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comfortable. Feel at home. I advise the teachers that work here to go for the Cheers effect—where everybody knows your name. A good teacher is someone who can meet where they are but also give them the guidance to go further. Yoga is for everyone so a good teacher won’t make anyone feel singled out or like they don’t belong. As a student, you have to be able to resonate with your teacher. If you don’t jive with what they’re saying, then it might not be a right fit. In a yoga class, everyone is focusing on themselves, not on anyone else. That’s the hardest thing when we first start—to get out of your head the thought that everyone is going to look at you. Only you are paying attention to yourself. What’s the most valuable thing that you teach to your students? That you are in total control of your life. That you are bigger, stronger, more confident than you’ll ever give yourself credit for. Through a yoga practice, you’ll create a connection between your mind and your body. It will empower you. It’s like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz—you’ve had it in you all along. The strength, determination, concentration have been in you all along. Yoga just helps you tap into that. What else do you like to do in the Squirrel Hill community? I own I Am Yoga and teach here. I also put on the Pittsburgh Yoga Expo once a year. It’s an event that brings together all the different yoga communities and styles. It’s a great venue for people to try different styles of yoga in a less intimidating environment in 20 minute spurs. In the summer, we do Yoga in the Park in Schenley. Sometimes we collaborate with the East End Brewing Company and do yoga at the brewery.
What’s a good lesson about yoga that you want people to know?
Taya Irizarry of the JCC peacefuldwelling@gmail.com Where do you teach? I teach at the JCC and privately. I’m a full time PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh. I taught full time for about five years, but decided that I wanted to continue my studies. I am doing research on using mobile technology, such as the one in smartphones, to support people who have chronic diseases. We hope that the data that we collect will support the implementation of better health care and health policy. What should people expect from your yoga class, especially if they are beginners? The style that I teach is focused on alignment. The words that I choose are specific to aligning your joints, your bones and your muscles. We then build on that movement. As a new student, a class like mine is more accessible because I take a lot of time to build the pose up from your feet through every joint. I also move a lot throughout the class to help people adjust so they know where they are in space. I always give enough time for new people to be able to adjust themselves in the pose just as much as everyone else. The movements may be new and exotic for a beginner, but the language is clear and simple.
It’s the idea of full conscious embodiment. We have awareness, and often in a normal day our awareness is spread in a myriad of directions. It’s spread so thin that we lose the sense of what it feels like to be in our bodies and to take care of ourselves. So this lesson comes with practice: to sharpen the awareness and bring it fully into the body so that you’re able to sharpen the mind and become clear. It’s something that you need to practice. Even the best violinist in the world practices every day. What are some of the lessons that you learn from your students? Every day, there’s a different combination of people in the room. While there are a lot of people that show up every week, they’re not the same person every time they come to class. So depending on how cold it is, what kind of Friday it is for you. That group of people is going to be a different group and have a different attitude every single time. For me, it’s about sharpening my own awareness about who the group is and what their needs are that day. I don’t come with a list of things to do. I learn from that experience every single time. Is there anything that you noticed about teaching in Squirrel Hill? What makes Squirrel Hill unique is that a lot of the people who live here, also spend a lot of time here. I often walk down the street and see a lot of familiar faces. The sense of community at the JCC is also closeknit. Eye contact and smiling probably come from the fact that Squirrel Hill feels like a small town that you come back to. I live in Regent Square, but this is my big downtown.
Continued on page 34 The Sports & Fitness Issue PAGE33