Since I started this program I have reconnected with what first drew me to yoga. Initially, I took classes because of the physical practice. But, something besides the physical practice attracted me. The more classes I went to and the more I was introduced to the other aspects of yoga the more intrigued I became. I could not figure out why I was so fascinated. I started attending workshops and realized that it was the philosophy behind yoga that kept drawing me in. It was such a relief to be acquainted with like-minded people. A lot of what the yoga philosophy embedded are things that I always felt should just come naturally. Whenever I would leave any workshops or yoga retreats and return to taking classes at the gym – what I missed most of all was the spiritual and philosophical aspect of yoga. Anyone can roll out their yoga mat on a gym floor and practice asana but the true challenge is to practice off the mat on the street and in real life. I feel so fortunate to know the gift of yoga and am so excited to learn more and to prepare myself to share this gift with others. Although, I have attended other teacher trainings, we have never delved this deep into the philosophies and origins as this yoga education program. I am truly gaining an education in what is most important to me.
I feel like my physical practice had not been as consistent as I would like. I try to remember that whenever I go to class I never regret going but when I don’t go to class I always regret not going.
I have noticed that since being introduced to yoga, I have become much more insightful. I am not saying that I am psychic but I am much more in touch with my feelings and have stronger insight into situations. I have spoken with other people who have felt the same experience. Since I was first introduced to yoga I have a feeling of “contentment”. I no longer have the sense of feeling unsettled.
Yoga has also inspired me to become a vegetarian. I have always loved animals but had not always realized how much harm eating meat inflicts on other living beings. When I was finally introduced to the word “Ahimsa” was when I really realized that all living being have the right to live a life free of harm. Some can argue in favor of the food chain. But, we humans are supposed to be more evolved and using the food chain argument seems like an excuse to just keep doing what people want to do for themselves without consideration of other beings. We have choices available to us. Every living creature no matter how big or small has the capability to feel pain ~ there is consciousness within every creature from an ant to a buffalo. In the words of Ingrid Newkirk, “True spiritual development can only happen through actively extending kindness to all beings.” We see that we are surrounded by “others” whose lives are interwoven with ours, and we realize that whether they live at the bottom of our garden or are flying over our heads, animals treasure their freedom as much and as passionately as we do ours.”
“Me is everybody’s name", Kadam Morten reminds us from his dharma talks at the Chakrasambara Center and I cannot stop repeating these four words. Many years ago one of my teachers once said,“Everybody’s life is a best seller.” These words have stayed with me, too. The meditation classes led by Kadam Morten remind us that if we all could live in a more kindhearted, patient and compassionate way, we can free a lot of the suffering that we see.
And, so I keep going and growing, contemplating and caring.
Gregg Vogel
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Yellin' Yoga and Other Unexpected Teaching Lessons
When this teacher training was announced, I had major doubts as to if I would ever teach, or if I even wanted to teach. I knew immediately, however, that I wanted to study with the teachers who were running the program.
Now, people ask, "What kind of yoga did you study?" When I try to characterize my teacher training, I think it is best described as a Liberal Arts degree in Yoga. Students, who usually come in not knowing if they want to meditate, or if they just want to be more confident in their handstand, are given complete freedom to explore all methods of the practice. By fostering this growth, Steph encourages students to try styles and traditions they've never explored before. And this is where great discoveries are made.
From my teacher training class alone, I remember that after all the exploration was done, we had a chanting expert, a Kundalini lover, a few Iyengar fanatics, an Alan Finger devotee, a male enamored with teaching pre-natal, and a hand-full of personal trainers who were thoughtfully re-thinking their current modes of working. Many of the rest of us hadn't found our particular niche yet, but we kept exploring.
A friend of mine from the training ended up teaching kids yoga, family yoga, meditation, and vinyasa classes - all in her first teaching job! Though she didn't feel she had mastered any one of the techniques, she surely had the tools to discover how to teach in these areas, and her students were thrilled with her.
I had a different experience, landing a few morning yoga classes at a local gym. The spinning class next door was so loud that my boss suggested calling the class "Yellin' Yoga," and having the yoga students jump and scream during class to "get their aggression out," and "not hear the spinning class."
Though I do not feel like the training I had qualified me to teach "Yellin' Yoga," it absolutely qualified me to find another mode of teaching, just as high-energy, and another name that satisfied both me and my boss. =) There were some days where the spinning class was loud, and there was no way to "ignore" it. So, using what I learned in my training, we visualized the constant thumping from next door as the constant pace of NY, and we kept our room as sacred, the only place we could control. It actually turned into a really beautiful meditation. We learned that we can't always control what's going on around us, but we can learn to work with our minds and either let the outside drive us crazy, or draw strength & quiet from inside ourselves.
My personal yoga journey is far from over, but I will be forever grateful that my education started with this training. Whatever personal, financial, or professional sacrifices you're considering making in order to make this training fit into your life -- DO THEM! You will be forever grateful to yourself, and infinitely richer. Enjoy!
Kelsey Kaufman
Now, people ask, "What kind of yoga did you study?" When I try to characterize my teacher training, I think it is best described as a Liberal Arts degree in Yoga. Students, who usually come in not knowing if they want to meditate, or if they just want to be more confident in their handstand, are given complete freedom to explore all methods of the practice. By fostering this growth, Steph encourages students to try styles and traditions they've never explored before. And this is where great discoveries are made.
From my teacher training class alone, I remember that after all the exploration was done, we had a chanting expert, a Kundalini lover, a few Iyengar fanatics, an Alan Finger devotee, a male enamored with teaching pre-natal, and a hand-full of personal trainers who were thoughtfully re-thinking their current modes of working. Many of the rest of us hadn't found our particular niche yet, but we kept exploring.
A friend of mine from the training ended up teaching kids yoga, family yoga, meditation, and vinyasa classes - all in her first teaching job! Though she didn't feel she had mastered any one of the techniques, she surely had the tools to discover how to teach in these areas, and her students were thrilled with her.
I had a different experience, landing a few morning yoga classes at a local gym. The spinning class next door was so loud that my boss suggested calling the class "Yellin' Yoga," and having the yoga students jump and scream during class to "get their aggression out," and "not hear the spinning class."
Though I do not feel like the training I had qualified me to teach "Yellin' Yoga," it absolutely qualified me to find another mode of teaching, just as high-energy, and another name that satisfied both me and my boss. =) There were some days where the spinning class was loud, and there was no way to "ignore" it. So, using what I learned in my training, we visualized the constant thumping from next door as the constant pace of NY, and we kept our room as sacred, the only place we could control. It actually turned into a really beautiful meditation. We learned that we can't always control what's going on around us, but we can learn to work with our minds and either let the outside drive us crazy, or draw strength & quiet from inside ourselves.
My personal yoga journey is far from over, but I will be forever grateful that my education started with this training. Whatever personal, financial, or professional sacrifices you're considering making in order to make this training fit into your life -- DO THEM! You will be forever grateful to yourself, and infinitely richer. Enjoy!
Kelsey Kaufman
Ama's Story
I've studied yoga with you for a couple of months and did not get a chance to find out your yoga story in its entirety. I realize now why I felt such a special vibe from you. To date, I have not felt a more "belonging" to a group of people. Your yoga school is truly binding and transformational! The fraternity and shared compassion is what will stay in my memory forever. And of course, your immense love for your students and an unremitting devotion to spread knowledge.
It inspired me even further and the key word was leading a "meaningful" life. Right now I am working in my last semester for B.A. in International Law and Justice and waiting to hear from law schools in New York City. Nevertheless, I practice on my own more often now than with other teachers. I find it easy to transition into postures that my body wants to take.
With love and peace.
Ama
Ama-Mariya was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Her roots stem from Ukrainian, Greek, German, and African blood. She graduated LaGuardia High School of Arts and Performing Arts majoring in piano and opera singing. Her performance experience included several performances in Carnegie Hall and New York City Churches. Ama commenced her yoga practice at a very early stage. Her mother introduced her to Ashtanga yoga when Ama was a 2 year-old-girl. Ama also attended ballet school for two years in elementary school. As she continued to develop, gradually yoga became a bigger part of her life. Ama believes that only through a deep devotion and rigor one can genuinely experience the true beauty of yoga practice. Individuals seek yoga for different reasons. Ama practices solely for the mind and strongly believes that the vigorous body movement can challenge and help still the mind and put a busy lifestyle into an equilibrium. Ama-Mariya continues her unremitting journey daily, unraveling the mysteries of life.
It inspired me even further and the key word was leading a "meaningful" life. Right now I am working in my last semester for B.A. in International Law and Justice and waiting to hear from law schools in New York City. Nevertheless, I practice on my own more often now than with other teachers. I find it easy to transition into postures that my body wants to take.
With love and peace.
Ama
Ama-Mariya was born in Kiev, Ukraine. Her roots stem from Ukrainian, Greek, German, and African blood. She graduated LaGuardia High School of Arts and Performing Arts majoring in piano and opera singing. Her performance experience included several performances in Carnegie Hall and New York City Churches. Ama commenced her yoga practice at a very early stage. Her mother introduced her to Ashtanga yoga when Ama was a 2 year-old-girl. Ama also attended ballet school for two years in elementary school. As she continued to develop, gradually yoga became a bigger part of her life. Ama believes that only through a deep devotion and rigor one can genuinely experience the true beauty of yoga practice. Individuals seek yoga for different reasons. Ama practices solely for the mind and strongly believes that the vigorous body movement can challenge and help still the mind and put a busy lifestyle into an equilibrium. Ama-Mariya continues her unremitting journey daily, unraveling the mysteries of life.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Yoga Education
As I continue teaching the yoga education program, so many realizations and insights and shared experiences with the "trainees" inspire me. All of those who have taken one of the teacher trainings have contributed to my life and my teaching and have helped me grow. And, that really is the process...to be in process and to learn from each other and be in relationship with each other from a place of sincerity and desire to learn from and with each other.
The yoga education programs continue to be a rich soil from which all things amazing, wondrous, beautiful and gracious emerge. A dear English professor in college taught that it was in the questioning where life is lived.
Keep asking the questions. Trust your Self. Believe in the impossible. Look at the sky and the stars. And, above all things: LOVE.
Shanti Shanti Shanti
Stephanie
The yoga education programs continue to be a rich soil from which all things amazing, wondrous, beautiful and gracious emerge. A dear English professor in college taught that it was in the questioning where life is lived.
Keep asking the questions. Trust your Self. Believe in the impossible. Look at the sky and the stars. And, above all things: LOVE.
Shanti Shanti Shanti
Stephanie
A Story: How Yoga Came to Be My Life
The year was 1968 when I arrived on the scene to a pair of youngsters. When I was born, Pappa was 21 and Mom was 18 years old. We lived in Baltimore, Maryland and I stayed in the Maryland/Washington D.C. area until I was 24 years old. The early years were consumed with the usual things: learning to walk, talk, draw, daycare, preschool, elementary school, middle school and band practice (I played the flute), sports (tennis and field hockey), a couple of high schools and then off to St. Mary's College of Maryland where I was enamored with Literature studies and art, drinking at the local pub (the Green Door), learning windsurfing and sunbathing by the river. A semester abroad at Oxford University's Center of Medieval and Renaissance Studies through Keble College was spent studying the history of witchcraft, calligraphy, and the English classics of Chaucer and the Lake District poets. I spent my spare time traveling to London and feeding my soul's love of architecture, art, fashion, design and scones.
When I returned to the States, I immediately took a trip to New York City during the Christmas season with my college boyfriend and I knew that one day I would live there. The energy and pulse of the city permeated my soul and I set a secret mission in my mind that it was my life goal to "turn 25 years old in Manhattan". I was 20 years old at the time. Back at St. Mary's College, I managed the school's Art Gallery, focused on black and white photography, loved studying literature and kept figuring out things (i.e., myself and how to get to New York City) along the way.
After graduating college in 1990, I moved to downtown Baltimore and went job searching for a profession in public relations, publishing or art gallery management. I landed a temp job at T. Rowe Price Financial as an administrative assistant. Not exactly what I was looking for but ended up being hired by a man who had just been transplanted from New York and his (then) wife was a Victoria's Secret model. He liked my creative, artistic bent on life and the job interview consisted of three questions over lunch: What are you reading now? (I was reading the Bhagavad Gita that my friend from college had given me.) What is your favorite author? (At the time, it was John Steinbeck.) And what do you really want to do? (I wanted to work in public relations and I didn't have an industry specified.) I didn't know this was a job interview, by the way. It seemed we were just talking over a lunch.
Somehow, we were destined to be a team. He hired me that evening before leaving for the day. And, he was one of the greatest life coached I've ever had. He showed me the financial ropes and also shared with me the power of manifesting dreams and creating a future that is purposeful and connected. He taught me that everyone you meet matters and is important and a divine teacher. And he wanted me to do what I wanted to do with my life and encouraged me to continue dreaming and living an iconoclastic life.
With his encouragement, I left T. Rowe Price in 1992 and began a new life in Washington, D.C. working in public relations. After a few bumps and bruises in the workforce of Washington, D.C., I ended up throwing int he towel and starting over. I started temping again, but this time it was in sales. I started at Neiman Marcus selling ties in the Menswear Department during the holiday season, got hired after the season to sell dresses in Women's Wear and within 6 months I was assistant to the Public Relations Director. It was a dream job come true. Coordinating fashion shows, designers, clothes, people, slide shows, travel! It was so much fun. The person responsible for hiring me at Neiman Marcus turned out to be one of my dear life friends who also introduced me to yoga. I would complain every month with horrible back pain and she directed me to a yoga class at her gym. I was hooked. In 1994, I met a boy and we moved to New York City that August. His mom had an apartment on Lafayette and Prince Street and we moved to the now popularized "Nolita". At that time, however, it was Italian Mafia-land and Gotti's "club" was around the corner on Mott Street. Gangsters were still roaming the streets, and the area that squared off Bower, Canal, Lafayette and Houston streets was mostly boarded-up bodegas and blown-out tenement buildings. For those of us in the "hood", it was the best neighborhood in the city. Manhattan's last kept secret, as far as we were concerned!
During August of 1994, I was roaming the streets of Manhattan with resume in-hand searching for a fashion public relations job. This was very ambitious for a small-town girl from Baltimore, not knowing that New York business organized itself on a school calendar and nothing was happening in August but summer shares in the Hampton's. But I was determined. I kept the channels of communication alive from the fashion connections and ended up assisting Fern Mallis with CFDA at the New York Public Library that September. By October, I landed a good job with Diana Beattie Events through another cosmic intervention.
My allergies and asthma kept me going to the doctor's office for allergy shots every week where I eventually met my next colleague and boss. He was getting married, going to Africa for his honeymoon and needed vaccination shots for his trip. There he met a friend of his from Syracuse and as they were talking, I was listening. He needed help with all of the events that his compnay was planning, and seizing an opportunity, I piped in with a resume in hand ready to offer my services. I was asked to come in and temp for the project the company was currently working on and I was hired one month later as a full-time associate. Diana Beattie Events was a small company of about 5 of us who worked in the maids' quarters of Diana's Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park. For the next two years, Diana Beattie and the people that worked there became my family and support system during an adventurous, experimental, experiential and oftentimes lonely period in New York City.
Seeking solace in movement, I discovered Lynn Simonson and DanceSpace (now known as Dance New Amsterdam) on Broadway between Houston and Bleecker Streets to fill my nights and weekends. Every chance I could I was learning the Simonson technique Modern method of dance with Diane McCarthy, Lynn Simonson and Katiti King. Everything I learned about translating movement into language and language into movement, I received through these amazing teachers. I adored the movement and the method and the feeling that dancing infused in my spirit. I dreamed of having the luxury and lifestyle of being able to dance every day, and as I could, I would dance every chance I got. Dancing had burned itself into my heart; it was forever branded. One summer vacation in 1995, I went on a dance retreat with Lynn Simonson to Rockport, Massachusetts and that summer was another transformational turning point. We started each day with yoga in the chapel, followed by breakfast and then ballet, lunch and an afternoon of dancing, followed by lounging on the rocks by the water, skinny-dipping in the nearby quarries, night-time sing-a-longs and other silly campy bonding activities. One morning we set out to watch the sunrise over the rocks and my mind and my life changed again. It was magical and inspirational. Lynn's words and presence and her dance and yoga classes opened up other spaces within and beyond as my heart expanded to incorporate a yoga practice into my life more regularly.
After that holiday, I started looking for yoga classes. At that time, there weren't too many yoga studios in the city and I went to a couple of classes in old warehouse spaces and various sorted locations around Soho to work on hatha poses with relatively unskilled yoga teachers. YogaZone was a more popular studio and Alan Finger was the main teacher. His classes were informative and healing and I attended them in the FlatIron district as well as in the Hampton's. Word on the street was also buzzing about Jivamukti Yoga which had just moved to their Lafayette Street location. I started attending David Life's and Uma Saraswati's classes. David's socio-political-psychology talks and Uma's amazing singing voice kept me coming back for more and more. Another home for my movement and spiritual studies emerged.
With Diana Beattie's encouragement, I started my own event planning and wedding planning company in 1996. Time passed, friendships emerged, apartments changed within the neighborhood, and I kept dancing and taking yoga classes as life unfolded. In 1998, I shifted gears again and decided I wanted to teach school. I began graduate studies at Sarah Lawrence College to work towards a Master's of Science in Education. At the same time, I started a professional organizing company to provide income while I attended graduate school. Time did not permit much dancing and I discovered the gym culture of David Barton Gym located on Broadway between Bleecker and Houston right across from DanceSpace. Fond memories of aerobics, weight training and sports conditioning during the high school years fit the need for my now time-crunched schedule. Some yoga classes were offered at the gym and one in particular stole the show - Ashtanga Yoga.
I fell in love with the practice (and the teacher!). We dated briefly before moving in together, and we traveled often during my school breaks. He loved surfing and we frequented Costa Rica where I met Raghunath, aka Ray Cappo. Raghu introduced me to the wonderful stories of the Mahabharata, Bhakti Yoga and the ways of Krishna. It was in costa Rica at Raghu's Lotus Surf Lodge wehre I taught my very first yoga class to a group of about 20 people. The yoga/surf retreat idea was born in that moment for us. Bitten again, this time with the arrows of Krishna and a passion to learn Ashtanga Mysore-style. I started practicing with Eddie Stern in 199 where there was a small space for a handful of sweaty yogis to practice in an office building next door to David Barton Gym. It was here that I developed the practice more deeply, was continually humbled and awed, studied Sanskrit with Vyaas Houston and chanted kirtan with Bhagavan Das. This one block in Manhattan had turned out to be a secret jewel box of gems in my world!
The Ashtanga yoga practice started my weekdays at around 6am and on Tuesday nights I would stroll to Second Avenue Matchless Gifts for Krishna chanting and good eats with the Krishna devotees. I was in graduate school, working the professional organizing business one client at a time and still needed more money to sustain my dance and yoga habits. That year, I was hired as a pre-schoool teacher at Christ Church Day School on Park Avenue and 60th Street and started the yoga teacher -training program at the Himalayan Institute on Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. (I had first inquired with Jivamukti and Om Yoga studios about their teacher training programs but was not accepted. In those days, there were personal interviews and questions regarding one's interest in teaching.) I never had any intention of teaching yoga. I wanted to teach school. I just wanted to learn more about the practices and understand them more clearly. I was hungry for information and teachings were starting to emerge. Dharma Mittri was here in the city in the studio space he still occupies and I took some classes. Integral Yoga and the Himalayan Institute offered traditional Hatha Yoga classes and I started to attend workshops that were just starting to be offered around the yoga houses. These workshops were up-close and personal. Teachers included David Swenson, Lieno Miele, Seane Corn, Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, John Friend, Richard Freeman, Sharon Gannon and others. Through it all, I continued practicing with Eddie.
In 2001, the events of September 11th changed the world and many, many lives. Mine was no exception. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois was in town from Mystore, India and many students were here studying with him at the Puck Building. After that fateful Tuesday, Pattabhi Jois continued his teachings but at the studio that Eddie had moved into a year prior located at Crosby and Broome Streets where the school still remains today. Below Houston Street was police barricaded and only those of us who lived below Houston Street could attend his teachings. It was extraordinary and timeless. The mood of the city was somber, pensive, contemplative and wondrous. In it's own right, it was another magical period in history. Carpe diem was the mantra of the days and months to follow.
Still in graduate school, working as a pre-school teacher, studying Mysore and living downtown, I met a man on the street that took my breath away. Shortly after we met we were married and life turned inside out and upside down. A whirlwind of events that included the aftermath of September 11th, an elopement, moving, completing graduate school, teaching the most difficult group of three-year-olds in the history of Christ Church Day School, and the beginning of a new, unexpected career teaching yoga.
For a brief period during this time, I was studying Mysore with Manju Jois at Patti Perez's Yoga Shala on Rivington Street. It was there I met Duncan Wong. Hired in May 2002 by Equinox Fitness, a full-time career teaching yoga in the fitness environment had begun. Equinox was looking for something new to present to their members and I had just completed the first Yogic Arts teacher training with Duncan. Yogic Arts was introduced the clubs and I started teaching PowerFlow Yoga to many members eager for a flow style yoga class. During the summers of 2002 and 2003, I studied with Baron Baptiste, and later that year, New York Magazine labeled me one of New York's "Best Yoga Teachers", alongside Uma Saraswati and others! It was a tremendous honor. More media opportunities presented themselves, as well as more classes, clients and retreat/travel possibilities. As the yoga career launched, my marriage crumbled. After a long separation and a difficult and very personal emotional and spiritual exorcism, we were divorced by 2006. Meanwhile, professionally, Equinox hired me as a Group Fitness Manager and New York Moves labeled me one of the "Power Women on the Rise". That year Boomerang Yoga, the now non-profit that organizes yoga-thon events to raise money and awareness to support children's creativity, health and education was created and teaching yoga had now become a viable, powerful force of healing, transformation and service.
During the years between 2003 and 2006, I was also knee-deep in Christian Mystic studies, studying the Bible for a deeper understanding of unconditional love in the Judeo-Christian tradition, reading Anodea Judith and Caroline Myss's work on the chakras and unpacking the Integral philosophy of Ken Wilber. A student must have noticed the threads of my consciousness and in early 2004, he introduced me to the Tibetan Buddhist studies as presented by Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally. Having been secluded on the Upper East Side (by choice), I had had my own personal kind of New York style "silent" retreat and exodus from the downtown pulse of the now quite popularized and trendy yoga scene. I marched on and continued cultivating my teaching, studying and practicing yoga where I could. Living uptown inhibited the early morning Ashtanga practice and in those years I discovered the emotional cleansing and meditative processes of running and playing tennis in Central Park. One of my new life's ambitions became running the New York City Marathon before turning 40 years old and in November 2007, Kundalini yoga practices, Bikram yoga practices and a whole lot of love and support from my younger half-sister got me through the miles.
Later in 2007, I rediscovered Kundalini yoga after a brief remembrance of having done this type of yoga in the 1970's with a trendy family member. I met Hari Kaur and Gurmukh at Golden Bridge in New York City and was mesmerized by the immediate transcendent nature of this energetic work. Compelled to enroll in the Khalsa Way Prenatal Teacher Training, I sold my wedding bands to pay for the training and it was a rebirthing in many ways. Equinox promoted me to the be first National Yoga Coordinator for the company. I continued teaching and organizing events for Boomerang Yoga. And in 2008, I completed a home-study course offered by Carlos Pomeda whom I had met at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference the previous year. Carlos' scholarly presentation and supreme knowledge of yoga philosophy was inspiring. He did not live in New York City, however, and it was a dream come true when he offered an interactive on-line philosophy course facilitated through Skype. Later that year, Derek Beres and I started the Sacred Strength EarthRise Yoga Teacher Training and a new found passion for shring all that was available to other students in a yoga education format was a new mission. Derek and I co-taught along with other guest teachers for three programs between 2008 and 2009.
Circling back to the beginning, by 2009, I returned to my downtown roots since moving away in 2001. After the market crash in 2008, I was able to afford an apartment in the West Village and started studying regularly again with Eddie Stern. I felt like I was home again. In 2010, Sacred Strength EarthRise Yoga Teacher Training was revised to Sacred Strength Yoga Education Program.
Presently, I continue to teach classes, teach clients, teach the Yoga Education program, organize fundraising yoga-thons for Boomerang Yoga, study Buddhist meditation with Kadam Morten at the Chakrasambara Meditation Center, work with Paige Elenson and Africa Yoga Project for future collaborations, practice yoga, live, play, and love.
It is the greatest gift and blessing in my life to teach, especially yoga. Yoga is a way that connect us simply, surprisingly and profoundly. There is much more to come as we move into the decade post 9/11. Thank you for being a part of my life and sharing your stories with me each and every day. May we all be happy and free.
Love,
Stephanie
P.S. Did I ever go to India? Yeah. I went to India in early 2008 with the gracious support of one student, one dear friend and a lovely hostess, Maneesha Panicker of Silk Route Escapes. Tales of Kerala tells that story. I will return again to India. One day.
When I returned to the States, I immediately took a trip to New York City during the Christmas season with my college boyfriend and I knew that one day I would live there. The energy and pulse of the city permeated my soul and I set a secret mission in my mind that it was my life goal to "turn 25 years old in Manhattan". I was 20 years old at the time. Back at St. Mary's College, I managed the school's Art Gallery, focused on black and white photography, loved studying literature and kept figuring out things (i.e., myself and how to get to New York City) along the way.
After graduating college in 1990, I moved to downtown Baltimore and went job searching for a profession in public relations, publishing or art gallery management. I landed a temp job at T. Rowe Price Financial as an administrative assistant. Not exactly what I was looking for but ended up being hired by a man who had just been transplanted from New York and his (then) wife was a Victoria's Secret model. He liked my creative, artistic bent on life and the job interview consisted of three questions over lunch: What are you reading now? (I was reading the Bhagavad Gita that my friend from college had given me.) What is your favorite author? (At the time, it was John Steinbeck.) And what do you really want to do? (I wanted to work in public relations and I didn't have an industry specified.) I didn't know this was a job interview, by the way. It seemed we were just talking over a lunch.
Somehow, we were destined to be a team. He hired me that evening before leaving for the day. And, he was one of the greatest life coached I've ever had. He showed me the financial ropes and also shared with me the power of manifesting dreams and creating a future that is purposeful and connected. He taught me that everyone you meet matters and is important and a divine teacher. And he wanted me to do what I wanted to do with my life and encouraged me to continue dreaming and living an iconoclastic life.
With his encouragement, I left T. Rowe Price in 1992 and began a new life in Washington, D.C. working in public relations. After a few bumps and bruises in the workforce of Washington, D.C., I ended up throwing int he towel and starting over. I started temping again, but this time it was in sales. I started at Neiman Marcus selling ties in the Menswear Department during the holiday season, got hired after the season to sell dresses in Women's Wear and within 6 months I was assistant to the Public Relations Director. It was a dream job come true. Coordinating fashion shows, designers, clothes, people, slide shows, travel! It was so much fun. The person responsible for hiring me at Neiman Marcus turned out to be one of my dear life friends who also introduced me to yoga. I would complain every month with horrible back pain and she directed me to a yoga class at her gym. I was hooked. In 1994, I met a boy and we moved to New York City that August. His mom had an apartment on Lafayette and Prince Street and we moved to the now popularized "Nolita". At that time, however, it was Italian Mafia-land and Gotti's "club" was around the corner on Mott Street. Gangsters were still roaming the streets, and the area that squared off Bower, Canal, Lafayette and Houston streets was mostly boarded-up bodegas and blown-out tenement buildings. For those of us in the "hood", it was the best neighborhood in the city. Manhattan's last kept secret, as far as we were concerned!
During August of 1994, I was roaming the streets of Manhattan with resume in-hand searching for a fashion public relations job. This was very ambitious for a small-town girl from Baltimore, not knowing that New York business organized itself on a school calendar and nothing was happening in August but summer shares in the Hampton's. But I was determined. I kept the channels of communication alive from the fashion connections and ended up assisting Fern Mallis with CFDA at the New York Public Library that September. By October, I landed a good job with Diana Beattie Events through another cosmic intervention.
My allergies and asthma kept me going to the doctor's office for allergy shots every week where I eventually met my next colleague and boss. He was getting married, going to Africa for his honeymoon and needed vaccination shots for his trip. There he met a friend of his from Syracuse and as they were talking, I was listening. He needed help with all of the events that his compnay was planning, and seizing an opportunity, I piped in with a resume in hand ready to offer my services. I was asked to come in and temp for the project the company was currently working on and I was hired one month later as a full-time associate. Diana Beattie Events was a small company of about 5 of us who worked in the maids' quarters of Diana's Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park. For the next two years, Diana Beattie and the people that worked there became my family and support system during an adventurous, experimental, experiential and oftentimes lonely period in New York City.
Seeking solace in movement, I discovered Lynn Simonson and DanceSpace (now known as Dance New Amsterdam) on Broadway between Houston and Bleecker Streets to fill my nights and weekends. Every chance I could I was learning the Simonson technique Modern method of dance with Diane McCarthy, Lynn Simonson and Katiti King. Everything I learned about translating movement into language and language into movement, I received through these amazing teachers. I adored the movement and the method and the feeling that dancing infused in my spirit. I dreamed of having the luxury and lifestyle of being able to dance every day, and as I could, I would dance every chance I got. Dancing had burned itself into my heart; it was forever branded. One summer vacation in 1995, I went on a dance retreat with Lynn Simonson to Rockport, Massachusetts and that summer was another transformational turning point. We started each day with yoga in the chapel, followed by breakfast and then ballet, lunch and an afternoon of dancing, followed by lounging on the rocks by the water, skinny-dipping in the nearby quarries, night-time sing-a-longs and other silly campy bonding activities. One morning we set out to watch the sunrise over the rocks and my mind and my life changed again. It was magical and inspirational. Lynn's words and presence and her dance and yoga classes opened up other spaces within and beyond as my heart expanded to incorporate a yoga practice into my life more regularly.
After that holiday, I started looking for yoga classes. At that time, there weren't too many yoga studios in the city and I went to a couple of classes in old warehouse spaces and various sorted locations around Soho to work on hatha poses with relatively unskilled yoga teachers. YogaZone was a more popular studio and Alan Finger was the main teacher. His classes were informative and healing and I attended them in the FlatIron district as well as in the Hampton's. Word on the street was also buzzing about Jivamukti Yoga which had just moved to their Lafayette Street location. I started attending David Life's and Uma Saraswati's classes. David's socio-political-psychology talks and Uma's amazing singing voice kept me coming back for more and more. Another home for my movement and spiritual studies emerged.
With Diana Beattie's encouragement, I started my own event planning and wedding planning company in 1996. Time passed, friendships emerged, apartments changed within the neighborhood, and I kept dancing and taking yoga classes as life unfolded. In 1998, I shifted gears again and decided I wanted to teach school. I began graduate studies at Sarah Lawrence College to work towards a Master's of Science in Education. At the same time, I started a professional organizing company to provide income while I attended graduate school. Time did not permit much dancing and I discovered the gym culture of David Barton Gym located on Broadway between Bleecker and Houston right across from DanceSpace. Fond memories of aerobics, weight training and sports conditioning during the high school years fit the need for my now time-crunched schedule. Some yoga classes were offered at the gym and one in particular stole the show - Ashtanga Yoga.
I fell in love with the practice (and the teacher!). We dated briefly before moving in together, and we traveled often during my school breaks. He loved surfing and we frequented Costa Rica where I met Raghunath, aka Ray Cappo. Raghu introduced me to the wonderful stories of the Mahabharata, Bhakti Yoga and the ways of Krishna. It was in costa Rica at Raghu's Lotus Surf Lodge wehre I taught my very first yoga class to a group of about 20 people. The yoga/surf retreat idea was born in that moment for us. Bitten again, this time with the arrows of Krishna and a passion to learn Ashtanga Mysore-style. I started practicing with Eddie Stern in 199 where there was a small space for a handful of sweaty yogis to practice in an office building next door to David Barton Gym. It was here that I developed the practice more deeply, was continually humbled and awed, studied Sanskrit with Vyaas Houston and chanted kirtan with Bhagavan Das. This one block in Manhattan had turned out to be a secret jewel box of gems in my world!
The Ashtanga yoga practice started my weekdays at around 6am and on Tuesday nights I would stroll to Second Avenue Matchless Gifts for Krishna chanting and good eats with the Krishna devotees. I was in graduate school, working the professional organizing business one client at a time and still needed more money to sustain my dance and yoga habits. That year, I was hired as a pre-schoool teacher at Christ Church Day School on Park Avenue and 60th Street and started the yoga teacher -training program at the Himalayan Institute on Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. (I had first inquired with Jivamukti and Om Yoga studios about their teacher training programs but was not accepted. In those days, there were personal interviews and questions regarding one's interest in teaching.) I never had any intention of teaching yoga. I wanted to teach school. I just wanted to learn more about the practices and understand them more clearly. I was hungry for information and teachings were starting to emerge. Dharma Mittri was here in the city in the studio space he still occupies and I took some classes. Integral Yoga and the Himalayan Institute offered traditional Hatha Yoga classes and I started to attend workshops that were just starting to be offered around the yoga houses. These workshops were up-close and personal. Teachers included David Swenson, Lieno Miele, Seane Corn, Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, John Friend, Richard Freeman, Sharon Gannon and others. Through it all, I continued practicing with Eddie.
In 2001, the events of September 11th changed the world and many, many lives. Mine was no exception. Sri K. Pattabhi Jois was in town from Mystore, India and many students were here studying with him at the Puck Building. After that fateful Tuesday, Pattabhi Jois continued his teachings but at the studio that Eddie had moved into a year prior located at Crosby and Broome Streets where the school still remains today. Below Houston Street was police barricaded and only those of us who lived below Houston Street could attend his teachings. It was extraordinary and timeless. The mood of the city was somber, pensive, contemplative and wondrous. In it's own right, it was another magical period in history. Carpe diem was the mantra of the days and months to follow.
Still in graduate school, working as a pre-school teacher, studying Mysore and living downtown, I met a man on the street that took my breath away. Shortly after we met we were married and life turned inside out and upside down. A whirlwind of events that included the aftermath of September 11th, an elopement, moving, completing graduate school, teaching the most difficult group of three-year-olds in the history of Christ Church Day School, and the beginning of a new, unexpected career teaching yoga.
For a brief period during this time, I was studying Mysore with Manju Jois at Patti Perez's Yoga Shala on Rivington Street. It was there I met Duncan Wong. Hired in May 2002 by Equinox Fitness, a full-time career teaching yoga in the fitness environment had begun. Equinox was looking for something new to present to their members and I had just completed the first Yogic Arts teacher training with Duncan. Yogic Arts was introduced the clubs and I started teaching PowerFlow Yoga to many members eager for a flow style yoga class. During the summers of 2002 and 2003, I studied with Baron Baptiste, and later that year, New York Magazine labeled me one of New York's "Best Yoga Teachers", alongside Uma Saraswati and others! It was a tremendous honor. More media opportunities presented themselves, as well as more classes, clients and retreat/travel possibilities. As the yoga career launched, my marriage crumbled. After a long separation and a difficult and very personal emotional and spiritual exorcism, we were divorced by 2006. Meanwhile, professionally, Equinox hired me as a Group Fitness Manager and New York Moves labeled me one of the "Power Women on the Rise". That year Boomerang Yoga, the now non-profit that organizes yoga-thon events to raise money and awareness to support children's creativity, health and education was created and teaching yoga had now become a viable, powerful force of healing, transformation and service.
During the years between 2003 and 2006, I was also knee-deep in Christian Mystic studies, studying the Bible for a deeper understanding of unconditional love in the Judeo-Christian tradition, reading Anodea Judith and Caroline Myss's work on the chakras and unpacking the Integral philosophy of Ken Wilber. A student must have noticed the threads of my consciousness and in early 2004, he introduced me to the Tibetan Buddhist studies as presented by Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally. Having been secluded on the Upper East Side (by choice), I had had my own personal kind of New York style "silent" retreat and exodus from the downtown pulse of the now quite popularized and trendy yoga scene. I marched on and continued cultivating my teaching, studying and practicing yoga where I could. Living uptown inhibited the early morning Ashtanga practice and in those years I discovered the emotional cleansing and meditative processes of running and playing tennis in Central Park. One of my new life's ambitions became running the New York City Marathon before turning 40 years old and in November 2007, Kundalini yoga practices, Bikram yoga practices and a whole lot of love and support from my younger half-sister got me through the miles.
Later in 2007, I rediscovered Kundalini yoga after a brief remembrance of having done this type of yoga in the 1970's with a trendy family member. I met Hari Kaur and Gurmukh at Golden Bridge in New York City and was mesmerized by the immediate transcendent nature of this energetic work. Compelled to enroll in the Khalsa Way Prenatal Teacher Training, I sold my wedding bands to pay for the training and it was a rebirthing in many ways. Equinox promoted me to the be first National Yoga Coordinator for the company. I continued teaching and organizing events for Boomerang Yoga. And in 2008, I completed a home-study course offered by Carlos Pomeda whom I had met at the San Francisco Yoga Journal Conference the previous year. Carlos' scholarly presentation and supreme knowledge of yoga philosophy was inspiring. He did not live in New York City, however, and it was a dream come true when he offered an interactive on-line philosophy course facilitated through Skype. Later that year, Derek Beres and I started the Sacred Strength EarthRise Yoga Teacher Training and a new found passion for shring all that was available to other students in a yoga education format was a new mission. Derek and I co-taught along with other guest teachers for three programs between 2008 and 2009.
Circling back to the beginning, by 2009, I returned to my downtown roots since moving away in 2001. After the market crash in 2008, I was able to afford an apartment in the West Village and started studying regularly again with Eddie Stern. I felt like I was home again. In 2010, Sacred Strength EarthRise Yoga Teacher Training was revised to Sacred Strength Yoga Education Program.
Presently, I continue to teach classes, teach clients, teach the Yoga Education program, organize fundraising yoga-thons for Boomerang Yoga, study Buddhist meditation with Kadam Morten at the Chakrasambara Meditation Center, work with Paige Elenson and Africa Yoga Project for future collaborations, practice yoga, live, play, and love.
It is the greatest gift and blessing in my life to teach, especially yoga. Yoga is a way that connect us simply, surprisingly and profoundly. There is much more to come as we move into the decade post 9/11. Thank you for being a part of my life and sharing your stories with me each and every day. May we all be happy and free.
Love,
Stephanie
P.S. Did I ever go to India? Yeah. I went to India in early 2008 with the gracious support of one student, one dear friend and a lovely hostess, Maneesha Panicker of Silk Route Escapes. Tales of Kerala tells that story. I will return again to India. One day.
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