap of faith inspires an empowered tribe

BUTI Yoga

“The cure to something hidden or kept secret,” is the translation of the Marathi word “Buti.” This is the name dynamic trainer, fitness maven, and mother of two Bizzie Gold has given to her creative brainchild, Buti Yoga, the invigorating style she and her family practice and share with the world.

Buti takes yoga to another level—a bit of a leap into the air—where Gold embraces yoga as a personal practice and adds a twist that involves integrating tribal dancing and plyometrics into the practice for a fun, invigorating, and empowering take on the yoga we know and love. Gold’s feet are firmly planted in the foundation of yoga: her background is in Anusara, she’s been a student since 2001, and has been a certified yoga teacher now for over 14 years.

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Gold knows something about the need to find a cure and the journey of healing. She initially found yoga at a time in her life when she was, as she said, burning the candle at both ends then leaping into a dark abyss, a feeling that may be familiar to many of us. Gold’s career began as a PR exec, founding a company in LA meant she was working around the clock. Yoga became both escape and release. Yet, while bogged down by the stress of an intense professional career, she was diagnosed with lupus, a chronic, autoimmune systemic disease that can damage any part of the body (including the skin, joints, and/or internal organs).

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Clik here to view.Receiving this diagnosis led to a time of soul-searching and the realization that something needed to change. Her next move was to regroup and retreat on the Hawaiian islands where she immersed herself in teaching yoga and in the practice of healing herself physically and emotionally. She became pregnant, but on day that in many women’s lives is the most joyful—birth—Gold experienced heartache. During a complicated homebirth, Gold’s midwife delivered what Gold refers to as “her dead baby” and placed it on Gold’s lap. Seeing the shock and trauma Gold had endured from the delivery, her then husband began to administer CPR to their baby girl, while Gold was being tended to by a friend. Gold recalls, “After 20 minutes (which seemed like a lifetime) of my baby receiving CPR, she let out a cry and began breathing. Our baby had come back.”

Gold’s infant Sarai was airlifted to a Honolulu hospital, rushed into emergency care, and was later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. She knew that she must take her life back and heal from the inside out—so through a combination of energy work in conjunction with yoga, she found spiritual, emotional, and physical healing, the ability to shed the past in order to be present in the present.

While in Hawaii, Gold taught yoga at Ginger Hill Farm and Yoga Hale in Kailua Kona. It was there that Buti was born. While her students were in malasana (squat) pose, Gold had a revelation, took a leap of faith, and added free-spirited elements of tribal movement to the practice. The students joined in and left wanting more.

What began in a moment has become a movement. Currently, there are over 1,300 certified BUTI yoga teachers worldwide, in 15 countries and 45 states. Gold spent the first three years of the brand criss-crossing the world training all the teachers herself, now she leads 25% of the trainings and has has a group of master teachers certified in the Buti technique teach on her behalf. They teach the trademark methodology of the spiral structure technique (SST), toning the core using a spiral instead of linear movement to address both the large outer muscles that move the body as well as the inner stabilizing muscles. This is combined with strength-building plyometrics and uplifting tribal dance moves. It’s a recipe that encourages students to take a leap of faith and commit to their own empowerment. As Gold describes, “This movement methodology taps into a person’s deep-rooted confidence, allowing for better decision-making, in life,  in relationships, and in nutrition.

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Gold has often been coined a hybrid of Jane Fonda meets Chelsea Handler, a crusader with a sense of humor.  She fondly refers to her growing fanfare as her “tribe of women who support each other on their journey of health and happiness.” When considering why the tribe is growing, Gold reflects, “When in the Buti setting, it’s the first time many women look at themselves not from a place of ego but from a place of beauty and confidence. They are surround themselves by other beautiful women, and they all uplift and motivate one another to want to strive for greatness and achieve it. Connecting with other women and allows everyone to elevate each other by boosting each others’ confidence and achieving results collectively.”

While Gold is the go-to trainer for women around the world that she has trained directly, indirectly through her certified teachers, or through her DVD series, close to home, Gold is a celeb trainer known for transforming the bodies of A-list celebs including Julia Roberts and Jennifer Love Hewitt, with whom Gold has used a combination of her signature spiral structure technique and a series of nutritional guidelines to support long, lean muscle.

It’s also a family practice. Gold along with her husband and two children, are committed to an active and healthy lifestyle that includes the practice of Buti Yoga along with an emphasis on nutrition. The family is dairy-free and grain-free; this led to a development and launch of the supplement line, The Golden Ratio, a protein blend consisting of grass-fed collagen, amino acids, organic pea protein, and  sweetened with coconut sugar. Gold is also working on a clothing line as well as a 7,000 square foot fitness women’s social club in Scottdale aptly named the B-Tribe.

As Gold has experienced in her own life and shares with her tribe, “When doing Buti, everything comes into alignment and everything has intention. It’s an experience for the mind, body, and soul.

For more information about Bizzie Gold and Buti Yoga, visit: butiyoga.com; bizziegold.com.

Bizzie is wearing shorts and white and blue long-sleeved shirts by Queen of Hearts Clothing: queenofheartsclothing.com; tops are Bizzie’s own.

Mito Aviles is a seasoned designer based in West Hollywood with over a decade of design/styling experience. He considers himself an artistic entrepreneur lending his talents to different publications. Facebook: Mito Aviles; Instagram: @mistertreat

Jeff Skeirik’s photography can be found at: rawtographer.com

The post Teacher Profile: Bizzie Gold appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine Online.

Kathleen Ross-Allee provides yoga therapy for the recovery and healing process of cancer patients.

Photos by David Young-Wolff

Before she became a yoga therapist or even a fitness and wellness professional, a friend asked Kathleen Ross-Allee to substitute teach for her aerobics class, even though at the time, Kathleen was a fitness enthusiast with no experience actually teaching fitness. Her argument, “You’re an actress right?  Pretend it is a role you are playing,” convinced Kathleen to just do it.

What began with a spontaneous “yes” revealed Kathleen’s passion for helping people regain their health and fitness commitments—and led to a subsequent change in career path. Kathleen began training people and became an ACE certified personal fitness trainer. She started studying yoga in the 1990s, first with Jasmine Lieb and Erich Schiffmann; yoga influenced both her personal practice as well as the way she worked with individuals in her fitness business, Leen Bodies. Words from Kathleen’s late father, a university professor who would read Greek mythology in the evenings, “Once you stop learning, you stop living,” influenced her passion for education.

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She enrolled in the 200 hour teacher training program at the Center for Yoga on Larchmont and in 2001, she completed the training, joined the center’s staff, and interned with her mentor, Fred Miller. When Liberation Yoga opened, they asked her to join the staff. There she taught Gentle Yoga and developed and continues to teach a free Yoga for Parkinson’s class in the garden studio, supported by the studio’s owners Christine Burke and Gary McCleery, along with generous donations from her network of friends, family, and students.

Becoming a student in the Yoga Therapy RX Program on campus at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), under the direction of Larry Payne, felt like a natural progression and being on a college campus felt like home for her. There, Kathleen’s fellow student, kindred spirit, and business partner Alison Crowley were inspired to find their own niche to implement yoga therapy in the community. In 2007, they launched The Yoga Prescription with a focus on supporting people through the recovery and healing process in dealing with cancer, even after treatments have concluded or after the medical establishment has seen evidence of remission. Kathleen and Alison believe that healing continues long after treatment is over. Through The Yoga Prescription, the duo and their trained yoga therapists and assistants teach a total of 42 monthly classes throughout Los Angeles. While many of these specifically address the concerns of cancer patients and survivors, they also offer classes for people with Parkinson’s disease and other conditions. Their vision is to see these programs “become permanently placed in these wellness centers and hospitals side by side with Western medicine as a viable source of recovery.” Their model is influenced by their certification in the Yoga Therapy RX program which trains students in the practice of integrating yoga therapy with modern medicine; as well as their continuing study with Jnani Chapman, RN, in Chapman’s Yoga Therapy in Cancer and Chronic Illness Training (YCat).

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No matter the title of what she is teaching, Kathleen says, “I design each class to meet the needs of my students. I am able to do that no matter what the situation is.” She does this by choosing sequences based on what is presented to her in the room. Kathleen holds the following intention for working with her students, “In the time they spend with me, something can happen that will allow them to have a different perspective on their day.”

As a teacher, there are times when she draws on lessons from her acting background. She is comfortable presenting in crowds, groups, or at the front of the room. And she prepares for her classes with the same attention she would dedicate to script analysis as an actor. She combines this preparation with the ability to both be spontaneous with and to pay close attention to her students, as though they are her scene partners. In class, “It’s constant improvisation, she says.” In addition, Kathleen believes being a teacher and a yoga therapist also includes a commitment to ongoing education. She lives the advice given by her father that guides her: keep learning to keep living.

Between teaching private clients, daily classes, volunteering whenever she can, and serving as the Managing Director of the Yoga Therapy RX Program at Loyola Marymount University, Kathleen is a heartfelt workaholic. She even admits to it, “I am officially a workaholic, but I insist that it’s only in the best sense. I love and am passionate about all of the work I do.” Kathleen even enjoys the driving which is a necessary part of the life of a nomadic yoga therapist in Los Angeles. “The drive home at night allows me to decompress before I see my husband. And I just sing Broadway songs all day long!” She finds time for balance with a membership at Burke Williams, a standing Saturday morning Fryman Canyon hiking date with friends, and a husband who keeps her accountable to personal and social commitments. Somehow she also fits in cuddle time with her friends’ pups.

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When this show tune singing compassionate yoga therapist is asked for the advice she would give potential students of yoga therapy, she offers, “To learn and absorb from those who have preceded you. To ask questions. To embrace what comes your way. When you are open to what comes your way, then you will serve the needs of the people who are seeking you. And in this way, you will have found your authentic voice.”

It sounds like advice that Kathleen could have given her younger self, the one who was acting and working at the Gaucho Grill on Ventura when she said yes to a random request from a friend asking if she could sub her class. Kathleen was open to what came her way.

For more information on Kathleen Ross-Allee and The Yoga Prescription, visit: theyogaprescription.com

For more information about Yoga Therapy RX, visit: http://academics.lmu.edu/extension/programs/yogatherapy/

Jessica Malloy is a freelance writer torn between the California Coast and Kentucky Countryside. Aside from Yoga, she spends as much time as she can in the sunshine rock climbing, water skiing, and traveling. Check out her newest adventure on narrowhips.com

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Parashakti Sigalit Bat-Haim talks about finding freedom through the Dance of Liberation

“For the Kabalah, the Jewish mystics, dance is the deepest expression of joy. Where silence and music meet is in the field of the body.”

These thoughts are shared by Rabbi David Ingber, founder of the Jewish community Romemu (whose mission is to integrate body, mind, and soul in Jewish practice) in the documentary feature film Dance of Liberation. Rabbi Ingber spoke about shamanic practitioner, mystic, teacher, dancer, yogini and subject of the film Parashakti Sigalit Bat-Haim. Parashakti Sigalit lives dance as her deepest expression of joy. Dance is her spiritual practice. Teaching dance is her calling, particularly the ritual Dance of Liberation she has developed from decades of immersion into traditions from around the world.

During a Dance of Liberation session, people tie on blindfolds (all the better with which to see the inner world) and then dance accompanied by music with trained facilitators holding the space and making sure everyone is safe. The dance is not about outer performance but expression of the inner heart. When it comes to musical accompaniment, Parashakti favors world music with trance-inducing beats and without English lyrics that initiate a story in our thinking brains. Even better: live drums to connect bodies to earth-based medicine.

Dance of Liberation is far more than a blindfolded rave. There is a deep reverence to it. And the practice spills over into life beyond the blindfolded movement. Parashakti identifies what she calls the Seven Foundations of the Dance of Liberation. They are: Sacred Space/Discovering Your Ground; the Power of Intention; Embodied Breath; the Blindfold/Inner Vision; Therapeutic Rhythm—Music/Sound Healing; Dance; and the seventh foundation which includes Returning Home/Retrieving Your Soul/ and Service. Anchored in these, Parashakti has trained teachers around the world.

Dance of Liberation is the movement-based manifestation of the cross-cultural shamanic journey that is her life. She is an embodied example of the student as teacher, a guide who shares, with great joy, the feeling of liberation through dance. Teacher, workshop leader, shamanic practitioner and lifelong student, on screen in Dance of Liberation, in person in a class or workshop, or one-on-one in a healing session, Parashakti is a bright light transmitting wisdom.  And transmitting encouragement for the dancer to find their own wisdom within. It is a quality obvious to me when I first met her; I noted the deep ease, grace, and vibrancy with which Parashakti inhabits her body. She lives up to all of her names, both Sanskrit and Hebrew, respectively: Parashakti (goddess of life), Sigalit (a bright violet flower), and Bat-Haim (daughter of life).

Parashakti’s immersion into dance began during her childhood in Jerusalem. Dance became both refuge and a means of interacting with the world. She used dance to negotiate the challenges of learning disabilities and feeling lost in a classroom as well as a strained relationship with a father who divorced her mother to pursue a spiritual immersion in Jewish Orthodoxy and start a new family. From the age of four, Parashakti dance was her vehicle for learning and for communicating with spirit. Her time in the Israeli military was even spent in the entertainment corps, serving through dance.

After completing military service, Parashakti pursued dance at Santa Monica College with a goal of becoming a dance therapist. In her life, the medicine was also poison; a serious and seemingly career-ending injury left Parashakti thinking she might never dance again. It was a heartbreaking crisis of identity. A dark night of the soul.

Then she was invited to yoga. There she found other ways to express her beloved physicality and unite body, mind, spirit, and health and well-being.

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Clik here to view.Yoga practice led to a two-year stay in an ashram and the completion of yoga teacher training in Integral Yoga founded by Swami Satchidananda. She was given the Sanskrit name Parashakti. Next she was led to more teachers, one of whom, trance dance facilitator Wilbert Alix, introduced her to dancing blindfolded. Wilbert was not the only teacher to tie a blindfold on; Native American teachers shared this technique. During more more than a decade of study with elders, Parashakti continued a powerful inner journey. She was able to enter what she identified as different states of consciousness through yoga, meditation, dance, spirit guides, and medicine helpers. One of her teachers, Wakia Un Manee, speaks of this dance in the doc Dance of Liberation. He says the blindfold “allows a person to see back at themselves.” He says, “This is a strong Native American teaching, to see beyond seeing, to see with not just the physical eyes, but to look with the heart and see what is inside.”

Seeing what is inside and expressing it through movement allows Parashakti to find the medicine within the movement. In addition to facilitating experience groups at festivals, retreats, and in workshops, she is currently the spiritual director at Breathe Life Healing Center, a treatment center for addictions. Her work includes guiding people to listen to the voice of the inner heart, one that may be all-to-quiet, one that we may not know how to hear. She also offers spiritual counseling and facilitated holistic experiences for individuals and groups. An adapted version of Dance of Liberation for people in recovery is in the planning stages.

For Parashakti, personal practice is paramount. On the mat (she cites Kundalini classes with Tej as a part of her routine), the meditation cushion, and especially, on the dance floor on a regular basis. She says that one of the benefits of LA is that there are ecstatic dance experiences available daily. When she doesn’t venture out, she dances alone. Dance, and her prayers, have also been invaluable for her ability to reconnect with her Orthodox father, to find the common ground of spirit, prayer, love, and family. It’s a touching story told in the film. And is a story that illustrates how Parashakti connects to her identity, hard-won, as an embodied universal being who continues to find her own way to pray. And to teach.

For more information on Dance of Liberation, visit: parashakti.org.

Participate in a Dance of Liberation workshop and film screening on August 22 from 7:00 – 11:00 PM at NAAM Yoga in Santa Monica.  parashakti.org.

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Seda Aksut shares her story of personal healing through the practice of Kundalini yoga

Seda Aksut suggests we meet at a small Italian restaurant near the Hermosa Pier. It turned out to be a delightful choice, wood-lined and uncrowded on a Wednesday afternoon,  but a slight surprise — a deviation from my expectation of meeting in a cold-pressed juice bar or organic tea shop. I had the lasagna.

This experience feels in line with my experience of Seda as a Kundalini teacher. With her glossy blonde good looks and effortlessly chic presentation, she passes as a typical fit Southern Californian. Yet, after attending her classes for over a year, some differences began to register on my radar: a touch formal, and, at times, a voice in a slightly different register. Was that an accent?

Her nearly undetectable accent is more pronounced when she’s under stress or fatigued, she admits. Seda grew up in Istanbul, her family long-established in the area. “We go back 500 years. We were a secular family — spiritual, but not religious in a country that is 90% Muslim.” Poised between Europe and the Middle East, Turkey has a unique vantage point on the world, and her roots there may explain her perspective as a Kundalini yoga teacher in the South Bay.

When speaking with Seda, it becomes obvious that her father has been a strong influence in her life. Although he died over a decade ago, he seems to be the strand that unites her past, present, and future. Her father, a successful businessman with his own construction firm, insisted she pursue a practical course of study. She showed an aptitude for numbers, so it was decided she would study math and economics at Bogazici University. A full scholarship and teaching stipend for graduate school at the University of Washington in 1997 offered her a chance to move to the United Sates, a country she had visited throughout her childhood and a place she dreamed of living. Her studies in Social Psychology were a compromise between her father’s strong business ethic and her pull toward a more humanistic understanding of the world.

She graduated with a master’s degree and moved to Los Angeles with her then-boyfriend, a software engineer. Here, she embraced the corporate lifestyle, working the standard 40+ hour week as an executive search consultant, with a 90 minute commute from the South Bay to Century City. “I’d be driving to work, thinking, ‘What is the point? I’m making plenty of money, but something is missing’.”

Into this overloaded but not atypical Angeleno existence came a bombshell: her father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He moved in with Seda and her by-then-husband into their Redondo Beach home and began radiation therapy at USC. At the end of the course of radiation, his tumor was deemed untreatable, and he returned home to Istanbul with a year to live.

Her father’s sudden plunge into mortality (he was a 53-year-old in seemingly excellent health, an exercise enthusiast, and body builder) that sent Seda into a state of crisis—and into therapy for herself and a search for alternative treatments for her father. Even though he succumbed to brain cancer within the predicted year, the effects of her search transformed her life.

Yoga became her major solace. “I would take yoga classes almost every day. The peace yoga instilled in me, along with its amazing effect of putting everything in perspective, made me a more centered, balanced person over time.”

“During the difficult times, when I was losing my balance, I used to wake up and practice only balance poses for the first 15 minutes of waking.”

Her wish to assist her father through his illness led her to study Reiki, a pivotal moment in her personal transformation. “I wanted to learn a technique that combined meditation and healing, to work on him, myself, and the whole family to ease the process.” Reiki offered healing benefits for the entire family, so much so that Seda remarked on how the healing energetic work continued after his return to Istanbul and even after his death. Reiki continues to be an important personal practice for her, and she incorporates that same concentrated energy and attention into her group work as a yoga teacher.

She had already completed a 200-hour Hatha training in Bali through YogaWorks when she found her way to a Kundalini class in 2003. The combination of meditation, chant, and physical exercise had a strong appeal. “The breath, the postures, the meditations, the chants, all the elevating qualities made sense.” In her continuing interest in psychology and the scientific method, Seda emphasizes the depth of the practice. “Yoga in the West has often been streamlined to just mean the physical. Kundalini is not streamlined.” Recent studies at UCLA and the University of Pennsylvania suggest powerful healing happens along that mind-body continuum, pointing to Kundalini as a useful therapy for both Alzheimer’s and depression. Seda makes a point of quoting these studies in class. At a recent workshop, she casually quoted Nobel-Prize-winning scientist Roger Wolcott Sperry on the link between a healthy brain and a supple spine.

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Many healers find their way to Seda’s class. I talked to Elizabeth Cartabiano, a massage therapist and Ayurvedic practitioner about what brings her to Seda’s class at LYFE Yoga in Hermosa Beach. “Seda brings lots of tools to class,” she enthuses. “Psychotherapy, a strong physical practice, pranayama and positive affirmations. It is powerful therapy — for therapists as well.” Vanessa King, a local marriage and family therapist, finds the meditative aspects of Kundalini “opens a lot of space for healing,” especially useful in her couples work.

In my own experience as a PhD, writer, and perennial bookworm, Kundalini provides a precious opportunity to turn off the incessant internal commentary. When I describe the combination of elements used in Kundalini–the rapid, forceful breathing combined with extended chanting — to my father, a psychiatrist of 30 years, he explains that Kundalini students are putting ourselves into a light trance. Seda uses her Reiki and psychology training to maintain eye contact and speak soothingly for extended periods, enhancing that trance effect.

The chants vary from Gurmukhi syllables to English affirmations like “I am the light of my soul.” The mantras contain an energy of peace and connection. What they have in common is the ability to hold your attention just enough to provide relief from the constant stream of ego talk.

For the musically susceptible like me, the wash of melody offer a final experience of bliss. “I choose music and mantra for each class deliberately so that they are the right vibrational match for the breath and meditation we practice that day. They are designed to uplift and elevate.” Aksut explains.

For Seda, leaving the corporate path meant also shedding many aspects of her life. “Universe first pulled everything apart, then Reiki, Yoga, Meditation and Breath acted as miracles to bring forth a blessed life. Creating the life I envisioned required immense faith and daily practice… since then I have been on a journey to share what has healed me and to raise others as I continue to raise myself.”

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Clik here to view.Her desire to become a channel through which other lives can be positively touched has evolved over the years. “It’s not possible to heal someone who is not ready… all I can do is hold space for synchronizations so those who are ready to receive, show up.” One of the recipients was Kiya Knight, a motivational coach and fitness instructor. “When I hit my upper limit, I didn’t have the tools to break free from anxiety. Deep depression started to settle over me. Simply put, working with Seda has changed my life and put me into a higher state of consciousness than I thought was possible.”

“Above all,” Seda says, “ I feel this immense gratitude that I get to teach. Teaching is the most powerful daily practice, a prayer, a privilege and a responsibility all at once.”

Seda Aksut regularly teaches at LYFE Yoga in Hermosa Beach and offers workshops & trainings in various studios in LA. Her home studio in Redondo Beach is the base for Private Spiritual Counseling Sessions, Reiki Certification Trainings, and 20/30hr Kundalini Intensives on Mantra, Breath, Movement and Meditation.

Connect with her on Facebook: Facebook.com/sedaaksutkundalini. Upcoming Workshops: September 20th and October 27th 3:00-5:30pm at LYFE Yoga in Hermosa Beach: lyfeyoga.com

Grace Lovelace is a South Bay resident and longtime kundalini practitioner. She writes about movies at Lovelace Redux (lovelaceredux.blogspot.com)

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From Action Hero to Promoter of Accessibility

photos by David Young-Wolff

“Choose your own adventure,” Jay Co tells the class as his silent footfalls cover the perimeter of the main studio at yogaraj, the studio he has helmed for over a year now. He has the voice you would order if you were selecting your ideal yoga teacher: simultaneously resonant—it fills the room—yet with a soft soothing cadence. It’s a voice you might expect to hear from a monk in a cave or a modern-day version of a martial arts master leading kids through their first practice. Patient, kind, yet firm. His kind approach to the practice is evident as he teaches.

Jay had been teaching at the Hub since it opened in 2009. So, when Hub owner Lauri Ashworth wanted to sell, he was ready to manifest his studio ideal in the same space. His vision included a commitment to making sure yoga was accessible to everyone who wanted to try out the practice and that included implementing a different business plan than the typical membership or class series model or the donation-based option.

The studio’s investors were businesspeople who were already practicing regularly at the Hub and value the service-based ethos of yoga, so they were willing to give it a go. After an all-night session running numbers and just eight weeks after the management team met, yogaraj opened in the space that had Lauri’s design aesthetic had created for the Hub. If you’ve practiced in that space before, you’ll notice that many of the former studio’s elements are intact, such as the pebbled stone floors, airy spacious feel and even the wood carving in the second intimate studio. The changes yogaraj made to make the space their own include a chalkboard wall that invites students to write messages and affirmations—and most noticeably, the removal of the front desk in the sunny greeting area.

The open space without a front desk—or the staff—is one of the things that makes the model of $10-flat-rate classes work. Jay says the arrangement serves in part to increase the accessibility of the teachers, who hang out on the bench in the front room greeting students as they drop their payments in a basket or swipe their cards. Even though there are no membership packages, there are incentives; the studio is a member of the Belly reward network and seasonal incentives encourage students to commit to studio classes.

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Clik here to view.Yogaraj’s model is influenced by the legacy of donation-based classes shared by Bryan Kest and a number of his proteges, which makes sense since Kest’s donation-based Power Yoga is where Jay Co began his personal practice. Jay took his first class in 1998, a year after he graduated with a degree in biology from Georgetown. Growing up in Jersey and spending his childhood seriously training in karate and competing in the martial arts, his next step post-degree was to move to LA and try his hand in front of the camera acting in action flicks and doing stunt and commercial work. Since the body takes a beating in those arenas, a friend suggested yoga. “I don’t want to stretch for an hour and a half,” he thought. Yoga sounded weird until he finally gave in. “I was hooked immediately; it felt like martial arts—with the same mindset, but a different expression.” For four years, Jay was an avid regular in Kest’s classes above Radio Shack on Santa Monica Boulevard. “I didn’t even realize there was other yoga.”

In his mid-twenties, Jay’s attendance at Power Yoga was interrupted by a tour through Asia. He lived in Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, acting, modeling, doing action movies and some stunt work. He studied himself in the martial arts of whatever country he was in at the time. In Hong Kong, for example, he found a guy who was teaching Kung Fu on the third floor of an abandoned school building with broken windows. “Ten guys who just got off work would take off their ties, roll up their shirt sleeves, and push the desks aside. No one spoke English. It was a cool experience.”

On his return to LA, Bryan Kest gave Jay Co his first yoga teaching job when Power Yoga’s West Studio opened. Jay loved joining a community of supportive teachers, including Govind Das, Anuswara, Ashley Turner, and Rudy Mettia. Martial arts were still a part of his life (as they remain today), and Asia called again. Beginning in 2007, Jay Co spent another year and a half in Thailand, writing action movies for a studio there. While he recalls his fondly, another cool experience, he missed teaching yoga so when he returned to LA, he taught a lot and realized that teaching yoga is something he wants to do forever.

Jay had more than once contemplated opening a studio before everything aligned for yogaraj. Running a studio with a renegade model hasn’t been Jay’s only foray into business. Four years ago, an idea for a piece of software led him to work with engineers and immerse himself in the tech world for what he describes as a shotgun education in business principles. He said that working in this volatile world is one of the hardest things he’s ever done: “One day you feel you’re going to rule the world; another day you feel, ‘We’re all going to die’.” The benefit? According to Jay, “It prepared me for this.”

“This” is yogaraj. What’s behind the name? It was chosen to be easy to remember, while at the same time evoking the notion of yoga being so widespread that it encompasses a kingdom or empire. (The word “raj” in Sanskrit means kingdom.) Jay affirms, “The more people who do yoga, the better the world is.” Jay’s contribution to this global empire is running studio that offers an affordable pricing structure at $10 per class. It’s part of his commitment to providing a means for more people to try out the practice; accessibility and affordability are two of his core values.

While pursuing his passion for teaching, running a studio with a community of supportive and innovative teachers, and working in tech, he has maintained immersion in the martial arts community, finding camaraderie in neighborhood studios near yogaraj. He still writes action movies. And, he encourages his students to choose their own adventures.

For more information about Jay Co and yogaraj, visit: jaycoyoga.com or yogaraj.org.

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Big fish in a small pond? LA based Yoga teacher Matt Hodges would rather be a shark in the ocean.

by Suzy Shelton

Photos by Amy Goalen

Matt Hodges says he want to be a shark in an ocean. It’s a desire that fits his driven nature and one he’s applied to in a variety of ways in his life including keeping his cool with a deck of cards in a sea of sharks while playing tournament poker. With the same dedication and focus Matt left Phoenix and dove into the LA yoga scene in 2014.

When asked why LA and what he likes about it, Matt responds, “I love everything about this place. The weather. The beach. The yoga scene. The small businesses. The people. The opportunities. The big yoga teachers are out here.” Matt adds, “Some people want to be a big fish in a small pond. I’d rather be a shark in an ocean.” That statement sums up how Matt lives his life – large and in charge.

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Clik here to view.Matt was 14 when he took his first yoga class; a friend suggested that it would be a fun workout. The teacher—Ian Lopatin, at At One Yoga Studio in Scottsdale—delivered and Matt was hooked. The combination of Ian’s lively contemporary music and laid back nature made a fast connection with Matt. Matt pursued practicing yoga with such tenacity that he began teaching in high school with an eye on continuing to grow and learn. After completing his teacher training at At One Yoga, Matt was hired to start teaching at the studio by two of his mentors, Ian and Ian’s wife Vanessa Lee. Matt taught at At One Yoga for eight years.

Teaching yoga in high school was only one part of his passion for physical fitness. He was already an accomplished athlete at a young age in football and golf. An ongoing pursuit of golf led to collage scholarships for the sport due to his mastery of the game (a four-under-par player at his peak). In his hometown of Scottsdale, Matt’s faves are the Jack Nicklaus Signature courses at Dessert Mountain and when he’s not on the mat, here in Los Angeles, he finds time to play at the Trump National Golf Club in Ranch Palos Verdes.

As if teaching yoga and playing golf weren’t enough in terms of extracurricular activities, Matt also earned his real estate license from the Arizona School of Real Estate and Business and segued from playing chess as a kid to playing poker with friends before he could drive. The same year he was eligible for a driver’s license he started entering tournaments. The thrill of poker and desire to swim with the sharks in many bodies of water has brought Matt to play poker at the Venetian, Rio and Wynn casinos. Matt still makes the occasional foray entering a World Series of Poker Tournament. This thrill-seeking nature plays out in Matt’s yoga practice often taking him to locations such as the tops of lifeguard towers or precarious ledges to hover in a balance pose.

Knowing all of this about Matt, don’t let the tattoos, Louis Vuitton sneakers, and alpha shark countenance distract you from the friendly, playful, and compassionate sides that he reveals in the yoga room. Wearing a warm smile, he begins practice with the statement “Welcome to yoga class,” and invites students of all levels to have fun and explore their practice. A commitment to selfless service in and out of the yoga room is his inspiration and his personal therapy. He continues to teach golf and finds fulfillment in helping lift up the people around him.

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Clik here to view.Matt’s signature style includes creative sequencing and amazing adjustments. Each session on the mat feels like you’ve been dealt a new hand at the poker table (with some similarities—think about selecting the familiar hearts, clubs, spades, and diamonds) rather than a predictable pattern of sun salutations. Matt offers two to four variations per pose for everyone to follow depending on their level of practice. Lively, contemporary music from the likes of Bob Marley, TuPac, MC Yogi, Jack Johnson, or Ben Harper play as an accompanying undercurrent during class. The result is a relaxed and fun environment where you have the permission to enjoy yourself even while you’re sweating.

He acknowledges his teachers Steve Ross, Vanessa Lee, Dharma Mittra, Aaron King, and Ian Lopatin. On one end of the teaching spectrum, Matt admires Steve Ross’ ability to make the practice fun. In contrast, Dharma Mittra knows how to get students into places you wouldn’t normally get into yourself. In his class, all of these influences shine through. Matt confesses Krista Cahill always teaches him something new whenever he takes her class. On the philosophical side, Matt resonates with Steve Ross’ teachings on meditation.

Matt distinguishes his athletic background and body type from teachers who are naturally bendy. He has combined a passion for studying human anatomy with developing his own strength and practice.

Matt’s latest passion and pursuit? AcroYoga. Living on the Santa Monica beach, Matt frequently saw members of the AcroYoga community in action along the boardwalk and decided to join the team. Matt loves the challenge and the shapes, describing it as a combination of yoga, Thai massage, balance, and teamwork. If you stroll down the boardwalk on the Santa Monica/Venice border, you just might see Matt flying a friend in a dramatic pose. If you’re lucky, you might also get a chance to hang out with Matt’s lovable tank of a bulldog, Rocco.

What does the future hold for Matt? He imagines his image on the cover of Sports Illustrated to explain the importance of yoga and sports. Matt regularly plays soccer, volleyball, basketball and rock climbs. Based on his track record, wide range of athletic pursuits and his single-minded focus, I have no doubt this could happen.Image may be NSFW.
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Matt Hodges can be found at Maha Yoga (mahayoga.com) Sundays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Monday and Thursday evenings Matt teaches the employees at Snapchat. Find him at: hagiyoga2@gmail.com or 480-251-3702 matthodgesyoga.com Instagram @matthodges_yoga

Suzy Shelton is Southern California born and raised freelance business consultant and Francophile. She spends her time in the yoga studio, traveling, playing tennis, reading Thich Nhat Hahn, and finding adventures with her two rambunctious pups.

Amy Goalen is a photographer who is launching the Yoga Men 2016 calendar. She has been photographing men absorbed in their yoga practice. amygoalen.com

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Using the connection with music to enhance yoga practice sequence

I remember the first time I stepped into Whitney Allen’s class in Los Angeles 14 years ago. I was a relatively new yoga teacher from NY, an actor and a journalist; little did I know that Whitney was also a new teacher, as well as an actor and a singer. She had the air of a master with years of teaching under her mat. Perhaps it’s the fact that she had a performance background with the ability to command a packed room, or the warmth of her welcoming smile. Maybe it was the ease in which she communicated the flow of postures with a killer soundtrack that effortlessly matched the flow of her words and pacing of her class.

Today, I scroll through myriad Instagram photos of beautiful, bikini-wearing women doing postures I still can’t do after 20 years of practice, and I almost always settle on the photos of yogis I identify with, like Whitney – smiling broadly, doubled over in laughter, hair whipping around her face or streaks of sun enveloping her as she smooches her pup, Bowie, or hugs a friend. Her photos, like her teaching, are always in flow. They’re real, accessible, authentic, and… musical.

It makes sense that Whitney would take on the new title of Music Supervisor at Wanderlust Hollywood, the yoga studio inspired by the festival of the same name and steeped in a mission that fosters creativity, community, connection, and most of all, music. Music taking center stage is a way to deepen the yoga experience, which is what Whitney Allen is committed to in the yoga room.  

“It makes a difference when the music is supporting what’s happening on the mat.  Besides safe alignment and postures, it’s part of the spirit of what’s coming through you while practicing,” Whitney says.

She says, “One of the most exciting things I can do as a teacher is put together a playlist followed by postures. When I hear it all come together, I think, ‘Ooooh they are going to be moving to this song and they are transitioning to this pose when that song comes on.’ It’s inspiring to take staple yoga poses and make them a new discovery for a seasoned practitioner or exciting for a new student who thinks yoga is only about touching their toes.  Even the pauses between songs are conscious – creating a feeling when we balance or hold. That is yoga.”

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Yoga wasn’t something that Allen necessarily chose but rather, it chose her.

She was born and raised in Chicago, the older of two kids who caught the acting and singing bug at the age of seven.

“I was never the girl who could do cartwheels. I was a voluptuous early bloomer at 10 and it was hard for me to accept. I never felt comfortable in my body but I could embody a character.”

Whitney majored in musical theatre at the University of Michigan before moving to NYC to pursue big Broadway dreams.  She achieved them swiftly in Manhattan, performing eight shows a week and joining the cast of major productions like Jekyll and Hyde on Broadway and The Full Monty—in which she was an original cast member on the first national tour.

Her eventual draw to yoga was much like how many people came to yoga.  “I got into some abusive behaviors of not eating and taking diet pills. The acting world is fierce and life always felt like an audition of who looks the best, who IS the best.  I’d audition during the day or go to the gym before a show and one day I just happened to take a yoga class and liked it.”

“Yoga got me out of my head and into my body.  It’s the only body we have; when you are on the mat, you can’t escape it.”

Allen started practicing daily as both a means of stress relief and as a workout. When on tour, she would practice in her hotel room or sign up for a yoga studio package. “I would practice with these amazing teachers who were experts in their home towns and take it with me where ever I went.”

In 1998 she found Bhava Yoga in NYC, one of her teacher Schuyler Grant’s first studios in the city. That’s where she truly fell in love with yoga.

“I never felt graceful, not in yoga or life.  But when I took Schuyler’s class, I thought – now THIS is what I love about yoga. The way she used music and flow together felt so innovative. She woke up my brain and that was it; I was hooked.”

After a tour that brought her to LA and a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat, she knew teaching yoga was the next step in her life. She signed up for the teacher training at Center for Yoga in Larchmont in 2002 and continued to teach there when YogaWorks took over the Center in 2004.

“I felt open to any possibility. I couldn’t believe there was something in my life I could love other than theatre.  It was a scary decision to move in that direction and it took me about seven years to step fully into teaching and let go of any other pursuits.”

And the moment came. In 2009 she had a single performance as an understudy of the role Gertrude in God Save Gertrude in Pasadena where she performed in front of all of her friends, singing punk rock and playing a bass guitar as her character lost her mind.  “That final bow and performance was one of my favorite moments, and I made the decision.”  

That decision allowed Allen to shift into a place where she couldn’t hide behind insecurities or another persona. Her experience gave her something to say and she wasn’t afraid to share it. “It gave me so much peace. Teaching is my best practice. As a teacher you have to be your highest self every time. It’s in your own self-acceptance that you can be compassionate with everyone in the room. I feel good when I practice but healed when I teach.”

“Yoga has given me access to my emotions and a purity of music I never felt with performing. Instead of being technical and result-oriented with hitting a high note, music became more about freedom and letting go.”

Whether singing in class or kirtan, or playing the harmonium that her yogi brother gave her, music became a form of creative expression and feeling. Her current musical resources are KCRW, Spotify, and a variety of blogs. Her musical influences include David Bowie, Van Morrison,  Peter Gabriel, Bon Iver, Stephen Sondheim, Patti Smith, R.E.M., and Queen.

Soundscaping yoga practice

In September 2015, she joined Schuyler Grant at Grant’s latest studio, Wanderlust Hollywood, to oversee the quality of music in classes at the studio, and to mentor the teachers and teacher trainees that want to develop the skill of using music to enhance their sequencing. She teaches a module in the teacher training program focused on how to use music effectively in class. “There is a hole in teacher training when it comes to using music.  It’s the soundscape to an unfolding practice.”  

Allen also collaborates with her boyfriend, Josh Andrews, who produces remixes and mashups, to put together the set playlists for The Fixx classes at Wanderlust. “It’s a 45 minute full body, mind, and spirit class. We breathe together and build energy together. The playlists are set to BPM (beats per minute). It’s challenging and meditative. The teacher creates the sequence based on the soundtrack we provide.”

The discipline of putting together a creative and innovative program with such a thoughtful process behind the intention of what is being created definitely can be drawn from her years on the road and on the stage.  

“In a class I am trying to set a tone, a meditative mood with temperature and lighting, so in a way the yoga room becomes like a set for the experience of the practice. Primarily, music is used to support the energies of my sequences, and I like playing with music to create an emotional tone. Sometimes in the flow the tracks I choose will be more reflective, or I’ll specifically choose a song with certain lyrics to bring the mood up. In a sense it does remind me of theatre, in that the students are soaking up the music the way audiences do during the performance of a song– a poignant connection to what they’re hearing. There’s a similar emotional resonance that I’m trying to bring in with the music I choose to play, so that the physical experience of practicing yoga taps directly into the feelings in the heart when the right track drops in. The walls come down.”

Perhaps that’s why someone with such a strong performance background was led to yoga and why someone like me, also a performer and creator, was led to Whitney’s teachings.

Like a bright theater filled with an excited audience, the studio fills with harried students settling into their spaces and letting go of the day. We all sit united in anticipation and wonder, open hearts and minds ready for the lights to dim and our souls and bodies to be moved.

For more information on Whitney Allen visit: whitneyallenyoga.com.

Laurie Searle is in international yoga teacher leading workshops and trainings with Yoga and Fitness to Go and the Sphota Yoga school.  She’s the creator of Lady Yoga, Superhero and F.E.D. Fight Eating Disorders, a 501(c)(3) in Los Angeles: YogaAndFitnessToGo.com.

Jeff Skeirik: rawtographer.com

Hair and Makeup by Dawn Sorenson: dawnsorenson.com

Clothing by Akrovita: akrovita.com

Turquoise mala by Silver and Sage Jewelry: silverandsagejewelry.com

Crystal necklace by Vega: vegajewelry.com

Rock mala by Mary Katherine openheartwarrior.com

Rubber B MAT yoga mat by B YOGA: byoganow.com

Photo shoot location Wanderlust Hollywood: wanderlusthollywood.com

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This dynamic dancer and choreographer is starting a GROOV3MENT.

At one point in Ben Allen’s career, he was a back up dancer for drag queens. Now, he is the founder of one of the hottest movements (or as he calls it, a GROOV3MENT) in the dance and fitness communities: GROOV3.

According to dancer and choreographer Allen, “GROOV3 is a one hour, high-energy, dance ’til you drop, cardio funk class with a mission to inspire change and build a global community through the power of dance. Simple combinations accommodate all fitness levels, and classes are set to the beat of a live DJ or feature the hottest mixes around.” While an infectious beat gets most of us moving, following a routine can sometimes be intimidating and can be a barrier to walking into a studio space. This is where GROOV3 comes in. Ben’s mission, “I want to create an environment outside of the gym where anyone is welcome, that has affordable class prices and accessible choreography.” GROOV3 grooves at the intersection between professional dance and the dance fitness industry.

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Why dance? While dance is fun and fitness, there is something more found in GROOV3. Ben sees movement literally as a movement. He says, “We are in a crucial time in our history and if more people don’t open up their hearts to care about one another and our planet, we’re going to be in big trouble. I hope, with GROOV3, to build a global community of dancers that will also inspire more consciousness to change the world. Drop beats not bombs. If everybody danced together, maybe we would live in a more peaceful place.”

Where does this begin? Ben says, “Find what inspires and moves you and put that action back in your life. Lead with that.”

When it comes to leading with passion, Ben’s own steps to founding GROOV3 reflect following your own passion in life. Ben fell in love with dance in college, specifically influenced by an instructor at the Arizona State University Rec Center who started a coalition for anybody who wanted to dance, preaching that dance was for body, mind, and soul. The soulful connection is evident in any GROOV3 class or event and is an essential part of the movement.

After graduating from ASU with a business degree, Ben moved to LA. He came to dance—and dance he did. While teaching at Gold’s Gym, he had the opportunity to see firsthand how much people are looking for an opportunity to just dance, not for any purpose, not to be a pro, or even to lose weight. “They just wanted to come for the social component, the wellness component, and the mind-body connection.”

Finding a way to connect fueled the creation of the GROOV3 community. Where did the name come from? Ben says, “When thinking about the style of the movement, the best way we could describe the movement was groovy! A little bit of pop, little bit of funk, little bit of soul, but in general feel good movement that anyone could do.  We knew we couldn’t just call it groove, the word is too generic. Then as we were brainstorming more about the class, three words kept popping up.” These three magic words were dance, sweat, live. They became the motto for the movement, and the inspiration to flip the “E” in the word “groove” for GROOV3.

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“With GROOV3, you are learning and building, the movement is fun, yet effective, and you can take it outside of the classroom.” The majority of people at GROOV3 classes or events used to dance or want to learn how to dance. Ben said, “We are reigniting a passion that, for most, was lost in high school or college, and now they are getting that chance to get back on the dance floor.” This is meaningful practice that impacts the rest of a person’s day. “I think connecting to a passion like dance and making time for it translates to everything else that you do.”

Ben exemplifies the passion for dance and movement. One of the people he models his career after is Richard Simmons, whose infectious enthusiasm for having fun while keeping fit changed the way we work out. “When I first started this, I said – and I still do – that I want to be the next Richard Simmons. He played such an important role in so many people’s lives. He was a motivational coach, and he spread so much joy and love in everything that he did and affected so many people. Translating that to this decade and doing something similar would be such an honor.”

He maintains a commitment to personal practice and continues to take classes that expand his repertoire and move him out of his comfort zone. Ben finds himself drawn to teachers who have an obvious enthusiasm and passion for what they do—who love the opportunity to inspire. I’ve often seen Ben in my classes at Hot 8 Yoga. In addition to yoga in a studio, Ben appreciates trying new modalities like aerial yoga and indoor sandbox fitness classes. He says, “I want to keep expanding my vocabulary as a movement artist and professional because it helps me stay creative when I choreograph.”

Sitting with Ben at Earth Bar in West Hollywood, I see that he is on that path and can make it happen. Ben is a consummate dancer and business pro whose passion for dance and connecting people has led to collaborations with Robin Anton of the Pussycat Dolls, The Sweat Spot, Equinox, Weight Watchers, and Nike. GROOV3 collaborated with Yoga for Dancers and Yogazilla to host a rooftop dance party to celebrate Beyonce’s birthday at the Montalban Theater. Not only is he elevating the Los Angeles dance and fitness community to fit-excellence, but Ben has his sights on a worldwide movement of taking GROOV3 and this powerful, purposeful, fun, accessible, and inspiring GROOV3MENT to set the globe aflame.

Classes in Southern California with Benjamin Allen and other teachers are held at locations including Beat Box LA in Culver City, Your Neighborhood Studio in Culver City, Life Arts Los Angeles, Gateway to Health in Torrance, Blackbird Dance Company, Movement Lifestyle, Edge Performing Arts Center, Basement of Noho, Meraki Barre in Costa Mesa and other locations. Learn more at: GROOV3.com  

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Kate Duyn Cariati shares a practice inspired by a lifetime of exploration and self expression.

A small girl sits on the floor, swirling in circles while watching Wonder Woman. Not a child of yogis, her body intuitively loves to make shapes and move. Today she still teaches this circling movement, but she calls it “Lucky Lakshmi,” named for the archetypal goddess of abundance.

Foundations

Her childhood days were spent outside, climbing trees, building forts, swimming and canoeing. At eight years old, she discovered ballet and a new world of movement. For Kate, ballet was the perfect marriage between strict discipline and technique, coupled with passionate self-expression and artistry.

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Kate Duyn Cariati in K-Deer Yoga Wear

Kate’s love of dance continued throughout her childhood and young adult years, and led to a choreography major at Mills College in the Bay Area. She was just finishing when her mother was diagnosed with a rare and incurable brain tumor. Her mother had been having migraines and personality shifts for several years, but by the time they finally gave her the MRI she’d been requesting, it was too late to operate. She fought cancer with grace and dignity, the same way she did everything else in her life. Kate describes her mother as “strong but goofy, elegant but fierce.” Her mother tried both Eastern and Western approaches to treatment and when seizures prevented her from driving, she asked Kate for what she called “movement therapy.” So there they were, bending their arms and legs this way and that, rolling around on the floor, her mother now in on the yoga antics, “tripping out on the experience of being a living, breathing human being.” After a two year battle, Kate’s mother died in the arms of her daughter and her own mother, Kate’s nana.

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Kate Duyn Cariati in Brooke Taylor Yoga Wear

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Prior to her passing, her mom encouraged Kate to travel the world. Kate listened, heading to Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and much of Europe, eventually landing in New York City. The loss of her mother left Kate in a dark and despairing place and Kate credits her yoga practice with being the gift that brought her back to center. Though she was a professional modern dancer at the time, she found herself spending more and more of her free time on her mat. Drawn to strong women, Kate was inspired by Dana Trixie Flynn and Jasmine Tarkeshi, two teachers who gifted her with a practice that would change her life. Their inspiration eventually led her into the Laughing Lotus Teacher Training. Lotus Flow, their signature vinyasa style, empowered Kate to dive into her instinctual creative process, supported by the teachings of yoga tradition.

In class, Katie’s laughter and enthusiasm are unbridled and contagious, and the joy in the room is palpable.

The more she practiced, the more Kate found herself passing through the entryway to the more subtle realms. She says, “My personal practice is medicine for me in so many ways, a ritual that grounds and connects me to the world we inhabit, to the rhythms of nature, and my own inner-workings. The creation of intricate and customized practices feels like both an outlet and dharmic duty.” The devotion in Lotus Flow resonated with Kate from the beginning; she loves the layering of dharma, mantra, mudra and mythology. She loves Lotus Flow’s straight talk about how this practice applies to our lives, the repetition and chanting of words that evoke the Divine within us and around us, symbolic hand gestures that affect our energy, and the rich history and storytelling that give the practice context. This love is reflected in her dynamic, passionate, and creative classes, where your mat becomes your personal platform to make malas or sacred shapes and flows with your own body, heart, and soul. Wherever she goes, Kate brings her unique expression of Lotus Flow, making it accessible to all by bridging the gap between fitness-focused classes and traditional asana practices.

Kate went on to teach at Laughing Lotus in New York and later moved to San Francisco to help the team open the Bay Area center. In 2009, Kate headed south for love, and the man she was engaged to marry, glassblower Joe Cariati. Joe and Kate share a love of tapas—the practice of building the fire. Yoga asks practitioners to negotiate the workings of the inner fire, and as Kate says, in glassblowing, the repeated use of fire purifies and allows the glass to be supple enough to be shaped into a particular form.

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Kate Duyn Cariati in Luna Jai Active Wear

A New Journey

In 2011, Kate began the journey of motherhood with the birth of her son, Vincent. She says she wanted to become a mother in part to honor her own mom and to become a loving mother herself. One of Kate’s favorite definitions of a yogi is, “One who leaves the world a better place.” To Kate, the spirit of service this evokes is the practice of performing love through action. Motherhood involves thinking about the world we’re leaving our children, and part of the growth when we practice yoga is about taking action where and when we can.

Sharing the Love

“More and more, my yoga practice is about sharing the love, the light, the energy, whatever you may have in abundance with those who have less. I happen to have a lot of enthusiasm and faith, and I think that might fill a need for people who may be lacking in that department.”

Through numerous 200 hour and advanced teachers trainings that she has taught and co-taught in New York and Los Angeles over the past five years, Kate has trained hundreds of yoga teachers in the Lotus Flow style. In recent years she has created a platform for giving back by hosting benefit classes at the end of her trainings. Graduates of the trainings co-teach these donation classes as part of their final. They have raised money for organizations including Yoga Gives Back and Green Tree Yoga (a donation-based studio in South LA). Inspired by an article she read in this very magazine, she began promoting and supporting Unlikely Heroes, a nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates child victims of sex trafficking. “There are so many dire disparities, suffering populations, and environmental catastrophes, it can be overwhelming and difficult to decide what to get behind. I think the best way to figure out how and where to help is to listen to what speaks to you the loudest, what pulls most powerfully at your heartstrings. Stand behind that. There are so many ways in which we can get involved and contribute in some way to positive change.” In the spirit of devotion, “The practice of Isvara Pranidhana means to offer up your thoughts and actions to the greater good and to the Divine. These actions are just the beginning of something bigger I hope to do.”

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Kate Duyn Cariati in Sthenos Active Wear

In class, Katie’s laughter and enthusiasm are unbridled and contagious, and the joy in the room is palpable. It’s not just in the yoga room, though. Kate is a force, and her energy and her heart are big; they permeate everything she does. Whether she’s teaching her son to make shapes with his own body, grabbing a tea with a friend between classes, or taking a class herself, you just can’t miss it. You can see and feel both the little kid making those circles with her body back in Portland, and the grown woman who’s leaving the world a better place one yogi at a time, wherever she goes.

You can join her in person at her local classes or online at YogisAnonymous.com, and soon you’ll be able to find her at LA’s home of Lotus Flow, Light on Lotus (lightonlotus.com) opening later this year.

Kate Website: kateduyncariati.com IG: @flowwithkate  FB: Kate Duyn Cariati Yoga

All photos taken at Joe Cariati Glass studio in El Segundo:joecariati.com

Photos by David Young-Wolff: davidyoung-wolff.com

Hair and Makeup by JJ/Jeannie Jeffries: jeanniejeffries.com

The post Love in Action: Kate Duyn Cariati appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine Online.

Sharing Strength through Movement and Meditation

Mandy Ingber knows something about the experiences that break our hearts, how to find the inner strength that allows us to straddle the chasm of our challenges, and how to move in order to heal the body, the mind, and the emotions.

These are lessons she learned the hard way over a lifetime. Throughout much of her life, yoga has played a role in both the heartbreak and the healing. She says that yoga represented the breakdown of her family. It’s a story she tells in her latest book Yogalosophy for Inner Strength.

Sometimes our heartache can span generations; this is certainly the case for Mandy. Her grandparents were Holocaust survivors whose parents and siblings were lost in the war. Mandy’s mother Chava Luba was born into a displaced children’s camp in Germany, and after emigrating to America, endured all the intricacies of a non-native speaker. Mandy’s father Lloyd was a renowned lawyer, whose interpersonal relationships were challenging and complex. As early as age 29, Lloyd’s back would go out, forcing him to lie still for a month at a time. At the urging of his friend and gym buddy Dirk Benedict (of Battlestar Galatica fame), Lloyd engaged in a disciplined Iyengar yoga practice, started cycling, and ate only macrobiotic food (prepared by Mandy’s mother).

Mandy recalls, “For me, my dad was sorta self-obsessed. I was always looking for ways to connect with him.  So, that’s how my practice started. I would practice on my own from the B.K.S.Iyengar Light on Yoga book from the time I was a kid.”

Lloyd’s fellow students included yogis like Erich Schiffmann, Ganga White, and Chuck and Maty Ezraty. He enrolled in teacher trainings, and the family had a yoga teacher, Keshava, throughout the 1970s. Mandy’s practice progressed privately with Keshava. The 80s brought her devotion to the gym, aerobics, and yoga. The first public class she enrolled in was around age 16 with the late Urban Yoga Institute co-owner Billy Porter. Soon thereafter, she continued classes with teachers including Alan Finger, Chad Hamrin, Baron Baptiste, and Bryan Kest. “I like the group energy of a class,” explains Mandy, “I love the feeling of being in a room full of people who are collectively bringing an energy. You might not even connect with a person, but you’re all breathing in and out with each other, so you become this one entity.”

During her parents’ tumultuous divorce, Mandy sought shelter in the safety of physical activity and the pursuit of a career on stage and screen. She starred in the original Broadway cast of Brighton Beach Memoirs, as Carla’s daughter-in-law on the long-running TV show Cheers, and sang the now infamous rap in the cult classic movie Teen Witch. When her friend and colleague (My Sister Sam star) Rebecca Schaeffer was brutally murdered by a stalker, Mandy’s relationship to the spotlight shifted. She jokes that she became her own sugar daddy, using the savings she accrued as an actress to change her life. “I learned a lot about trusting and not looking outside for approval, about finding my own inner strength essentially. That’s when I started teaching.” Mandy’s passion for both spinning and yoga inspired her to teach both disciplines. As she describes her spin classes, “I became a kind of motivational speaker on a bike.”

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Mandy Ingber’s clients are “drawn to her honesty, encouragement, wisdom, and humor.”

Participants were drawn to her honesty, encouragement, wisdom, and humor. Not surprisingly, she acted as a spinning shepherd to seekers during turbulent times. “Many people, both celebrities and the average person, have come to my class during times of transition: break-ups, people that are going through radiation for cancer, divorces, moving, job changes. While I was teaching group classes, around me the whole music industry changed, the financial industry changed. People were going through transitions.”

The most famous transition was when Mandy publicly served as private confidante to Jennifer Aniston during one of the most sensationalized break-ups in pop culture history. The rest of her celebrity client roster rivals the Oscar nominee list and includes Aniston, as well as Jennifer Lawrence, Helen Hunt, Kate Beckinsale, and Brooke Shields.

Throughout her teaching, she says, “I just started writing down the things I was using.” That writing resulted in Mandy’s first book, New York Times bestseller Yogalosophy and her latest, Yogalosophy; 12 weeks to heal your heart and embrace joy. It is a workbook to guide readers through change and transition. Mandy says, “Yoga is not just about asana and the practice; it’s about bringing it into our full selves.” In her books, Mandy discusses the transformational potential found while moving the body in asana, and she also includes practices such as journaling, listening to inspirational and uplifting music, and choosing supportive and nourishing food. She shares her own journey in the pages, as she does when she teaches groups and individuals. Mandy says, “I’ve learned that sharing myself, my healing process, and my pain is helpful to people, and so I encourage others to share too.”

When asked about her non-negotiable practice, Mandy quickly mentions meditation. She reflects, “I can’t just isolate it to when I’m by myself, sitting in the perfect position, the incense is going, and the Guru Gita is on in the background. Everything in my life is a meditation. It’s like a muscle, it’s like going to the gym. When you go to the gym, you lift the weights everyday, you get stronger. It’s the same with sitting. Then that muscle becomes stronger and stronger, and then everything we do—even in this moment—there’s a meditation occurring. This is the integration of the practice that truly allows us to heal our heart. In every moment, even this moment.”

Join Mandy in LA Sunday, May 15 from 11:00 AM – 12 noon (class) 12 noon – 2:00 PM (book signing and reception) at Ron Robinson, 1327 5th St, Santa Monica: ronrobinson.com Class reservation $29 which includes book, class, and gift bag. Space is limited. RSVP to events@ronrobinson.com  

Learn more about Mandy and Yogalosophy at: mandyingber.com (Instagram @MandyIngber Twitter @msmandyingber)

Jeff Skeirik is a Los Angeles-based photographer: rawtographer.com

Hair and makeup by Jeannie Jeffries using Kevin Aucoin Cosmetics and Schwarzkopf Professional Hair: jeanniejeffries.com 

The post Teacher Profile: Mandy Ingber appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine Online.

How any place can become a spiritual place and the power of one-on-one practices.

If you have practiced any form of Ashtanga, Vinyasa, or Power Yoga, you have practiced the teachings of the late influential teacher Sri K Pattabhi Jois, who brought the Ashtanga Yoga tradition as we know it today to the West. As a devoted student in this lineage, I just ventured on my eighth trip to study Ashtanga yoga in Mysore, India, with his grandson, R. Sharath Jois. Back in 2005, I first studied with Sharath in his mother, Saraswati’s house across the street from the “main shala.” The living room had been repurposed into a shala and held a small number of students. Pattabhi Jois,had set the course of yoga’s direction and its future thirty years before. In preparation for Sharath’s U.S. tour I sat down with him and talked about yoga in Los Angeles and throughout the world.

Leslie: Many spiritual leaders built centers in Los Angeles to spread yoga. Do you think LA is a spiritual place?

Sharath: Only practices make it spiritual. If there are many spiritual people, it becomes a spiritual place. Why are the Himalayas spiritual? Because there are many spiritual people there who experience spirituality and who have spiritual experiences. That’s why many gurus went to Los Angeles because there were people interested in spirituality. When there are interested people who want to know [and develop] spirituality …it makes them spiritual. It becomes a spiritual place. So, maybe there is a connection there.

Leslie: Southern California was the first place your grandfather, Sri K Pattabhi, known as Guruji, visited in the United States.

Sharath: In 1975, Guruji went to Encinitas. That was the first place he went in the U.S. to teach Ashtanga yoga. Paramahansa Yogananda [also] set up his center there. People started thinking about spirituality and yoga. They wanted to learn about yoga and to discover what it is, so gurus started traveling.

Leslie: Now yoga has been re-interpreted many times. Do you see yoga as classical and modern?

Sharath: Definitely. Nowadays, it has become more physical, like how to do handstand. There is no spirituality in that. It’s just physical, how to bend your body and how to align your body, but classical yoga is about how to bring the discipline to your body and your mind, and how that discipline leads you towards spirituality. That is called yama and niyama. These are very important limbs in yoga practice. Not many people are putting attention to these. They are putting attention only to the physical aspect of yoga….there is no breathing, no vinyasa, no gazing. All these things, what we call tristana, are very important to our asana practice.

In [some forms of] modern yoga, it’s mostly acrobatics. No one knows where they are inhaling, where they are exhaling, how the posture helps our body and mind. They don’t know how our breathing helps our body, nervous system, and mind. But this is very important. Yoga is getting popular all over the world, but there are only few people who have understood yoga well, who have gone to the roots of yoga. Everything is all like a circus, just bending their bodies but that doesn’t mean that’s spirituality. I go to lots of places but there are only few people who really know what yoga is.

“Practices make [a place] spiritual. If there are many spiritual people, it becomes a spiritual place.”

Leslie: What is Mysore style?

Sharath: Let me explain a led class: where we call the asana names, count the vinyasas and every student is practicing the asana at the same time. This is to improve vinyasa and have proper understanding of the system: where to inhale and exhale, and to follow the vinyasa properly.

Mysore class is where we are not counting. We are [monitoring and] trying to help the student improve in different postures. It’s not Mysore style it’s like a one-on-one style. Students are doing it at their own pace. This is called Mysore style because it started in Mysore by Pattabhi Jois.

Leslie: Practicing at the shala in Mysore reminds me of the United Nations of Yoga. Students might not speak the same language but when we do our practice together it creates beautiful energy. What do you think about the growing global Ashtanga world?

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Sharath: Yoga doesn’t have any language. When there are 60 students practicing in the shala, there is no common language but there is a common thing, which is yoga practice. They are all doing the same practice, the same asanas, and even they know which asana this is, how many vinyasas. They are all doing simultaneously the same asana, in the same sequence, and that is the language that brings so much peace. Your energy, their energy, everything is mixing up and generating this huge ball of energy in the shala. So, that is very important, and that is the only language.

When they are silently doing practice, it generates a certain energy, which makes the whole environment peaceful. Silence is the only method to bring peace. Once your mind is silent then everything becomes silent and serene. The whole concept, the purpose of doing yoga is to bring silence, to bring peace to your mind.

In Mysore there are different nationalities speaking different languages, but in the practice no language is used but the energy is so high. When the energy is so high, and no one is talking, you only see equality in each and every student. It’s not that you are American, Japanese, Korean, or Australian. When this equality happens, everything is one. Yoga is also one. SAMATVAM YOGAM UCYATE (Bhagavad Gita 2:48). Where there are no emotions, no happiness, no sadness, no caste, no creed, no nationality, no discriminations, that’s also called yoga. So, becoming one is called yoga.

“Silence is the only method to bring peace. Once your mind is silent then everything becomes silent and serene. The whole concept, the purpose of doing yoga is to bring silence, to bring peace to your mind.”

Leslie: What is s Sadakha?

Sharath: A Sadakha is a practitioner who dedicates himself to the practice and the lineage. Yoga isn’t that which can be practiced by watching videos or reading books. Yoga has to come from a parampara, from a lineage, and you have to devote to that lineage and try to learn yoga. That is how the yoga should come.

Leslie: The “one-on-one” approach, done with little talking, does it help us better learn our true nature?

Sharath: In our lineage, you can’t teach in masses. We can teach, but we can’t connect to many people. We can’t understand our students unless we are teaching one-on-one. When there are too many students, we can’t reach everyone. Your voice can reach, but you can’t give personal attention to each student. Everyone has different body structures, mindsets, and flexibilities. Only when you are one-on-one can you understand the students and give what they need.

Leslie: Does this help their spiritual path?

Sharath: Spiritual path is when you get connected with your guru. When you give personal attention to a student, there’s lots of energy that flows through your student. He can feel the energy. When people come to practice in Mysore, there is certain energy here. That energy is generated by a guru. When that energy is generated by a guru, everyone will follow him, everyone will connect to him, everyone can feel his energy and try to practice in that energy. In a mass, you can’t have that same energy. It’s like going to a rock concert, you are just hearing but you can’t get connected to the singer.

Leslie: How do you see Ashtanga yoga making an impact in the world?

Sharath: There is no particular place it will make an impact. There is no one place for yoga. Many places yoga has reached, many countries, many nationalities. Yoga doesn’t belong to one culture. Everyone should practice yoga for their own well-being. Once that happens, the whole planet becomes a spiritual place. The whole planet will become totally different. Everyone will realize their own responsibility in their life towards this planet, towards humanity, so that’s what we have to think about. Yoga will give you that kind of knowledge. It’s not just physical, it’s overall how to keep your own well-being, and keeping others’ well-being. So, that is called yoga.

For more information about R Sharath Jois’ teaching schedule in the US (May 22 – June 24) including his Los Angeles workshops (May 29 – June 3), visit sonima.com/sharath

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While many of us may be tracking the progress of the Golden State Warriors on the court, Yoga Teacher Dana Kraft is also tracking the players’ process on the yoga mat. Dana has been teaching yoga to members of the Golden State Warriors since the Summer of 2015. She moved out to California from New York to work with the team. Colleagues recommended her and she was hired because she studied the team roster to make suggestions for practices that addressed each player individually and as a group.

Dana currently lives, teaches, and leads yoga teacher training programs in Los Angeles, she travels to the Warriors home of Oakland (depending on the team’s schedule) throughout the Summer, Fall, and Winter where she is one of the few women in the training facility. She combines her background in education (before she made the full-time commitment to yoga, Dana was a high school teacher) with an intensive study of anatomy and a willingness to meet the players on their own court. After all, training elite athletes gives new meaning to thinking outside the box—well, the mat—since the basketball players are taller than the average yogi and since many of them may be sporting injuries, Dana is frequently reaching into her own playbook to modify poses.

Some of the players were a bit shy about taking up the practice, while others were eager to roll out a mat. Yet Dana comments on the fantastic growth in the players’ practice. In sessions, she develops something specific for each student. “It’s not just vinyasa or power flow,” she says as she remembers leading a sequence completely on the floor for a player with an ankle injury. Dana incorporates creative sequencing and that relies on props such as Yoga Tune Up balls.

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Dana Kraft training Golden State Warriors Player Festus Ezeli

Training the Warriors has affected her own practice. Yoga teacher Dana Kraft says she has experienced a level of humility working with elite athletes whose job is to work out, who go from trainer to coach to court and who are constantly being watched, scouted, or even traded. Dana has also noted her students’ ability to have the heightened awareness and physical proprioception needed to compete at that level and to be an advanced practitioner of yoga. As a result, she says, “The ability to have awareness and proprioception has become my advanced practice.”

For more information about Dana Kraft, visit www.danakraftyoga.com

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Portrait of Yoga Teacher and Bhakti Musician Raghunath by Susan Currie

I’m on the road to an afternoon of bhakti (the yoga of devotion) with the former punk rocker and once celibate monk known these days simply as Raghunath. He traverses the world as a yoga teacher and musician spreading his message of love and service. There is no corner of the globe to which he will not trek. It’s a full house at Repose Yoga and in the few minutes of prelude, I can already sense an approaching climate shift… the sun-filled studio pulses with a hushed anticipation as Raghunath quietly unpacks his harmonium.

“When love is behind the current, it’s bhakti.” So begins our immersion into a workshop that combines the devotional practices of singing and chanting with asana, breath, and meditation. I’m not surprised by Raghunath’s big personality given his storied background as a performer, but I was surprised by how he employs it to softly command the room. His direction is precise and his message unwavering, prompting at times a blend of fatigue, fear and, of course, reflection. Under his guidance, I felt held throughout.

Gin Evans, owner of Repose Yoga in Newburyport, Massachusetts (where the workshop I took was held) explains, “There’s something about when you bring a roomful of people together for a class or a workshop… any personal or social differences no longer matter, and there’s this coming together or union that magically occurs simply from either the opening ‘Om,’ or the chanting, or from the physical energy created by all the bodies in one room. Raghunath has an ability to make students feel happy, empowered, and positive about themselves. What better way to feel a sense of community than to leave a two hour workshop feeling blissful from the energy of others!”

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Raghunath photographed by Tricia Gahagan

From Joshua Tree to Brooklyn to the banks of the Ganges, on any given day you might find Raghunath (often called Raghu) sharing the wisdom he has earned through the arc of his life. Whether on tour supporting his debut CD (Krishna Kirtan: Music as Meditation), leading his popular bhakti immersions, or traveling with students through the holy cities of India, his work is rooted in universal love.

Raghu enjoyed early commercial success as a professional musician, yet the pitfalls of that fame remain tattooed to his heart and soul. Popularity is not what fuels his present-day life on the road. Rather, bhakti guides his generosity of time and spirit. Bhakti, the Sanskrit term derived from the root “bhaj” which means to “divide, share, partake”, is often translated in our modern world as “devotion” or “love.” First introduced to the concept during in his teenage years, it is now the guiding principle of Raghu’s life. “A living tunnel to an ancient world” is one of the many ways in which he unpacks the term bhakti in conversation.

His story begins in the 1970s outside of New York City in the quiet suburb of Danbury, Connecticut. Growing up Ray Cappo as the sixth of seven children in an Italian American (and Catholic) home, from his early childhood Raghunath felt a deep longing for something that fueled his homegrown and evolving spiritual path. Seeking more than the mainstream music coming through on FM radio and answers to the deeper questions, he made his way to New York City as a young teen. In Manhattan’s Lower East Side (known at that time for its excess), a new world was revealed. Insane, reckless and crazy are just a handful of the adjectives Raghu uses to detail the scene as it unfolded in his eighth-grade eyes. The punk rock movement was driven by a culture of drugs and hardcore living. Despite his emergence as the lead singer and songwriter of the punk band Youth of Today, he rejected that pervasive culture. While he embraced his contemporaries’ leaning away from mainstream music, he could not embrace the decadence of their lifestyle. “It was heartbreaking. I saw a bunch of kids addicted to heroin, huffing glue, committing suicide, smoking angel dust. In the name of being alternative, they were going down a dead-end street. I feel blessed to have had the good insight or karma to not follow.”

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Raghunath when he was in his Youth of Today/Straight Edge Movement days. Photo by Ian Harper.

He attributes that pivot to an inner compass for clean living (organic threads which pulsed since childhood). Raghu was also getting a taste of what he now knows as bhakti through observing the rituals and offerings shared publicly by the Krishna devotees in and around Thompson Square Park. Although yoga had not yet exploded onto the scene in New York City, he was introduced to the practice through the (now defunct) Ahimsa Cafe, a health restaurant at the corner of East 9th Street, where he worked at the time. He was swiftly consumed by the ancient eight-limbed tradition.

Buoyed by spiritual influences and his inner compass, these formative years found Raghunath championing alternatives through song. He discovered the Bhagavad Gita; taking inspiration from the Gita’s call for selfless action he began to pen words and music. As Straight Edge’s star rose they used fame to spearhead movements including vegetarianism and animal rights while denouncing intoxication. Peter Singer’s 1975 classic Animal Liberation: A New Ethics for Our Treatment of Animals inspired Raghu’s call to vegetarianism.

Youth of Today’s words and music struck a chord and delivered them to a level of success they had not envisioned. As the story often goes, that elevation came with a price. Raghunath became restless and disillusioned as he paused to consider his deeper intentions and question this life of fame. Greed, competition, striving and envy began to school Raghu in what he refers to as “material cynicism.” He set out on a path of deeper inquiry – exploring best practices for channeling his artistic talents, what he refers to as shakti. Again, he turned to the Vedic literature and sacred teachings.

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Bhakti Guide, Musician and Yoga Teacher Raghunath photographed by Tricia Gahagan

In this introspection Raghunath came to the understandings that now deeply fuel his teachings. He refers to it as a dawn. “I came to the realization that our shakti is on loan to us. You take what you’ve got in terms of your gifts and you give it back in service—in a spiritual way. Yoga, music or otherwise … it’s not about being the object of praise. The sharing of our individual gifts should be pushed by a genuine concern for others. Otherwise, it’s all just a performance. In everything we do, love should be the current.” There was no looking back.

The next 10 years were marked by discovery and ongoing explorations, Ayurveda, yoga and a vegetarian lifestyle. He spent much of his late twenties and early thirties living the life of a celibate monk traveling back and forth to ashrams in India and the US. While these contemplative years were marked by intensive study, they also included music. With newfound intention to spread the good word of the Gita, Raghu patched together a band comprised of fellow monks who engaged audiences far and wide. Practicing yoga, leading kirtan, immersed in bhakti and living clean … this life agreed with him.

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Raghunath photographed by Tricia Gahagan

His story then entered another chapter. Heeding the unsolicited advice of an older monk he met, Raghunath found himself in a time of deep introspection, considering how his present reality of a strict ashram existence would eliminate marriage and a family. In his mid-thirties, he made a choice to include a partner and family while maintaining his passion for teaching — a passion not just for leading asana, but for spreading bhakti.

Motion is a word that comes to mind as I reflect on my personal experience in Raghu’s workshop. Dialogue is flowing, music and chanting is weaved in. Raghunath himself is perpetually drifting the sea of mats connecting seamlessly. As our practice unfolds I am struck by the quick and easy manner of his greeting—as though we have of course met somewhere before and are now all simply reacquainting. At one point after pitching us a particularly clever sequence he asks, “Are you ready to accept this mission?” Despite some chuckling, his plans clearly do not include the use of the word “no.” Another Raghu student, yoga instructor Sandy Snyder, summed it up rather perfectly, “Each time I take a class with Raghunath I either want to burst out in tears, confront something, or laugh my butt off. He has a way of provoking very strong shifts.”

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Raghunath photographed by Tricia Gahagan

One of his favorite avenues for sharing bhakti is through his ongoing pilgrimages to India. His prerequisite for travel is that participants tour like pilgrims in a “spirit of humility.” Raghu’s own early expeditions through India were humble and with an air of “prospectors seeking to uncover the bounty of hidden gems.” It’s an intention he found powerful and one to which he continues to cling as he now wears the cap of leader. A typical Raghu pilgrimage consists of a party of 14 – 30 kindred spirits seeking transformation on some level. Over a two week stay each day is spent in asana practice, in meditation, and in song. A bhakti narrative is peppered throughout.

As we bid farewell I am curious to know what’s next for Raghu. It’s a 120 or so mile drive back to his home in upstate New York where he resides with his wife of 13 years Brij – a partner with whom he shares a deep yogic and spiritual sensibility. Together they have created five children and also the Supersoul Farm in Albany, which is in the midst of hosting its inaugural 200-hour teacher training program and will also sponsor 500-hour teacher trainings in India. Under this roof, Raghunath is “Dad.” It is in this setting that he refuels. Most mornings find him ferrying his young children to the local Waldorf School on a 400 acre farm where they share the campus with sheep and chickens. Raghunath recalls how he was fortunate to enjoy a healthy dose of nature growing up. He speaks of a love of Thoreau and Emerson and how nature has been “calling him back loudly” these days.

Ever seeking, he also keeps current under the guidance of his longtime spiritual teacher Radhanath Swami – he is never without his 2010 book The Journey Home. Turning up the volume for one last lesson, he signs off with, “I am convinced the best thing you can do for your health is take off your shoes and walk in the forest and breathe. Before you start shoving a bunch of herbs in your mouth, take off your shoes and walk in the forest.” While he continues to enjoy the platform of the big stages, it’s his family that now takes priority. It’s a long way from the club scene of the East Village and the solemnity of life in an ashram, but it is home, where love is forever feeding the current.

For more information about Raghunath, his pilgrimages and teacher trainings visit: raghunath.org or supersoulyoga.com.

For more information about Repose Yoga visit: reposeyogastudio.com

Tricia Gahagan is a fine art photographer whose work can be found at triciagahagan.com.

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Susan Currie

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“TKV Desikachar gave his life to making yoga understandable to the western mind transmitting the Great Tradition as it was brought forth by his father T Krishnamacharya,” said longtime student Mark Whitwell.

On August 8, in Chennai, India, TKV Desikachar died at the age of 78, at the end of a long illness. Desikachar was a lifelong student of his father, T Krishnamacharya, the notable 20th century yoga pioneer whose other famous students included well-known yogis and yoginis BKS Iyengar, Sri Pattabhi Jois, Indra Devi, and Srivasta Ramaswami.

While Desikachar was trained as an engineer, he began studying with his father because he was impressed by Krishnamacharya’s ability to apply the therapeutic principles to the practice with students. He began teaching at a time when (as he said) the practice of yoga didn’t have the respect it enjoys today. Desikachar’s dedication to all of the aspects of yoga (from asana to philosophy to chanting) may well have influenced the respect that yoga does enjoy today.

According to writer and student Navtej Johar in a tribute in the The Hindu, “Desikachar’s yoga approach was unique in that it remained undogmatic, non-denominational, secular, fluid and open-minded and enquiring to the core.” In the time of the fragmentation that is one of the characteristics of modern yoga, Johar says that Desikachar “clearly saw branding or even standardisation of style as antithetical to yoga, the very nature of which was fluid in his view.”

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From Left to Right, TKV Desikachar, T Krishnamacharya, Indra Devi

When the announcement was made of his passing, yoga students from around the world sent their prayers and condolences to his family as well as their gratitude and appreciation for his presence, his teachings and his legacy. Desikachar’s approach to yoga, as well as his very presence touched both those he met as well as those who knew him through this students, his books, or the ripple effect of his influence.

It is an influence with a powerful and lasting effect. As his student Richard Miller said, “I am deeply grateful for the many years I knew and studied with Desikachar. Like the many he touched during his lifetime, his presence, wisdom, and love will live on in my heart and through my teachings and actions in the world.”

Desikachar’s student Larry Payne said, “When someone you love and respect passes on you are left with a deep ache in your heart and filled with a rush of emotions and precious memories.
I first heard the news about Sri TKV Desikachar when I was at a Yoga graduation at LMU and everyone around me was in tears. On the way home, I thought about how fortunate I was to have know this man personally and studied with him one on one in India many times and followed him all over the world. Once Desikachar accepted you as a student he was totally there for you in all aspects of your life. I have tried to emulate that with my students and have been rewarded for this in many ways.”

Student Amy Wheeler first saw Desikachar in India in 2001; she said that her first impression of him was of his palpable lightness. “Within days of studying his teachings, I felt that sense of lightness also. He was able to transmit the feeling of sattva [peaceful clarity] across the room.”

I met TKV Desikachar in person in 2001. It was at the Yoga Journal Conference in Estes Park, only weeks after 9/11. I could see what Amy spoke about; while watching him lecture, chant, and teach, and in meeting him in person—his composure, his sattvic nature, his brightness and lightness—were indeed palpable. He embodied the qualities of yoga as a teacher and as a human.

His legacy lives on, through his students, and in his own words. In Desikachar’s influential book, The Heart of Yoga, he provides us this teaching on yoga, “Yoga attempts to create a state in which we are always present—really present—in every action, in every moment.”

One of our greatest tributes, in addition to gratitude, may be to fully live this sense of presence in every action and in every moment. We echo the words of thanks of yoga students worldwide.

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Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

The post Tribute to TKV Desikachar appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

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A group of TKV Desikachar’s students gather around him.

Yoga pioneer TKV Desikachar died Monday August 8 in Chennai, India. He was 78 years old. May his family find peace in his passing.

His wife Menaka Desikachar has been a gracious tower of strength, nurturing her family and ailing husband while strenuously upholding the continuity of teaching for the community of his students.

Desikachar devoted his life to studying and teaching the practice of Yoga that his father, Professor T Krishnamacharya, had brought forth from the Great Tradition. Krishnamacharya was a renowned scholar and yogi in India. From my point of view, we would not have had the same access or ability to understand his teaching in a modern context without the clear and precise interpretation from Desikachar.

At the tender age of 27, Desikachar witnessed a western woman ran across the font yard to hug Krishnamacharya with an unusual (for India) public display of profuse gratitude, because Krishnamacharya had healed her of a debilitating illness. To see a woman embrace an austere Brahman man in public was indeed a rare sight in India. That day Desikachar gave up a bright and promising engineering career with a German company because he had witnessed the power and importance of his father’s work.

Many years later Desikachar visited this same elderly lady, Kay Malvenan at her home in Wellington, New Zealand to thank her for inspiring him to yoke to his father’s teaching. It was an auspicious meeting between dear friends.

The hallmark of Desikachar’s communication is that there is a right yoga for every person. Yoga is adapted carefully to individual needs according to body type, age, health and, also importantly, cultural background. When this is done, yoga facilitates direct intimacy with life and reality itself—the power of this cosmos that brought us here in the first place and presently nurtures us as pure intelligence and utter beauty.

“Anyone who can breathe can do yoga,” said Desikachar. “It is the practical means by which the ideals of an inspired life can be actualized.”

Because of Desikachar’s brilliance yoga is perfectly adapted to every kind of student. His engineering science allowed him to he refine the ancient teaching tenant that yoga must be made relevant to every student. Desikachar attributed his ability to understand his western students to the influence of the two Krishnamurtis,  J and UG, who were his close family friends. Desikachar said of Jiddu Krishnamurti (who studied diligently with him), “his profound respect for the teaching and the teaching relationship helped me become a good student of my own father. He also helped me understand everything about the West. He helped me eat with a knife and fork!” These were important collaborations between sincere  friends that will forever give the world a clear view of yoga, unhinged from yoga business, power structures, and exaggeration.

Like his father, Desikachar was a humble man committed to the accurate delivery of the Great Tradition without the empire building that can cloud the picture in yoga and spirituality. Krishnamacharya was a Yoga master abut never a yoga entrepreneur. In 1998 Desikachar even dissolved the name Vini Yoga that was forming around his teaching. He did not want his father’s scholarship to be identified as just another style. Desikachar was determined to communicate that in yoga is not, ”one size fits all.” The one brand of relevant yoga for him is that of capital Y, Yoga, which is adapted to the needs of every person.

When the principles of the Great Tradition are added to the popular styles it makes yoga entirely your own, efficient, powerful, and safe. Desikachar had a unique ability to truly respect all people and have each person actually feel seen—which is another ancient tenant of yoga teaching. He allowed each person to feel the truth or the answers to their questions to come bubbling forth as their own experience and revelation, rather than confusing students with ideas and ideals that are not relevant or out of their reach.

In the early 1990s, I was involved in a book project for Desikachar with the intention to increase the availability of his father’s teaching around the world. I was calling the book The Art of Yoga. One day while walking on  Adyar Beach, Desikachar suddenly declared, “The Heart of Yoga is the correct title!”

Desikachar later explained that the heart of yoga is the relationship between student and teacher. The mutual affection between two actual people is the universal means of wisdom transmission. No more than a friend, no less than a friend. Desikachar wanted to spread throughout the world with the understanding that the best teacher is often someone from your own culture because he or she understands you the best.

When I showed him The Heart of Yoga in 1995, I observed quiet tears. He said, “I wish my father had seen this book. He did not see the worldwide effect of his work in his lifetime. But now he does.” The Heart of Yoga is Desikachar’s gift; it includes his father’s commentary on the Yogasutra of Patanjali, the ancient text that defines yoga. The Heart of Yoga has been translated into many languages and has become a source text for yoga today. His life lives on. Desikachar is a treasure forever.

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Mark Whitwell

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Ana Funes photographed by David Young-Wolff

“Don’t just accept everything that the Yoga Sutra tells you,” Ana Funes says to her students.

Dr Ana Funes Maderey teaches in the Master of Arts in Yoga Studies program at Loyola Marymount University; her students are enthusiastic yogis and yoginis (female yogis) pursuing the academic study of yoga in all its facets.

A dedicated scholar, Ana believes in the importance of reading the scriptures and then exploring and questioning those very same sacred texts.

Ana grew up in an academic environment; both her parents were geography professors at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City, the largest institution of higher learning in Latin America. “People think that having geographers as parents meant you would grow up traveling the world,” she says. They did travel, though, throughout Mexico’s beaches and villages that were a contrast to their metropolitan life.

When she turned 18, Ana began collecting stamps in her passport. She studied English in Canada. She backpacked through Europe, and has been to India four times. Ana did her doctoral studies in Hawaii before landing a job at Loyola Marymount University in 2014.

Yet the most significant travels of Ana’s life have not been across continents but into the realm of consciousness, travels that began while she was still living in Mexico City.

At the age of 14, the young philosopher experienced her first meditation class with her mother. Then she was in her early twenties when she discovered the physical practice of yoga. After her first Iyengar class Ana was sure that, “This is not for me!” She believed the class was too difficult for her stiff body. When a friend invited her to a Kundalini class, Ana found a sense of freedom and a better understanding of the layers of the body—an understanding that would ultimately drive her continued asana practice as well as her academic study. “It was through Kundalini Yoga that I realized it was not important to be flexible to practice yoga.”

Ana was able to take this approach back to a physical practice of yoga—including a return to and love for the Iyengar style since Ana discovered she was able to approach the alignment of the pose from the perspective of the inner awareness of the body in asana.

This experience initiated an immersion into yoga where she enjoyed the practice. “I remember the first time that I touched my toes. It was one of those moments when you sort of forget that you were not used to touching your toes, and then all of a sudden it happened.” There was a sense of accomplishment. There was an empowerment found in even the simplest external aspects of the practice. There is a fine line to this empowerment. Ana carefully describes the tricky balance between this realization of the deeper sense of self with the tension of the ego always wanting more. She refers to this as a “bit of yogic greed.” Cultivating awareness is the antidote to this very common trap.

Ana completed the first year of the rigorous Iyengar teacher training program before the demands of an academic life sidelined her, although it is still something she hopes to complete. She has taken other teacher trainings—during a six month trip to India in 2007, Ana finished the 200 hour program with Sivananda Yoga. She also completed a two year teacher training in Universal Yoga—a popular style in Latin America. In addition, Ana is a Kundalini Yoga instructor, which was the first yoga teaching certification she earned in Mexico City in 2004.

When asked about her personal practice today, Ana says, “There is one pose that I do every day. I recline over a bolster, in a backbend, and breathe.” This restorative asana helps her to decompress after teaching and was especially important during the rigor of completing and defending her PhD thesis in Spring 2016. Befitting someone whose field of study focuses on proprioception and the internal experience of the body as seen in yogic philosophy, she describes the rest of her personal practice as eclectic, drawing on her years of study in various lineages. “I do what my body needs.”

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Ana Funes photographed by David Young-Wolff. Jewelry by Love Pray Jewelry

Ana explains her lifelong pursuit of this yogic field of study, “I wanted to understand what kind of philosophy of mind and body was behind a yoga practice.” Speaking about how philosophy addresses the body and mind, Ana describes the prevailing view of the body in Western philosophy as being reductionistic, too small and too limited. Ana pursued a formal study critiquing the notion of how we understand the body through Western and Eastern philosophical traditions. She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Philosophy of Religion and Hermeneutics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico where her thesis work focused on the Indian philosophies of Advaita Vedanta and the Yoga Sutra.

Because she knew that she wanted to continue the depth of study required to earn a doctorate degree, Ana moved to the University of Hawaii to work on her PhD in Comparative Philosophy under the guidance of Professor Arindam Chakrabarti. Her thesis topic is proprioception and bodily self-awareness related to the notion of the subtle body as it is found in Samkhya Yoga, Vedanta, and Kashmir Shaivism using phenomenological methodology.

Her aim was to make sense of the discussion in the yogic texts of the concepts of the subtle body, the causal body, and how the mind can be a body and how the body can be a mind. Through meditation and yoga, as well as the yogic texts and Indian philosophy, Ana has become aware of a more nuanced view of the integration of the body and the mind—that the mind is also the body.

Ana brings both her curiosity and enthusiasm for critical thought to all of the classes she teaches at Loyola Marymount University’s innovative Master of Arts Degree in Yoga Studies. Some of the varied courses the Assistant Clinical Professor teaches include Hatha Yoga Texts and Sanskrit—The Bhagavad Gita. Through the study of the texts, as well as discussion of both historical and modern contexts in philosophy, Ana wants to ensure students understand how diverse the yoga tradition actually is. Yoga is not a monolithic linear tradition but rather a long tradition of many yogas.

It is important to her to encourage students to question the assumptions they may have about the history of yoga as well as the challenges of applying the practice in the face of modernization and commercialization. This is where Ana promotes critical thinking: “Don’t just accept everything that the Yoga Sutra tells you.”

She explains that while the Yoga Sutra is an important text, it is a text with a particular point of view. According to Ana, the study of yoga’s ancient scripture is essential to becoming a well-rounded yogi or yogini, but there is a value to applying critical thinking and analysis to even ancient venerated texts. The Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Yoga Sutra all contain verses that could be considered controversial in today’s era of examining issues of race, gender, and ecology. In some instances these texts seem to advocate a caste system, appear to be derogatory against women, and even include animal sacrifice. However, just because a text contains material that is not relevant to current society doesn’t mean we dismiss that text completely. When it comes to discovery of yoga’s history and discovery of ourselves, it is important for us to see more than our idealization of the philosophy and the practice.

We discover the nuances of the layers of the body through study and practice. Similarly, the ability to understand the mind in the body and the body in the mind develops through our sincere practice, deep philosophical and textual study, and our travel through layers of consciousness. For Ana, every conversation is a journey through language and philosophy, the questioning of the thinking body, and considerations of how we perceive ourselves. Clearly, she is passionate about her own journey of understanding and of finding strength and depth in what is and isn’t in the texts. What’s her conclusion to the answer of the conundrum of the mind and the body and the body in the mind?

“The body itself is consciousness.”

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Ana Funes photographed by David Young-Wolff. Jewelry by Love Pray Jewelry. Hair and Makeup by JJ Jeffries

Ana Funes teaches in the Yoga Studies program at Loyola Marymount University.

Jewelry by Love Pray Jewelry: loveprayjewelry.com
Hair and Makeup by JJ Jeffries using Schwarzkopf professional products: couturebeautyteam.com
Yoga Mat by Jade Yoga: jadeyoga.com

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Sara Ivanhoe

The post Ana Funes and the Subtle Body appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

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Paul Teodo photographed by David Young-Wolff

In the suburbs of Chicago, a loud, loving Italian family instilled in their sons a love of music, of connection, and a work ethic that allowed them to explore their place in the world. One of the brothers is an insurance adjuster still in the Chicago area. The other, Paul Teodo, left a promising career as a Midwestern real estate agent to pursue a slightly more circuitous journey to center to become a yoga teacher in LA.

Their home was full of song. Paul’s mother could sing along to every Beatles tune. She earned her Master’s degree and dabbled in Transcendental Meditation. His dad, aptly nicknamed “Yoda”, aided thousands in addiction recovery by running a successful drug treatment facility. Paul’s take on them, “Both of my parents are caring, generous people who taught me the value of investing in others.” The extended family were also meaningful players. “Grandma and Grandpa Teodo’s cooking was legendary” laughs Paul, “One of my friends actually skipped work and lost his job to eat dinner at my house!” Fortunately, Paul didn’t have to skip work to enjoy such meals in their raucous household and this firm familial foundation gave him the freedom to explore artistic endeavors.

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Paul Teodo Photo by David Young-Wolff.

He found expression through music, and during college he lit up the bar scene with singer/songwriter staples. Between covers of Van Morrison and Dave Matthews Band, he and co-conspirator Keith Afable enlivened the crowd with original compositions. They had an almost indescribable connection through music, art, and a search for the infinite. They longed for a “non-traditional life” of adventure and planned towards the future. Then, just after graduating from Miami University of Ohio, Keith was killed in a motorcycle accident.

“I stopped playing music,” Paul remembers.

In one tragic moment, Paul’s best friend, muse, and even his connection to music felt as though it was ripped away. So Paul chose a new career: real estate agent. While successful in the material world, there was still a part of him that was searching for something more. One evening at a closing, Paul read the terms of the loan granted to his client.

“There was a moment when I sold a house to a blue-collar electrician, a nice guy. I saw the loan they had given to him and I knew he was going to lose his house. I knew it was going to fuck him and I knew that he didn’t have the financial education to know what he was buying. I couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t believe in what I was doing.”

Paul left real estate and, at the urging of friends, headed to Hollywood where his leading man good looks and washboard abs allowed him to sign with famed managers and agents. He booked national commercials for Bacardi, Toyota, Nissan, Coors Light, Coca Cola, and a recurring guest role on an ABC family show. But even in front of the camera, Paul was still searching for what was behind the curtain. Whether he was in the ecstasy of playing guitar, the practicality of a career in real estate, or the excitement of life as a working actor, he sought a stronger connection to himself and the world around him. Like many on this journey, that all changed when he stepped foot on a yoga mat. “I started going to yoga all the time. I loved the intense, physical practice and was also drawn to the philosophical aspects of yoga. The mental portion helped me stay sane.”

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Photo of Paul Teodo by David Young-Wolff.

He began to connect with his inner-self, the part of himself that wasn’t consumed with booking jobs. Teacher Sara Ivanhoe noticed his dedication to the practice and encouraged his exploration through reading assignments, ideas, and even lifestyle tips. Soon, yoga became Paul’s primary focus.

“The problem with it for me was after having all of these deep experiences, it’s pretty hard to be enthusiastic about playing a shirtless man drinking a Coke or hot cop #2 on a cheesy TV show.”

Paul was contemplating taking the YogaWorks teacher training when, as he says, “I had an incredibly deep meditation while at Temescal Canyon. It was at a time in my life when I was beginning to come out of a pretty serious depression and a lot of anxiety. I had been coming to terms with how out of balance acting felt for me. To this day it was one of the clearest moments of my life. I had no idea how I was going to pay for teacher training. Two days after committing to the program, I booked a print campaign that paid for the whole thing.” It was a welcome stroke of synchronicity in which the outer world reflected the inner intention.

Paul’s pursuit of yogic understanding includes practicing with a variety of teachers such as Sara Ivanhoe, Travis Eliot, Vinnie Marino, Vytas Baskauskas, Jesse Schein, Byron deMarse, Calvin Corzine, and meditation teacher training with Dr Lorin Roche.

“Sara taught me that the physical practice is the crust of the pizza and all of the really great stuff lies in the center.” Sometimes getting to the center can involve needing to get through some pain. One of the things that motivated Paul to meditate was the observation that “I had thousands of incredibly negative thoughts buzzing around my head. By the time I hit bottom, my anxiety was so bad that my fingertips had gone numb. I was so angry and bitter and fearful and sick—meditation helps me see that many of my flaws are actually positive qualities taken to extremes or taken in a self-centered (egotistical) way. If I change my perspective or attitude about something, then that defect begins to dissolve.”

And dissolve it has. Through the full spectrum practice of yoga, including meditation, as well as engaging in group therapeutic work, Paul was able to address the unhealed grief that had interrupted his path as a musician.

Music has become another path through the pain and a way to support meditation and contemplation. For this act, though, Teodo chose a soundtrack for contemplation rather than a setlist for the stage. He traded applause for silence. He developed a meditation practice set to instrumental music he calls “Journey To Center.” This well-loved class at Suzy Schwartz’s studio, Unplug, has been transformational in the lives of his students who praise it has helped them to unfrazzle, get still, and get silent. A Journey to Center is also the name of the instrumental album Paul has released of his original compositions.

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Photo of Paul Teodo by David Young-Wolff

When asked about this experience of creating music for meditation, Paul reflects, “I could write the best piece of music, practice it for hours, and play it perfectly. But if I don’t first take five minutes to tune my guitar, the music will not sound good. We have a city full of people that are forgetting to tune their instruments before they go out into the world. I am trying to remind people that the music is useless if the instruments are out of tune.”

Paul teaches at TruYoga, Unplug, Bryan Kest’s Power Yoga and the Yoga Collective. For more information visit: ajourneytocenter.com

David Young-Wolff can be found at: davidyoung-wolff.com 

Paul is wearing grey pants by Yogasmoga

Yoga Mat by Jade Yoga 

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Amy V Dewhurst

Amy Dewhurst is the author of Heartbreak Yoga, a consulting producer for Bhakti Fest and the director of business development for ALOHA.

The post Journey To Center: Paul Teodo appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

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Photo of Lisa at El Matador State Beach by David Young -Wolff. Lisa is wearing clothing by Iron Lily

What is your current go-to self-practice?
I like to mix things up by adding resistance and HIIT training into my personal practice. I usually integrate the use of the TRX suspension trainer, a kettle bell, or both. I’ve found that the TRX is an incredible tool, especially when combined with yoga!

Where do you teach?
I teach at Cal State University Northridge and at Prema Yoga in Granada Hills. I also teach privates and travel to teach workshops.

How do your students inspire you?
I get really excited when my students “catch the vision” and fall in love with the practice. Once they see how yoga has changed their lives for the better, they want to bring yoga to their friends and families as well. Yoga students often become yoga evangelists.

Where do you enjoy going to take class?
When I have time, I like taking Linda Suffin’s classes at Inner Power Yoga in Woodland Hills. Linda’s classes are playful and creative and leave you feeling energized.

Who are some of the teachers that inspire you and why?
I love and admire Gina Caputo! She is an incredibly gifted teacher who has made is her personal mission to educate and empower yoga teachers (and yogis in general) to discover their own unique voice, and be true to themselves, and thereby inspire their students to do the same. She is also hilarious!

What are three books that are currently on your nightstand? 
I’m a bit of a nerd and I love nonfiction. I’m currently reading:
Bodyweight Strength Training Anatomy by Bret Contreras
Mindset by Carol S Dweck, PhD
Think like a Freak by Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner

Where are some places you love to go in LA to decompress and de-stress?
I love going to the beach, whether to play in the water or just lay on the sand. I always feel recharged after spending time at El Matador or Point Dume! I also like receiving Thai Massages to work out all of the knots.

What do you consider to be a hidden treasure in LA? 
Grand Central Market! It’s an old funky place that has been re-energized in downtown LA. It features many hip and up-and-coming eateries amid more established favorites. You can do some grocery shopping while you are there and even pick up some authentic Mexican mole to add to your own cooking later.

Learn more about Lisa Johnston at Lisafirefly.com

Photos by David Young-Wolff.

Clothing by Iron Lily 

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Felicia M. Tomasko

Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.

The post Lisa Johnston Yoga Teacher and Fitness Instructor appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.