Over twenty years ago I attended many and varied yoga classes looking for relief in-between working in high heels and beach volleyball dives into the sand. Coming from an athletic background, I thought yoga would be the perfect step forward to balance and recover.
From New York to California, I went to classes “governed” by teachers who took themselves very seriously. They called themselves gurus and had funny Sanskrit names even though they came from Washington. These “gurus” were followed by over-attentive students; the type who looked down on you when you quietly asked a question.
I felt intimidated by competitive yogis who sweated through seriously dangerous bends. I heard students discussing their aura after a class and described how their Kundalini rose up their body. Most of them looked imbalanced, pale and hungry.
Then there was the beautiful, happy, fit athletes with super-human muscles which they used to perform the most extra-ordinary poses. The atmospheres I experienced at the time were either too strict and serious, or bubbly with angels and various Hindu god statues which we were meant to worship at the home-made altar of the yoga studio.
Some studios required you to also learn Sanskrit as if speaking four languages was not enough. I felt so lost that I kept on asking myself, “is this for real?” Something was amiss and I deeply sensed that this “yoga thing” could be good for others if taught properly. So I then took on to learning on my own, through endless research and self-practice. I started collecting various diplomas. Then I became a massage therapist and I knew it was just another step. The moment I discovered AeroYoga, I knew it would tie in the many fields I studied over the past 20 years.
Time passed by in which I grew into teaching larger groups. As flattering as it felt, I soon started to sense that this was again, not the right way to teach yoga. Some years passed giving private AeroYoga sessions to mostly athletes and the turnaround point was when I went back to teaching in a corporate setting.
They all had different issues but mostly blockages around the core and spine. Because of this, the class became a blend of disciplines focusing on the fascia, isometrics, and strengthening the anterior obliques to improve the transverse rotation and tying it all together with various breathing techniques.
So you can call it what you will. All movement is good and even better when done with diafragmatic breathing. See you on the mat or hammock!
