Around the World 1975-76

BJ, a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance (RYT 200) and active member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT) is currently teaching group and private sessions as described on these pages. She is training in Rod Stryker’s Pure Master Training Program; Gabriel Halpern’s Yoga Therapy Program and is pursuing a Master of Arts Degree in Integral Health from the California Institute of Human Sciences

Her Story

After growing up in typical Midwest fashion, i.e., safe, snug and secure, I moved out west to go to college. In the summer of 1970, I was living off-campus in Tempe, Arizona, when my dear friend named Terry blew in from the west coast with a book about yoga in his hand. I took to the practice like a fish to water and to this day can feel the exhilaration of my first sun salute, camel and warrior poses. In just a few days, I noticed a sharper mental clarity and overall sense of flow in my life. This amazes me now, since I was just 20 years old then and the 70’s were intensely wild times. But there I was, in the midst of Vietnam War demonstrations and Esalen sensitivity groups, waking up to my true nature.

Five years later I graduated from ASU with a BA in English. I rounded out my liberal arts education by traveling, first though Europe and Morocco in a German mail truck that was decked out like a magic bus. After a stint in Anchorage, Alaska during the peak of the pipeline economy, I had earned enough money to make my next voyage, this time all the way around the world. Just before leaving the US, I sailed under full moon with the Tall Ships from Woods Hole to Marblehead, MA during the bicentennial in 1976. Two days later I was in Athens booking ferry tickets to the Greek Islands. From there I hit the overland trail from Turkey through Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, India, Burma, Thailand, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, and Hawaii, in that order. There are too many trip highlights to enumerate here; suffice it to say that at such a young age, I witnessed a whole lot of humanity.

Easy Skankin' 1982

Thirteen months later, I landed back in LA with $50 in my pocket and wanderlust temporarily depleted. Rather than mooch off my Arizona friends, I moved back to the Midwest with my parents. My integration process involved writing about my trip for two months straight, on a typewriter, no less (see attached article called “A Woman Alone in Istanbul”). Finally, after totaling my Dad’s two cars, I found a real job that paid a salary and, along with that, taxes, insurance deductions and responsibility. There began my recalcitrant re-entry into western mainstream culture. This lasted for over twenty years as I raised two beautiful daughters, held a dream job in the software industry, cultivated wonderful friendships and managed boatloads of stress with jogging and TM meditation (mostly on airplanes). I never realized that the stress of “having it all” would catch up to me as it did.

In the winter of 1997, at the Claremont Hotel in Berkley, CA, I lumbered into a 6:00 am yoga class because it was too rainy outside to go jogging. Quizzically regarding the funny-looking purple mats and cover-girl instructor, I gingerly began to practice with the rest of the class. I was appalled at what I could not do, my stiffness and clumsiness; especially because I used to do poses somewhat gracefully. That starling realization relaxed in Savasana, which reawakened something I had forgotten, the essence of who I really was.

Ladder climbing 1990's

It took me five more years, my father’s passing, family trauma and two surgeries to make the necessary changes that were triggered in Savanana that morning. I rekindled my yoga, and the effects soon leaked into other lifestyle choices: diet, interests, friends, work and pastimes. My family relationships shifted too as I gradually began to reclaim who I knew myself to be. In 2001, I began to study yoga in earnest with master teacher Ana Forrest. After a year of training she certified me as a teacher. Her multi-cultural approach and emphasis on yoga as a healing art is what moved me so deeply. There was no doubt that I had a whole lot of healing to do and her style worked well for me.

Yoga in Costa Rica 2001-2005

I continue to study with yogis, healers, elders and other specialists, careful to pay close attention to my guru within. Just as others have touched and guided me, the intention in my work is to serve others, as they “come home” to who they really are.

Just a reminder, the above story is my ego, my “little self”, not my essence.