My teacher Theresa Elliott often says that you have to keep in mind who you’re talking to so you can understand why they’re saying what they’re saying.
Yoga is a vast, vast field, and as it becomes a household name, its definition varies from person to person, and its meaning could be anything and everything.
And so, for context, I offer here my personal story of where I came from, and how I got here.
The Accidental Discovery
My earliest memory of yoga was finding a book on my mom’s bookshelf when I was about 6 or 7 with illustrations of a young boy holding his arms and legs in various positions. I don’t remember why, but I started immitating the drawings.
What’s interesting to me is no one in my family practiced yoga. How that book got to the bookshelf and into my hands is a mystery. All I have now is a vivid memory of Dhanurasana, Bow Pose, which I didn’t like, and Savasana, Corpse Pose, which I practiced often.
In high school I started going to a local health club where I took yoga every Sunday morning with a lady with a sing songy voice, who would say things like, “Look at your feet as if they’re smiling back at you.” Most of the time, I had no idea what she was talking about, and quite frankly, I don’t really know what lead me to her yoga class, and why I kept going back.
The High School Years
When the local gym was sold to the 24 Hour Fitness chain, she stopped teaching, and I stopped doing yoga in person with a teacher. I discovered Steve Ross’s show Inhale on the Oxygen network, and I would drag myself out of bed at 6AM every morning to do it.
I still remember tricking myself into waking up for yoga by sleeping on the couch in the living room and setting the TV alarm to turn on at 5:55AM on the preset channel. All I had to do was roll down to the floor, where I had put the mat the night before, and I’d go through about the first 15 minutes with my eyes shut (and then go back to sleep in Savasana).
Steve was easy going and cracked jokes often, which is perhaps the only explicable reason why I went through all that trouble to catch him at the crack of dawn. Other than that, I can’t remember a particular reason to what drew me to yoga.
The College Years
I lived in France during my Sophomore year, and, like any 18 year-old who left home to live on her own in another country for the first time, I stayed out too late, ate whatever I could find, hopped trains with a heavy backpack often, and walked for miles and miles on a lot of cobblestone streets.
My body asked for some relief, and one day in a bookstore, I found a small pocket-sized book on “Le Yoga”. Again, I was back to my six-year-old “Trying to Look Like the Picture” days. I still had no idea what I was doing intellectually, but my body knew what it needed.
Back in Seattle, I checked out Rain City Yoga in the University of Washington’s U-District at the suggestion of a friend. The owner, Marta McDermott, taught Bikram yoga, and she was funny, genuine, and really personable. Her personality kept me going to class regularly.
Marta moved away and Rain City changed ownership, and other types of yoga found themselves on the schedule. I found myself more and more drawn to Power Vinyasa because of the variety and patient teaching style of the instructor, Colin Patterson.
My meager student budget couldn’t afford too many yoga classes, so I searched on Amazon and found Power Yoga DVDs by people who sounded important: Beryl Bender Birch, Bryan Kest, Rodney Yee…, and practiced in my living room.
From Power Yoga, I traced the path of similar yoga styles, like Vinyasa Flow with Baron Baptiste, Shiva Rae, Seanne Corn, and Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with Richard Freeman. I practiced regularly with Amber Tande, a Vinyasa teacher.
I discovered Iyengar Yoga and started taking classes with Richard Schachtel at the Center for Yoga in Seattle. I loved the alignment precision of Iyengar Yoga, and found Anusara Yoga uplifting and fun, so I purchased John Friend’s The Basics of Anusara Yoga Teacher Training DVDs, and once again, tried to teach myself how to do yoga in my studio apartment.
The Theresa Elliott/Pacific Yoga Years
Ten years after started doing yoga, I wondered if it was time to learn to become one. At 25, I had the urge, the pondering, the calling. After much mulling, at 26, I decided to enroll in a 200-hour Teacher Training at Pacific Yoga.
Theresa Elliott is down-to-earth, hilarious, and has opened my eyes time and time again on how to really *do* yoga. I walked in the Teacher Training thinking I was a hot shot, an “advanced” practitioner. After all, I had been around this Yoga block for a while by now, I surely didn’t need help with my Downward Facing Dog. Boy, was I ever wrong.
Pacific Yoga is where I learned the difference between flexion and extension, and where the psoas is. I learned Sanskrit with Kathryn Payne and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and dabbled into Ayurveda and the subtle body. Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
I started to be able to *discern* and ask more questions. I started to break apart a yoga posture and see what’s going on with the muscles and bones. I started to pronounce the Sanskrit words like how they’re meant to be pronounced. In the process of learning to be a teacher, I learned to be a dedicated student. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
Though I did Bikram yoga for a long time, I decided that it no longer fit me, due to many reasons. This has been an important lesson in my yoga progression, to know when something no longer works for me, and move on.
Judith Lasater
Three years earlier, by a stroke of dumb luck, I had purchased Judith Lasater’s A Year of Living Your Yoga and loved reading Judith’s aphorism every day. Then, in January 2008, Judith came to Theresa’s studio, Taj Yoga, for a workshop on the Sacro-illac and Hip Joints, and I was hooked, hooked on her vast, vast knowledge of the human anatomy and her wisdom on living.
I didn’t expect it, but tears started streaming down my face when I hugged her. I was a bit surprised and a lot embarrassed for this show of emotional vulnerability in front of someone I just met (though I felt like I had known her for 3 years through her book), but in a way, it must have been my body’s way of telling me it had found something really good.
I went home and went on a shopping spree to buy books written by Judith Lasater. I put her teaching schedule in my personal calendar and watch for any chances to study with her. Though I have taken many workshops with other teachers, I consider Judith my main influence.
Over the years, I have dabbled into many other kinds of yoga, such as Kundalini, Andrey Lappa’s Universal Yoga, and Yoga Nidra (which I sometimes confuse as “nap time”).
As a recovering Type A who has a lot of excess energy, I found a grounding refuge in the teaching of Paul Grilley and Yin Yoga and Judith Lasater’s Relax and Renew Restorative Yoga.
I am also a dedicated Vipassana practitioner, and in the summer of 2009, spent 10 days doing a course in the Goenka tradition at the Northwest Vipassana Center. I find a lot of clarity and compassion in Jack Kornfield’s teaching, and as someone with a mind for geeky things, I consider Shinzen Young my main Vipassana teacher for his ability to articulate concepts of meditation in scientific terms.
I finished my 200-hour certificate and embarked on another training for my 500-hour certificate. My primary teacher in Asana is Theresa Elliott, who has great anatomical precision and fantastic dance fusion playfulness. My primary Pranayama teacher is Kathryn Payne. At this rate, I don’t foresee myself hopping off this train any time soon.
I still don’t know if I found yoga, or if it found me. It is becoming clearer and clearer, however, why I do yoga, and why I teach yoga.
