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An interview with Julie Martin |
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| Julie Martin, Director of Brahmani Yoga in Goa,India, is an internationally recognized teacher of both Ashtanga and Vinyasa Flow Yoga. Born in Los Angeles but previously based in Brighton, UK, she moved to Goa in 2003 and helped set up Brahmani Yoga - now one of the leading yoga centres in Goa. Julie has now been teaching yoga for over 13 years and practicing for 20. www.brahmaniyoga.com. |
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| Can you tell us about your 'yoga path'? |
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| My path to yoga really came in two parts. Interestingly enough the first part started with meditation at a very young age. I was raised by my unconventional parents in an Advaita Vedanta household. This entailed going to a "church" that was essentially Hindu. I grew up with my father meditating 2 times a day for an hour at a time which he encouraged in both my sister and I. It also meant attending Puja's, Kirtans, Bhajans and Philosophy lectures on a regular basis. |
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| I didn't enter the world of Asana until much later when through a dance injury at 26 years old a friend recommended that yoga could help. My knees had been the issue and as the doctor had stated surgery was in my near future unless I stopped dancing, I decided I would try yoga first and see what happened. Of course after six months of practicing Iyengar Yoga, I no longer had any pain and to this day have never had a problem with my knees again. |
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| How long were you practising before you trained as a teacher? |
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| I practiced Iyengar Yoga for six years as a measure to prevent injury in my dance career, but it wasn't until i found Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga (with Derek Ireland) that I ever thought about teaching it. As a dancer, I loved this flowing style much more. So after three years of adding Ashtanga to my practice I started teaching, initially just to other dancers. I chose to follow an apprenticeship with my teacher Kristina Ireland. I assisted her for over three years before I started teaching my own classes. |
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| What style of yoga do you teach and why? |
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| I teach Ashtanga Vinyasa and Vinyasa Flow. For years it was strictly Ashtanga and I still have a great love and respect for this system, but after turning forty; I realised my body needed to have a change and my mind needed to explore its creativity, so Vinyasa Flow was a natural progression, especially as i was missing the creative nature of the dance world. |
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| How do you fit your own practice around your teaching? |
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| The hardest thing once you start teaching regularly is maintaining your own practice! When I run my teacher training courses it is one of the first points I emphasize: make sure your own practice doesn't suffer, or your body will! I'm lucky enough to run my own centre which means I come in and practice in the early morning self practice class, take a quick break and then teach my own classes for the day. Before that it was a struggle as i used to have to teach early and mid morning class and also in the evenings. |
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| What do you enjoy about teaching? |
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| I enjoy teaching because it isn't about me. When you enter a room to teach, it is about everyone in that room - their individual practice and who and where they are in their life. When I teach a class I never think I'm giving instructions. I feel like I'm orchestrating a group of musicians who all play their own instruments. Each person knows their own instrument more than I ever can, so I just make the space and guide the group to make some beautiful music together. |
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| What do you see as the most important elements of yoga – and what are the challenging elements? |
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| The most important elements of yoga are its transformative properties. It is not necessarily the action, whether it's Asana, Pranayama, meditation or devotion, it's what you get out of it. This also tends to be its biggest challenge for people, especially in the Asana world. A lot of the western minds want to "get somewhere" with their practice, but they forget that as long as they are practicing they are already "there". It doesn't matter what it looks like or how many times you can wrap your leg around your head. This is why there can be so many injuries in the yoga world; people try too hard to achieve something instead of just enjoying being there. |
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| We often don't give enough time to meditation and that's why I always include a few minutes at the beginning of each class and always end with a 5 minute meditative session. While we are doing the asana no matter how aware we are, the mind is still working. When we sit for meditation it's time for the body and the mind to rest and most people can't handle that. They are so used to their daily lives being driven by their minds they panic or get restless when they sit. I always ask them why? Ask yourself what is it about just being quiet with who you really are, beyond any thought process, that is scary? It opens up a lot of eyes to seeing themselves from a different perspective. |
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