Mary Stern

I signed up for my first yoga retreat at the Tokyo Museum in Japan with Ken and Basia, certified Ashtanga Instructors, in the summer of 2002, a total and complete beginner. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.  Though I now primarily practice and teach a gentle hatha flow grounded in safety, alignment and yin principles, the vigorous vinyasa practice was just what I needed at the time to hijack a very busy mind bent on ‘getting the burn’ and infuse some consciousness into holding patterns that were causing chronic pain and horrible posture. Having grown up as an athlete I had to face the important task of changing my mantra from ‘No pain, no gain’ to ‘Breath is Awareness’.

Awareness is life.

I have spent the last 8 years on a journey of awakening myself to my inner power and wisdom through yoga and Vipassana meditation that has taken me through Asia, to India, and back home, to ‘me’.  Beyond all else, I have grown from the physical experience of how pure awareness observation, with neither craving nor aversion, allows the body and mind to let go of its ‘screenplay’ and truly transform. This transformation inspires my own practice as well as my teaching. Breath is the key to this awareness as breath unites both our conscious and unconscious mind. It gives us the keys to the Director’s room. The key to that elusive ‘change’ is a gift beyond compare!

I graduated from the Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher Training program at Semperviva in Vancouver, the Spring of 2006, and have been teaching in-house at NGOs, The Canada Justice Department, and ESL schools as well as several classes through the Vancouver School Board ever since. As a Shiatsu Therapist, I create yoga programs for clients to continue at home that are critical in empowering them to release their own blockages, with the support and guidance of our Shiatsu sessions. In the summer of 2009, I met Perri, and began an apprenticeship with her that has inspired and strengthened my teaching through her passion for the healing powers of yoga and a greater understanding of how to teach principles of alignment and breathing with both the art of language and physical touch. To all of my teachers and my students, I am deeply grateful for sharing in the sacred space that is within everyone – that we come to like peaceful warriors, through Yoga.