Love Letter 2: March 2017

Posted: 22 March, 2017 By Blog

Dear Crew and friends,

Love Letter 2, for my Teachers.

I started teaching part-time when I was still working as an IT-consultant. My first teaching of classes was based on my own self practice and self-study of yoga that I embarked on in my early 20's through books. 

My first official basic level accreditation as a yoga teacher came through the educations of the esteemed Ganga White and Tracey Rich of the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara and Ulrica Norberg in Sweden. These are the teachers who paved the way for my starting to teach and establish myself officially as an instructor, even prior to my starting my own business in this field. 

I was in New York, a few years into my full-time profession as yoga teacher, at a yoga convention. At a lunch break panel where highly experienced teachers were answering questions - I had a moment of realization. One student asked 'how important is it to have a teacher?' to which Sharon Gannon of the Jivamukti School answered ''Get a teacher''. So grateful for this clear and direct and no nonsense message. It was pivotal for me as I did not yet have a teacher I was dedicated to at the time and truly felt the lack of this in my life.

It is my experience that this universe responds to what we ask for, and my asking must have been very loud indeed. I received first one teacher with an amazing method to practice and then later teach
(more on this in next months love letter). 
Soon thereafter, I was also introduced to my Guru, Master Kriyaji.

I was very excited in late 2009 when Jonathan Monks agreed to take me on as a student of his fascinating method YogaMonks and even more overwhelmed when he introduced me to Guru Kriyaji in early 2010. These meetings were life changing and career changing moments in my decade of devotion. To put it briefly, meeting Jonathan helped me establish myself as a daily practitioner of yoga and meeting Kriyaji helped me become a student of yoga.

This shift from being a yoga-teacher to foremost being a practitioner and student has made the single most valuable impact on my life and i believe has been the key in keeping me joyfully employed in the last 7-8 years and counting.

I cannot quite account for my appreciation for ALL the teachers I have met on this journey to yoga. There are more than I have mentioned, and the ones that I mentioned have been and still are the most memorable and influential.
They have all brought me here. 
They continue to take me there. 

With my eternal love to my Guru and all the teachers who have gone before me, 
Mithila