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Featured Teacher: Julia
Where are you originally from?
Shaw Valley (Oshawa) Ontario, Canada.
How long have you been teaching?
About 4 years.
Who was your very first yoga teacher and what was he/she like?
I don't remember my first teacher's name, but I took a few classes from her while studying at McGill. I was too young to take yoga seriously, and I remember my friend and I laughed for the entire class because she made us watch her belly the whole time during various breathing exercises.
How long have you been practicing?
About 6 years.
Originally, what attracted you to yoga (health, fitness, spirituality, community)?
After working for an international festival in the ski and snowboard industry in Whistler, B.C. - an industry that can be as shallow as the fashion industry - I was looking for stress relief!
What motivates you to practice today?
I feel that whatever is meant to happen today is meant to be, regardless of the difficulty of the asanas. Approaching my practice with this philosophy makes me feel light and liberated instead of heavy and obligated.
How would you describe your personal practice?
I lose sense of time or place. It's a time for deep connection.
Before you became a yoga teacher, what did you do?
I was a ski bum. Still am.
What do you love about teaching?
Linking asanas with life principals is an art. Whether my inspiration comes from what I've been taught or from what I've learned intrinsically through my students, I love when I can teach and relate on a deeper level.
What do you find challenging about teaching?
It's challenging to take everything that you have learned, read, studied, and practiced as teacher, and then present that to students all in one class. The challenge is reading a class's collective energy on a particular day and then applying what feels right.
Describe a class that you would find challenging or difficult (as a teacher).
It's difficult when everyone is apathetic or indifferent to yoga's transformational properties.
What teacher has had the biggest impact on your practice?
Patrick Creelman. I've known him since day one back in the old Whistler days, yo. He's my friend and an inspiration.
What is your most embarrassing moment in the studio (as a teacher or student)?
I farted once, but who hasn't?
Where is the strangest place you've practiced yoga?
On a bar patio at seven in the morning at Ton Sai Beach in Thailand. The bartender watched my friend Marissa and I practice while he smoked.
Aside from yoga, what other hobbies or interests do you have (if any)?
Skiing, travelling, writing.
If you weren't a yoga teacher, what would you be?
I'd be a nomadic travel writer.
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