Jonni-Lyn Friel

Yoga came into my life when I was a child. As the child of hippie parents, I grew up watching my parents practice together in the living room and trying to do headstands with my Dad. Yoga was always a part of my life. The first time I was in India, I was practicing sun salutations with friends on a beach and one of my friends said "No! That's wrong! That's not how you do it." I was shocked, I had no idea there was a right and wrong way to do yoga ! He was wrong, I know now, it was just a different variation of a sun salutation. But it did get me thinking that maybe it was time to have a teacher and go to a class. When I returned to Canada, a few months later, I found a class with a woman in her living room who had just returned from living in an Ashram for 20 years. I realized the value of having a teacher and a teacher who not just taught yoga but did their best to live yoga as well. This was almost 20 years ago and I am still hooked. My first training was in 2006 in Athens, Greece where I was living and very based in Anusara. I have had a variety of training's since then, including kids, prenatal,yoga therapy and advanced training's in a few different styles. My most recent teacher training was a Jivamukti training in 2013 and this is where my heart landed and what inspires me today. I love the fierceness of the practice as well as the grace of the teachings. I find that without one, I feel unbalanced. Yoga is a full practice and I like to incorporate all of the teachings in my classes and share what has helped me thought the years in my life. My teachers inspire me. I am constantly in awe and humbled by their practice and dedication to their practice. My style of yoga is Jivamukti and based on the Jivamukti method. My intention as a teacher is to share my love and understanding of yoga, however I can and in whatever capacity I can. I have had amazing teachers and traveled around the world to seek them out and to learn. If I can pass on some of what I have learned and it can help someone, then what better way to teach? I have a busy mind! I have found that I need to have a strong physical practice, rooted in the philosophy of yoga, in order to be able to quiet my mind. I think the students that would enjoy my classes most are the ones who like a strong class, are interested in deepening their practice and learning about the other aspects of yoga and can either enjoy or ignore my slightly random sense of humor. Yoga is helped me through living in a foreign country for years, having a child, parents who got sick, injuries, heartache, confusion, starting all over again in a new country, being a parent, being a wife, being a woman, being a human...in all the different parts of my life, it has helped me. Its like learning where your center is. Where your home is and then learning again and again, how to come home. That even when things change, when things get hard, you can always come home. That there is more space than you know. Between your thoughts and between your thoughts and reactions. This is what yoga has given me. In 1999, she stepped into her first Yoga class and discovered the joys of having a teacher and being taught from another's experience and knowledge. In 2006 she completed her first teacher training in Athens, Greece. With a strong background in alignment and Anusara, she began to explore the world of Vinyasa and philosophy, chanting and the devotional aspects of yoga. A 500 hour RYT, she has taught numerous yoga teacher trainings internationally, where her love is to share the Bhagavad Gita and to teach service and compassion as a way to happiness and realisation. Jonni-Lyn knows Yoga to be sacred, healing and powerful. This is how it has affected her life and spirit. Her greatest joy is to share her knowledge and pass on the teachings of her beloved teachers to others, in hope that it serves them in their lives.