MARCH 7, 2014 MAnilA bulletin | style weekend | 2726 | style weekend | MAnilA bulletin MARCH 7, 2014

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FROM THE OUTSIDE IN

By CHINGGAY LABRADOR

Back in the 1990s, yoga wasn’t as big an industry as it was today. “I was living in Philadelphia as a dancer and I had a ton

of energy,” says Joan Hyman, a traveling yoga teacher, who’s on her fifth visit to the Philippines in the last five years. “I was 24 years old, there were no studios around and you had to go to a church or the bottom of a bookstore to get to a yoga class.”

Joan was used to working with her body and loved the energy and self-expression of dance. Coming into that first integral, hatha-based yoga class was nothing like that. “It was boring and I found it really hard. I told myself, ‘No, I don’t like this!’” The dancer went back to the practice she loved, packed her bags to pursue a career in New York, and was engulfed in the energy, the noise, and even the starving artist-struggle that many in their mid-20s experienced in the city.

“A friend recommended I try Jivamukti since it was more an ‘uppity’ type of yoga,” she recounts. “Sharon [Gannon] and David [Life, Jivamukti yoga’s founders] are also both ashtangis so their classes are flowy and intense. I’d never felt so stretched out in my life!”

Joan had taken to teaching step aerobics and jazz, and began incorporating postures she’d learned in yoga to her fitness and dance classes. And as her dance career began to grow, bringing her to places like Las Vegas, Guam, and Australia, she continued with her yoga practice, finding nearby studios and fitting in a class between shows. “I was doing a show in Las Vegas for six months, and would walk to a studio there before my shows. The teacher saw how dedicated I was and asked if I wanted to teach. I knew I had the skills to throw something together, so I said yes.”

Eventually, Joan moved on to Los Angeles to study under Bryan Kest (Power Yoga), Seane Corn (integrated power yoga and vinyasa flow), and Maty Ezraty (YogaWorks). “It was really intimidating for me—I walked in and out right away. But my friend told me to get right back in,” she shares. “It was a big risk to leave New York and dancing, and be a newbie to the West Coast. Even though I still had the urge to dance, I knew that yoga offered something so much deeper and much more real.”

By 2010, Joan had been in Los Angeles for four years and had worked primarily on private clients. “Teaching one-on-one taught me how to teach,” she says. “You really learn how to use good instruction and form a close relationship with students. After four years of the grind, Annie Carpenter (Smart Flow) asked me whether I wanted to get my YogaWorks teaching certification. They actually almost failed me!” she laughs. YogaWorks offers classes and also holds teacher training, allowing graduates to teach yoga that embraces an individual’s abilities through precise instruction, alignment with breath, fluid movement, and safe sequencing. “But then I worked at it, assisted Lisa Walford (Iyengar), and finally got my certificate to teach future teachers.”

After a life-changing trip to India, the source of the ancient practice, Joan made her way to the Philippines to conduct the first YogaWorks teacher training in the country. Since then, she has come back repeatedly, working with Urban Ashram Manila as a partner studio. Over the course of five visits here, she has found that the practice of yoga in the country has gone through many impressive changes. “When I first came down here, there was no vinyasa flow. The

Filipinos’ idea of yoga was based on Ashtanga that were taught like the classes in Mysore [India],” she explains. “Over the years, and with the implementation of vinyasa [movement with breath], yoga has completely grown.”

“With people growing in awareness because of all the visiting teachers, I have seen students’ practices grow and their attention being consistently on point. I’ve also seen yoga become a lot more competitive—and I suppose that’s what happens because of human nature. Popularity makes everyone want to just come and get a piece of it,” she says. “It breaks my heart a little bit, the fact that yoga has become so cutthroat these days—maybe because I came into yoga as someone who was broke, someone who was a dancer, and someone who just approached the practice from an artist’s perspective.”

“Yoga has taken me through a long climb,” says Joan. “I’ve been teaching 24 years of my life and to this day, I know that where I’m at is still grounded on my personal practice. There is this fear that yoga can veer more towards the fitness industry or the fashion industry, as opposed to medicine or wellness, or as opposed to it being ‘the real deal’.”

Joan’s advice to those just starting out, and even to those who want to deepen their experience of yoga by becoming teachers themselves, is to practice, practice, practice because, “Yoga comes not just from the brain. We teach it from the heart.”

For more on Joan Hyman, go to joanhyman.com, like Joan Hyman Yoga on Facebook, or email joanhyman@yahoo.com. Interested in yoga and yoga teacher training? Go to urbanashrammanila.com for the upcoming 200-hour YogaWorks Teacher Training this year

Dynamic, fun, and incredibly introspective, Joan Hyman shares her yoga all over the world

ExPLORE YOuR PRAcTIcEStep on your mat with these tips from Joan Hyman

TAkE YOuR TImE. change doesn’t happen overnight—if it does, it isn’t a grounded change. A strong foundation takes years to build.

LET cHANGE BE GRADuAL. Rushing through your practice can dilute its quality—don’t lose your patience.

BE GRATEFuL. It’s easy to compare yourself to other people. Remember that your practice is a blessing and practicing yoga, even teaching it, equals the creation of good karma. Allow your practice to humble you.

LET YOuR YOGA TEAcH YOu. Right now, I’m at a point where my practice has taught me to slow down. When we’re young, we do think we’re invincible and we tend to push ourselves. Yoga is also about reaching for the quieter aspects of yourself, about respecting your limits.

STuDY EvERY DAY. I have been doing Ashtanga [yoga] for 12 years and I have learned that I can’t go through three days without practicing!

With over 20 years of experience and a background in dance, Joan Hyman’s challenging and upbeat YogaWorks vinyasa flow classes are popular among the yoga communities she visits

Senior teacher trainer Joan Hyman recently held YogaWorks’ Asan Immersion, a series of intensive and signature classes and transformative workshops at the urban Ashram