Teacher Feature: Farah Naz Gokturk
Teaching and sharing yoga is an integral part of my personal yoga practice. Not everyone needs to teach and share yoga in order to practice yoga. After years of teaching yoga, it’s become a discipline, and in some ways has informed how I understand myself and the world around me.
Teacher Feature: Alexis Barris
The journey of yoga has helped walk me through the valley’s, showing and gifting opportunities of patience and humbleness. It helps me learn and teach within all ages and stages, all walks of being and really assists in preparing all of us to be ready for anything. It is a choice and it is work. Diligence and radical kindness is beautiful. I am love and strive to continue to be a sanctuary for all to be supported.
Teacher Feature: Brooke Sullivan
What I love most about teaching yoga is that it opens up a world of self-discovery and wonder. This journey isn’t just about exploring the Self and recognizing one’s worth and uniqueness; it also unveils hidden potentials that can heal, inspire, and contribute to a better world. As a Tantra yoga teacher, I believe that offering the right techniques and practices can empower anyone, enhancing their lives and benefiting our community. When a student connects with the timeless beauty and bliss of Nature and their own true nature, or when their Inner Sage awakens, I feel that I am truly serving a greater purpose. This brings me immense joy.
Teacher Feature: Michael Johnson
My initial experience with Yoga was a class with Jonny Kest back in 1999 in Royal Oak, MI. It was a Vipassanā meditation combined with what is now called Yin Yoga. We held each posture for about 3-5 minutes while focusing on the breath until we chose to rest. It helped me focus my attention and develop impulse control in a way that inspired me immensely. I went on to sit three 10-day Vipassanā retreats, traveled to India and completed many Yoga teacher trainings to teach it full time for the last 20 years.
Teacher Feature: Get to Know Alex Alberti
I find the sacred union that we experience through yoga to be the most sensational feeling. To be able to hold space and honor these ancient practices in a safe and loving community is incredibly rewarding. I love supporting people as they grow and evolve, and sharing this sacred practice and goal of self realization.
Teacher Feature: Get to Know Luna Ray
When I was 21 I lived in Lake Tahoe, CA, and I took a vinyasa yoga class at the community college there. Amrita, from England, was my first teacher and after close to 20 classes doing the same poses and sequences over and over, I was hooked. I remember having deeply profound experiences in savasana at that time, and I never looked back.
Teacher Feature: Get to Know Amber Vanbuhler
What I find most rewarding about teaching yoga is that I get to spread this amazing and wonderful gift that nourishes peoples’ bodies, minds and hearts. I feel so honored that I am a vessel for this ancient wisdom to flow through and help change the world.
Teacher Feature: Get to Know Rosie Mulford
My very first introduction to yoga was in 1974 when my neighbor, Eve Diskin, then the president of the American Yoga association, came to my school to teach me how to do yoga. In all honesty the only thing I remember is that we did shoulder stand! And I thought it was so cool!
Teacher Feature: Get to Know Seán Johnson
I’ll be honest— I was really turned off by my first experience with yoga. After having many friends tell me how I should try yoga for its peaceful benefits, I signed up for an Intro to Yoga course. As I lay down on my mat preparing for class to begin, the teacher walked over, stomped his foot onto the floor next to my mat, leaned over, and yelled at me to move my mat so that it was in precise alignment with the wall. When I moved it, he yelled again saying it was still a millimeter off. Shortly afterwards, he started walking on his hands around the room, admonishing other students for various inadequacies in the way they were practicing. After the class, I walked out and thought to myself, “what an @#$%&!, if this is yoga, it’s not for me.” I had paid in advance for the course, but didn’t return, and based upon that experience, planned on staying clear of yoga in this lifetime…
Meditation on the Guru Mantra: To Heal
The Guru mantra is an ashtang mantra, meaning it has 8 parts. These 8
parts catalyze the kundalini energy to initiate through your own effort and
devotion. The first part of the mantra – Guru Guru Wahe Guru – projects
the mind to the Infinite, the source of knowledge and ecstasy. The second
part, Guru Ram Das Guru – signals “the wisdom that comes when we
serve the infinite”.