** Emily has left to pursue her PhD studies in Ireland. We wish her all the best and look forward to her visits home. **
— Emily has been practicing ever since the second time she encountered yoga in April 2004. The first encounter occurred in August 2000, while she was at a family reunion. A close member of her extended family is also a yoga teacher and he held a class for everyone who was interested. Following the class in 2000, Emily always thought she would like to try yoga again, but the opportunity did not present itself until 2004, at the end of her third year as an undergraduate at The University of King’s College in Halifax.
Initially an attempt at procrastination, Emily decided she needed more ‘physical activity’ and began following a 30-minute yoga class on a VHS. Soon, her curiosity drove her to expand her repertoire beyond the tape, and she began to include a series of poses, as illustrated by stick figures she had printed from the internet. Growing tired of analyzing Emily’s postures relative to the stick-figure depictions, her family advised her to attend a yoga class where a qualified teacher could tell her whether or not she was doing the poses correctly.
Emily was quickly on her way to the next class at TAYS where she was about to meet Maxine Munro—the first to welcome her into what would become her ‘home away from home’ for the next three years. Shortly after graduating from the 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at TAYS with Mike Munro, Maxine Munro, and Leslie Hunter in the summer of 2007, Emily began her second 200-hour YTT with Hart Lazer.
Initially introduced to the Ashtanga practice through Guylaine Williams’ classes at TAYS, Emily deepened her understanding of the practice as she spent more and more time learning from Hart. “When I first began attending yoga classes regularly, I was excited by the variety of teachers and methods I tried. However, I was never quite sure what to do when left to myself. This changed when I learned Primary Series, which provided a structure for my practice. The consistency and the exacting detail of the Ashtanga method initially drew me to this practice and is what keeps me motivated to practice every day. Because the asanas and the vinyasas do not change, they provide a stable measure through which I am better able to recognize change.” When she began teaching at the Yoga Loft in the fall of 2007 (where she continued to teach until December 2009), Emily began attending Mysore classes with Seth Daley. Emily learned more and more about practicing and teaching Ashtanga from Seth, and she took over teaching his morning classes while he was away the following summer.
Seth continues to be a major influence on Emily’s practice, along with the many other talented teachers and students in Halifax. She continues to draw her inspiration from Hart, has attended two workshops with him and his teacher Ramanand Patel, and she’ll never miss an opportunity to learn from Mark Darby.Recently, Emily completed an MA through the Department of Classics at Dalhousie University, where she continues to work as a Teaching Assistant through both the Classics and Religious Studies programs. She hopes eventually to obtain her Ph.D. while complementing her academic studies with her yoga practice.
