carlyhunteryoga

[carlyhunteryoga]

A Glimpse: The Journey Towards Teaching Yoga and Embracing the Eight Limbed Path

Q: How did you get started with yoga?

I was introduced to yoga as a somatic technique that was intended to support my dance training while earning a BFA in Dance Performance from The Ohio  State University. My first consistent classes were in 2001, 7am twice a week, in the Dance Department taught by a graduate student.

Q: Did you embrace doing yoga at the beginning?

I hated it actually- mostly because waking up early, hiking across campus in the dark winter months, and motivating my body to move in a cold dance studio felt like a chore. Each time my alarm would go off for yoga class, I questioned “how is this good for me?”, yet afterwards I somehow felt better than when I started.

Q: As a dancer did the practice come easily to you?

The asanas did not come easily for a long time which is another reason I didn’t enjoy doing it. Downward dog was especially challenging at first and my mind was all over the place from thinking about breakfast to drafting essays for my other classes! It’s almost comical how my first experience with yoga was anything but peaceful.

Looking back on those days, I practiced with far too much muscular effort and without concept of breath.  The chanting, breathing with sound, and terminology seemed so peculiar.

Q: What kept you returning to the practice?

By the end of my first quarter taking yoga, I started to balance effort with ease. Yoga was not only helping my dance, but more importantly it supported my overall wellbeing. I still didn’t know a thing about yoga, or why I was reaping benefit, but I knew it was unlike anything else.

Q: Did you set out to teach yoga as your profession?

When I enrolled in my first training in 2012, I already had an established and demanding career in corporate advertising sales in NYC. At that time I did not want to teach or set out to do so.  I simply wanted to direct my energy towards something that was beneficial for me - yoga always seemed to be the right thing.

My intention for the training was to deepen my understanding, however, the experience didn’t deepen anything, rather it broadened my perspective, exposed me to ideas, and showed me how much I didn’t know!  It was just the beginning.

Q: When did yoga become a lifestyle for you?

I meaningfully embraced the practice and lifestyle of yoga when I worked in advertising and dance was no longer my life.  I couldn’t wait for 5pm so that I could go to yoga class and move my body.

Yoga served as a momentary escape from the misery in my work life as it was the only time of day that I felt peaceful.  Eventually I would take class twice a day-before and after work-I simply couldn’t get enough.

I was curious about everything that had to do with yoga from the physical practice, philosophy, to the diet and lifestyle. Finally, I realized that I couldn’t escape my work life so I set out on a quest to find yoga when I couldn’t be in class. I began to wonder “How can I sustain this yoga feeling 24/7?” I understood for that to happen, peace had to come from within, which is why I began to embrace the yoga teachings and philosophy.

Q: How did you get started with the Ashtanga practice?

I started a traditional Ashtanga practice in a Mysore room shortly after finishing my first teacher training. I dedicated myself to this 6 day a week discipline-waking up at 5am to be on my yoga mat by 6am before work. (Ironically this was reminiscent to my first yoga experience in college that I hated.)

The Ashtanga practice was the outlet and culmination of my interest to that point. I found a practice and path that resonated deeply and had so much meaning. The Ashtanga system is straightforward, logical, and intelligent and everything yoga related finally began to make sense. I took to it like a magnet and advanced quickly through the asanas due to my background in gymnastics, dance, and many years of yoga.

Q: If you participated in your first teacher training without the intention of teaching, then how exactly did you start teaching?

In 2012, 6 months into the Ashtanga practice, my teacher asked me to assist him in the Mysore room. Although it was an honor, I didn’t want to assist because it took away from my own time to practice.

I started to realize that teaching wasn’t taking away from me, but instead adding a richness to my life. The fact that I could share something meaningful and perhaps shape someone else’s experience was profound.  Teaching seemed like a worthwhile investment of energy.

Q: What was the process of leaving your corporate job and leaping into a full time teaching role?

I was frequently approached by other teachers to sub their classes.  I was still working in advertising, but trying to juggle teaching on the side, as well as tend to my own practice. Work was starting to get in the way of all the yoga!

One thing led to another in my personal life that made it easier for me to step away from my advertising career and teach yoga full time. It was still a very risky move.

I was offered a position as Private Practice Manager at a large corporately owned yoga center in NYC in 2015. In this role I focused on teaching one-on-one, but also ran a business. Half of my responsibilities were administrative, managing other teachers, and growing the private yoga/wellness business, and the other half was teaching.

I developed a clientele, honed my teaching skills,  while applying my business background. It was a perfect bridge from corporate advertising into the yoga world.  I spent 3.5 years in this role, and finally stepped away from the yoga center in 2018 to establish myself independently as a private yoga teacher.

Teaching yoga for a living wasn’t something I could have imagined in 2012. To this day I sometimes pause and marvel in disbelief about how different life is from the days when I was running to yoga from work and crying about life in a corporate cubicle.

Q: Do you only teach in a private setting?

I teach one yoga class weekly in a group setting, however, I feel most effective working with students in an individualized manner.

Many of the students that I teach one on one have been working with me since I made the career shift in 2015.  I’ve developed deep and dedicated working relationships and learned my about my students’ bodies, minds, families, and values.  Teaching privately has allowed me to pass along a practice that has changed my life and hopefully brings meaning to theirs as well.

I feel passionately about sharing the gift of yoga.  Although it is a responsibility to inspire people to move, challenge their body, and expand their mind, I am grateful to do this work.

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