Mind, body, spirit — did one element or another first draw you to yoga? That is, were you seeking to settle your mind? Have greater physical flexibility? Explore your true, spiritual nature?

definitely the body element, I loved how the asanas felt in my body — I’m not a very spiritual person and this aspect of the practice developed over time

How about now: does yoga feed your mind or your body or your spirit more, or are those elements more in balance than when you started?

100% more in balance now, they have equal weight — yoga helped me quieten my anxious mind, and I’ve found my own definition of spirituality over the years

How long have you been practicing yoga?

10 years

How frequently do you practice yoga?

every single day, in one way or another — (sometimes it’s 10 minutes of pranayama, sometimes it’s 3 hours of asana)

How long did you practice yoga before you started teaching it?

2.5 years

Do you have a preferred yoga style?

therapeutic yoga — a blend of vinyasa, yin, pranayama, mobility and self-massage

When you were starting your yoga journey, what came easiest and what was more challenging?

I was naturally flexible, so that was the easy part — the hardest part was letting go of my need to be able to perform all of the postures

What have been the greatest benefits of yoga for you?

feeling more peaceful in my life in general — and a strong connection and appreciation for my body

Apart from yoga, do you practice other techniques of mindfulness or meditation?

I do a lot of pranayama (breathwork) and gratitude practice — I intentionally pause to appreciate the good moments in my life — highly recommend it, game changer

Do you regularly do other forms of exercise?

I lift weights and do pole dancing — I also love bouldering but don’t practice often enough

You are French, teaching in Germany, and anyone who connects with you online knows your English is better than that of many native speakers. Do you find any difference in students of different nationalities?

thank you for the compliment! I have so many different nationalities in my students and I absolutely love that — I wish I had a funny answer, but to be honest, I don’t see much difference between nationalities — the only thing that comes to mind is that Americans are generally a lot more enthusiastic about everything, haha!

You have a choice: lead a yoga class (1) outdoors on a beautiful day, overlooking the ocean, or (2) in a well-designed, very comfortable minimalist indoor space. Which do you pick?

indoor, every time — I was taught to always limit distractions as much as possible, and I live by this — (this would probably make my students laugh because my chinchilla is in my home studio and she loves to participate in my classes…)

—interview © Marshal Zeringue

Mind, body, spirit — did one element or another first draw you to yoga? That is, were you seeking to settle your mind? Have greater physical flexibility? Explore your true, spiritual nature?

body — my first classes were at a Crunch Fitness

How about now: does yoga feed your mind or your body or your spirit more, or are those elements more in balance than when you started?

things are generally more in balance — but there’s an ebb and a flow there

How long have you been practicing yoga?

off and on for more than ten years

How frequently do you practice yoga?

I aim for three times a week but sometimes life (namely, my small kids) gets in the way

What are the benefits of classes at a studio vs practicing yoga at home?

I love the community of a yoga studio — and I find that I challenge myself more in a classroom setting

Do you have a preferred yoga style?

Vinyasa, although I did my teacher training in Hatha

When you were starting out, what came easiest and what was more challenging?

the mind-body connection was most difficult for me at the start — I could move my body in the right shapes but didn’t feel it

What have been the greatest benefits of yoga for you?

everything! when I practice regularly, my entire body just works better

Apart from yoga, do you practice other techniques of mindfulness or meditation?

occasionally I try meditation but it never sticks

Do you regularly do other forms of exercise?

running

Outside of a yoga session, do you ever just strike a pose and stretch? If so, which pose(s) and where?

yes! Tree pose and Warrior III are my go-tos

If I gave you an expenses-paid yoga retreat, where would you go?

Bali

—interview © Marshal Zeringue

Yoga is a holistic experience for many — mind, body, spirit — but did one element or another first draw you to the practice? That is, were you seeking to settle your mind? Have greater physical flexibility? Explore your true, spiritual nature?

I was interested in learning more bodily control

How about now: does yoga feed your mind or your body or your spirit more, or are those elements more in balance than when you started?

everything about me is in better balance now: mind/body/spirit

As a yoga professional, what aspects — mind, body, spirit — do you pitch to someone who has never done yoga but is open to the possibility?

I try not to proselytize, but I share concepts

How long did you practice yoga before becoming a teacher?

six years

Do you have a preferred yoga style? Do you teach others?

all physical yoga is “Hatha Yoga” — I blend styles

Do you have a particularly strong tie to any teachings or texts?

my roots were with Swami Muktananda and Swami Vishnudevananda — I pattern my classes around the teachings of Patanjali

From your experience as a teacher, can you generalize about what comes easiest for younger beginners and what is more challenging?

younger beginners have shorter attention spans, prefer movement

How about for students coming to yoga later in life?

seniors often need to modify poses

Apart from yoga, do you recommend other techniques of mindfulness or meditation?

I consider all mindfulness, whether sitting, walking, breathing and/or movement to be yoga

Say you have a beginning student who has come to yoga for help with a bad back. They are already pretty chill, and you intuit they are only looking for the physical benefits from yoga. Do you leave it at that, or do you look for opportunities to promote the non-physical benefits?

I mention, but do not “promote,” yoga philosophy — I believe that physical power without a philosophy of unselfishness can be dangerous

I know you are a poet as well as a yoga teacher. Is there a poem or two that reflects the influence of yoga on your writing?

my own poems “Yoga Class, the Teacher Speaks” and “Solstice Poem” both available on blogger (google title, my name, and blogger) are directly connected to my practice of yoga — (as are all my poems, but less obviously)

You have a choice: lead a yoga class (1) outdoors on a beautiful day, overlooking the ocean, or (2) in a well-designed, very comfortable minimalist indoor space. Which do you pick?

I would absolutely choose an outdoor space on a beautiful day to a comfortable minimalist indoor space

—interview © Marshal Zeringue

Yoga is a holistic experience for many — mind, body, spirit. But did one element or another first draw you to the practice? That is, were you seeking to settle your mind? Have greater physical flexibility? Explore your true, spiritual nature?

I sought out yoga for my body — as I was aging I needed more flexibility and stretching in my exercise routines

How about now: does yoga feed your mind or your body or your spirit more, or are those elements more in balance than when you started?

now, I realize that yoga feeds my mind and spirit as much as my body and I relish the overall sensations and balance

How long did you practice yoga before you started teaching it?

about 5 years

When you’re teaching regularly, can you lead classes too often? How many times a week, and a day, might be too much?

teaching yoga is tiring and to be the best teacher I can be, I must limit how much I teach — 1 or 2 classes a day are best for my psyche

I understand you used to practice Power Yoga and now focus on Yoga for Everybody. When you were practicing Power Yoga, what came easiest and what was more challenging?

I was teaching yoga to college students when I began — they wanted (I thought) a very physical practice and they wanted challenging poses — as I matured in my yoga practice I realized that teaching them pranayama was more important — it was a hard shift but I’m glad I took the hard route for the students — as I I got better at teaching breath and slower movements, I got a better response from the students — at 20 they already have enough physical demands and movement but few know the power of breathwork

From your experience as a teacher of Yoga for Everybody, can you generalize about what comes easiest for beginners and what is more challenging?

balance is often what brings the clients into the Yoga for Everybody class — as they learn Warrior and hip openers and they begin to lengthen their calf they find the balance — arm strength is very hard — easiest are the movements they do daily Warrior 1, lunge sagittal plane — opening the side body brings about nice change — sitting on the floor is hard for many new yogis — moving with the breath is hard for beginners — they rush the poses unaware how to match it to their breath

What are the more difficult yoga poses for beginners to execute?

Downward Facing Dog is the hardest pose for most beginners — Chatarange and arm strength, properly executing sphynx for older clients

What have been the greatest benefits of yoga for you?

calmer — more present, willing to forgive and forget — yes, better sleep

Apart from yoga, do you practice other techniques of mindfulness or meditation?

no

Your classes are described as “musically eclectic.” Will you share two song titles that demonstrate that?

ha ha — that would be my barre classes, I think, not my yoga — barre is done in time with the music — two fun barre songs are “America’s Sweetheart” by Elle King and “Got To Give It Up” by Marvin Gaye

for Yoga — in Happy Hour I use songs like “Wish You Were Here” by Bliss, “Makambo” by Geoffrey Oryema, and “Easy in the Early” by Uncle Earl (a great spiritual!)

Outside of a yoga session, do you ever just strike a pose and stretch?

all the time — on a paddle board, before and after riding my horse — after dancing — I can’t get through a day without joyful movement

If I gave you an expenses-paid yoga retreat, where would you go?

awesome, let’s go! — any of the Blue Zones — Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Icaria, Greece; and Loma Linda, California

—interview © Marshal Zeringue

Mind, body, spirit — yoga is a holistic experience for many. But did one element or another first draw you to the practice? That is, were you seeking to settle your mind? Have greater physical flexibility? Explore your true, spiritual nature?

I sought out yoga initially for the exercise in addition to my daily walks — I still appreciate how great I feel physically after I’ve stretched — but I’ve come to love how practicing it quiets my mind — it’s not unusual for the answers to problems I’m having with my writing to pop up in savasana

How about now: does yoga feed your mind or your body or your spirit more, or are those elements more in balance than when you started?

it still feeds my body most but that might be because I’ve been doing yoga long enough that I take the mental aspects of it for granted — I was amazed for the first few years at how well it cleared my mind and opened my spirit — I depend on those things now

How long have you been practicing yoga?

about twenty years

How frequently do you practice yoga?

I go to a class at least once a week — I’m not going to lie: my home practice is brief and undisciplined

What are the benefits of classes at a studio vs practicing yoga at home?

see above! — I’m too easily distracted to practice alone — during Covid, my instructor switched to zoom, which we still mostly do, with good results

Do you have a preferred yoga style?

hatha

When you were starting out, what came easiest and what was more challenging?

for me, in the beginning, getting the postures correctly was the hardest — settling my mind enough to enjoy savasana took a couple practices, too — I’m still impatient with breathing — guess I’ll always be a work-in-progress

What have been the greatest benefits of yoga for you?

favorite benefit: less body pain — I also enjoy how it helps to calm me, and to settle enough to receive answers to my writing puzzles

Apart from yoga, do you practice other techniques of mindfulness or meditation?

I think the act of writing is a sort of meditation when I’m in the flow — I strive for that writing flow every day though I don’t always achieve it

Do you regularly do other forms of exercise?

Outside of a yoga session, do you ever just strike a pose and stretch? If so, which pose(s) and where?

of course! I do leg lifts while watching TV and pull myself into a good standing posture whenever I think about it

If I gave you an expenses-paid yoga retreat, where would you go?

Costa Rica or Hawaii would be nice, but honestly, I’d go just about anywhere on a yoga retreat!

—interview © Marshal Zeringue