Private Lessons: Yoga Journey

“You must have the courage, the wisdom, and the joy to practice”

—Thich Nhat Hahn; True Love

When anyone asks what I do, I’m always so happy to answer: I teach yoga. I teach private lessons. 

Intellectually speaking, it’s the least boring and most challenging calling I could imagine, even coming from a background in neuroscience research. On this path, I feel deeply alive and my whole heart is always in my work. There is infinite knowledge in understanding the human body and human nature, plus much to synchronize between the elements of teaching, entrepreneurship and rich connection with ancestral wisdom.

And I love all of it. I love the people I work with, I love the work itself and I love honoring timeless truths by bringing them to life, to action, in ways that benefit the person by my side. There is no greater pleasure or deeper joy. In a session, the effects are immediate. It is a blessing to see the changes in real time: the expansion of breath, the glow of the skin, the serenity that is strength arising from within.

In yoga, there is no division between one’s mental health, physical health, emotional health. All is interdependent. To enlighten any aspect is to enlighten them all in unison.

The art of teaching private lessons is in the meditative state of seeing. Each of us is incredibly unique in the way we have made ourselves, each of us travels a path of experiences unlike any other. To be a guide requires seeing the challenges and potentials along with the next step forward. 

Learning to teach like this comes from study, intuition and a lifetime of being guided in the same way. I have been fortunate to have grown up with private lessons in dance (Bharatnatyam), as well as tennis, piano, and ever so briefly, drawing. I’ve seen the art of teaching my whole life. It has always felt, to me, the clearest way of learning. I continued learning one on one with teachers from age six to age 28. By then, I was already teaching private lessons most days of the week, feeling blessed every day of the week.

It sounds like a rare luxury, private lessons, and I wish to see this change in the future, especially in the over-commercialized realm of yoga. All of us benefit by learning how to become stronger, more aware, in mind, body, energy and daily habits. These skills rarely taught in group classes or in school. Public classes designed to be “one size fits most” set up a lot of avoidable aches, pain, suffering. Without devoting quality time to learning physical intelligence, many people end up becoming dependent on doctors and pharmaceuticals.

Private lessons create independence. Yoga, which is best defined as “skill in action,” encompasses inner awareness, muscular strength, alignment, breathing, plus the diet, fitness, and lifestyle practices that actually work. Learning to be skillful empowers you to create your own best health, which will radiate into positive effects for everyone you love and care for. Parents teach children; the effects are intergenerational, ever lasting.

In each lesson, the hour’s time is a sacred space created by two people and the energy of intention. It’s the fertile ground from which yoga naturally arises. It is the space of my most treasured friendships. Often we spend meaningful time working the layers of core muscles in creative ways that empower your breath work. Diet and lifestyle matter so much in this realm, and I lend guidance towards positive changes for those who are seeking changes without resorting to fads, drugs, etc. It’s not easy, changing the shape of the body, and I am glad to be a grounding, guiding hand in the journey of transformation. The inner work that can feel lonely or overwhelming becomes lighter for being shared.

We talk together about life, and when we come into difficulties making progress with the physical work, our conversations have more to do with gravity, anatomy, philosophy and conscious living than just saccharine praise and encouragement. My degree in psychology and study of Buddhism and the nature of the mind, the way of emotions, can help clear the personal obstacles into new space for new strength. We work whole heartedly, intelligently, with grace and sensitivity. Often we have to confront the patterns ingrained by years of public classes and choose new habits, postures, methods of movement.

The yoga I share is alive and legendary, both. It’s the living legacy of ancestors I know through a lifetime of fluency in asana, in breath, in the myths that are actually stories of wisdom I’d been dancing as Bharatnatyam since I was small. The shift from classical dance to classical yoga was a deep homecoming, rich with cultural significance and in no way opposing my academic studies at Duke and Georgetown neuroscience labs, where I studied higher cognition. It is the pursuit of knowledge, of understanding human nature and how we can become the best of what we already are to touch our dreams and live with great health, vibrancy, purpose and love.

Being a yoga teacher is an honor, a calling. I’m glad to have spent years in science research before devoting myself to this path. There is so much to integrate: East and West, conventional and traditional. What we need a world of expertise that sees the whole human. Psychology and physiology are just as important as kindness, the feeling of belonging, the stimulation of being challenged, and the in depth feedback of a guide who sees you not just as you are, but with all your potential as well. Yoga is essentially all of this.

Being together as teacher and student is the best kind of friendship: totally free of competition. We are together with the great purpose to elevate your entire well being. Open communication flows with feelings of warmth, respect, honesty and kindness. The energy of the space, filled with plants and light music, make this natural. We are at ease, at home. We do the real work and we do it together, aiming for the highest levels of health and happiness. 

The body changes from within. The mind learns concentration and meditation as a state of being. Better postures and lifestyle habits are hard-earned victories we celebrate together. We find that strength and healing go hand in hand.

Yoga does not cause injuries, but there is a lot of well-intended misunderstandings being taught in public spaces. One on one, we correct the mis-information of group classes and see that fresh progress comes easily with the new intelligence. We focus on what is true and real.

So this is what I do. I see and share the challenges with you, and the personal becomes partnership. We are both equally invested in your goals, we both desire the realization of your dreams, and we both share the responsibility for enhancing and evolving your whole self, whole health. It is healing, it is education, it is attention, and it is profoundly therapeutic to relax into the work, the breath. 

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