Hanna fell in love with yoga around 2009. Practice became her center point amidst a busy life as the mother of 3 children. She completed a 3 year traditional yoga apprenticeship with teacher Cathy Valentine (800 hours), and became a certified Vijnana Yoga International teacher with Valentine and Orit Sen-Gupta in 2016. Hanna brings playful inquiry to her classes, while exploring the principals of quieting the mind, relaxing the body, breathing, rooting, connecting, expanding and intent. All classes include a short meditation and pranayama, with a different asana focus each week. Hanna has taught weekly classes at the Salt Spring Center since 2015.

“From the very first time I stepped on to my mat, I felt as if I had come home to myself.” John brings this sense of gratitude to both his practice and his teaching. His classes are challenging and fun, giving each student a chance to explore pranayama, meditation and asana. Knowing that we are both teachers and students, John shares his understanding of the transformative nature of yoga, while at the same time encourages each student to be guided by their own inner wisdom.

Chétana Jessica has been teaching holistic Yoga since 2000 after her first trip to India. She returned to Rishikesh annually for 12 years and loves nothing better than to share her deep engagement with the diverse practices and wisdom of the broader Yoga tradition. She feels blessed to have met Baba Hari Dass during a visit to Sri Ram Ashram. Chétana has learned at Sivananda Vedanta Society, Kripalu Center, and with Yogrishi Vishvketu and Akhanda Yoga with whom she has taught Yoga Wisdom and Teaching Methodology at the YTT 200 and 300 level. Her nurturing classes include movement, breathing, sounding, and meditation, woven together with a contemplative theme and balanced around the principles of grounding, uplifting, centering, expansion and connection. A writer, Chétana brings a poetic language to her cueing as well as excerpts from Kabir, Hafiz and others. Her aim is for participants to leave feeling replenished and inspired, and that space has been held for their self care. Chétana has been blessed to have the opportunity to explore the Yoga of motherhood and the moment-to-moment presence being with children can inspire – she lives on Salt Spring Island with her two tweens.

Cara offers a gentle, healing approach to her classes while including the use of breath as a bridge between a calm, aligned body and mind. Cara completed her 200hr Yoga Teacher Training at the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga, and also lived there for six months in the Yoga Study, Service and Immersion Program. Cara loves to inspire inner peace, strength and joy for every moment and every breath.

Dorothy has been a yoga practitioner for over 40 years and completed her Yoga Teacher Training at the Salt Spring Centre of Yoga in 2002. Dorothy is a senior teacher at the Centre and is also a teacher for the Centre’s Yoga Teacher Training Program. She teaches many weekly “all levels” classes on the island, as well as weekend yoga retreats and annual retreats worldwide. Dorothy’s teaching style includes sustained as well as flowing postures, with the aim of cultivating mindfulness through alignment and breath. Core strengthening and core awareness are an integral part of her classes. Her compassion for her students and her deep love of yoga are apparent in her classes. santosha-yoga-retreats.com

Leigh Anne Milne began her journey with Iyengar yoga in the early 1980’s and fell in love with this intelligent approach to body-mind awareness; as her practice deepened the spiritual benefits became increasingly important. As a registered massage therapist (RMT), a certified Iyengar method yoga instructor, Yoga Therapist and a recognized teacher of teachers with Yoga Alliance, Leigh Anne has found the combined knowledge of yoga, health care and anatomy of the body to be a rich foundation for her holistic practice. She has traveled to India many times since 2002 to study yoga directly from the Iyengar family. “I’m incredibly grateful for my direct experience with Mr. Iyengar.” She leads yoga retreats and professional training internationally www.sadhanayoga.ca Longer holdings and study of the asana (poses) cultivate the structure for the breath and take the student deeper inward. The Iyengar method of yoga is known for detail, alignment and sequencing, which ultimately work on the consciousness, moving the student towards dharana, dhyana, and samadhi, embracing all eight limbs of yoga.

I practiced yoga in my early 20's, I gave it up at the time because I found the style of yoga too slow for my liking. Years later I returned to yoga because for pain I was experiencing in my hips. I was also experiencing a lot of work stress and needed a way to process all that was happening in my life at the time. My first yoga class was so good that I had to return. At the time, I found I needed more rigorous activity and that's when I discovered there are many different styles of yoga to suite each person's needs. I received my formal Yoga Therapy and Yoga Teacher training at Pacific Rim College of Complementary & Integrated Medicine in Victoria, British Columbia. At first, I was there to study and to deepen my own knowledge and experience with yoga. My desire to teach came from my experience of going deeper into the study and practice of yoga. During my studies I was inspired by my teachers who taught with all their conscious awareness and knowledge gained from their journeys with yoga and how it guided their lives. I now guide fellow students in Restorative Yoga, Yin and a gentle Hatha Flow practice. My practice is infused with my practice of Yoga Therapy. Through touch and awareness of the body and how it holds stress and emotional trauma. For that reason I appreciate those practices with postures held longer than average so that the release can be invited. The realization that yoga is not only what happens on my yoga mat in a studio has been my greatest learning through my practice. Being aware that I can cultivate that same feeling of acceptance that I have for my body when I practice and take that into all aspects of my life, brings me a great sense of peace as I go through my day to day. Yoga is not just a form of exercise it is a way of being. There is so much to learn. We are all students!

Yoga has been an integral part of Tara’s life since 2009. Tara has completed a four-year Traditional Yoga Apprenticeship with Cathy Valentine and is a certified Vijnana Yoga teacher by Orit Sen Gupta. Through years of yoga philosophy, mediation, pranayama and asana practice, Tara has deepened her understanding of Yoga. Tara has a strong love for the body and the spirit. She lives a life dedicated to seeking truth and living in the heart.