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This month we’re checking in with Shauna MacKay who teaches a hatha class on Sunday mornings at 8:30. Click here to see the online schedule, no reservations required for class. One special announcement: as a Lululemon Ambassador, Shauna’s collecting shoes for the “Walk a Mile in Their Shoes” campaign to aid the homeless in San Diego. Drop off gently used athletic shoes in the box at the top of the stairs until the end of March. 

1. What is your favorite style of yoga?

Although I understand why others commit to one style of yoga, I am not a yoga purist. I completed over 500 hours of YogaWorks training, a style that intelligently blends the alignment of Iyengar, the flow of Ashtanga Vinyasa and the individualized teachings of Desikachar. I love taking the best of various styles and adapting them to my own needs and the needs of my students. I value having a giant tool box of yoga resources to draw upon and love continuing my education to keep adding new tools to my collection.

2. What first attracted you to yoga when you began your practice?

Relief from pain! After more than twenty years of running (literally and figuratively), I was tight, inflexible and constricted in my hips, hamstrings, neck and shoulders. Not to mention my heart, which was tied up in knots.

3. What is your favorite yoga pose right now?

My favorite pose at the moment is ardha chaturanga dandasana, or plank pose. I love practicing it and I love teaching it. Sometimes students have an aversion to it because it’s physically demanding, but once they learn to stabilize the shoulder and pelvic girdles and engage the muscles on the front of the body, they access a strength they didn’t know they had. I love the moment my students get it and feel that possibility within themselves.

4. What pose is still the most challenging?

The most challenging poses for me are always backbends like urdhva dhanurasana, wheel. A childhood gymnastic injury left me with a tight lower back, making the posterior pelvic tilt necessary for safe backbends a challenge. Yoga, patience and perseverance have helped a great deal. I am slowly opening up that previously locked area and look forward to more and more backbends to come.

5. If you were an animal, you would be:

I often look to my kitties, Henry and Millie, for yogic inspiration. They are masters of the ability to fully relax in their bodies. Even after stressful situations, they quickly “shake it off” and free themselves to relax in the present moment. And nothing beats the blissful sound of a cat purring at peace.

6. Describe what yoga means in your life using just 6 words:

Lengthens, strengthens, opens and frees me.

7. What might your students be surprised to learn about you?

One of my favorite things to do is cuddle up with my husband and watch competitive cooking, singing or design shows. Whether or not you like the type of food, singing or styling, it’s beautiful and inspiring to watch the performer’s ego soften so the purity of their gift can shine.

8. Do you have any words of wisdom or advice for new students?

Your practice matters! Every time you come to the mat, even for a few minutes, with the intention of opening yourself, you have an impact on those around you as well as the world at large. By making more space in your own mind, body and spirit, you are contributing to a more flexible, peaceful and loving world. It all starts with kindness in your own inner world. Just keep showing up. Namaste!

Yoga One’s next teacher training starts January 27th. To find out more about the eight week, two hundred hour course, I sat down with Hillary Trevett, a 2010 alumna of the training. For more information on dates, times and pricing go here or email info@yogaonesandiego.com.

It’s impossible to put Hillary down in words, so from the start, this is a failed mission. She’s the kind of person you notice the instant they walk into a room, even if your back is turned, the energy of her presence is so bright. A young woman who radiates confidence, vitality and happiness. Her sense of self is so strong, it’s hard to believe there was a time when Hillary wasn’t a yoga teacher or a time when she wasn’t sure of her direction in life.

We met at City Pizzeria right next door to the studio. Unsurprisingly, Hillary knows the owner and does a little dance while asking about the last time he got out on the water to surf. She orders a slice of ranch chicken pizza. “Yes, I like ranch and I’m not a vegetarian,” she confides to me.

Hillary grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, the fifth of six children. Her family didn’t have much and she decided that if she made a lot of money, everything would work out for the best. At SDSU, she studied Business Finance, made the dean’s list, signed up for clubs and accepted invitations to honor societies. In May of 2009, she graduated summa cum laude, poised to launch into the business world and make her mark. But this isn’t where her story starts.

It really begins in 2005, when Hillary took her first yoga class. At the end of class, the instructor led them through a guided savasana, bringing attention to each part of the body and relaxing it in turn. “My first savasana changed my entire life,” she said. It was the first time Hillary felt totally present in the room. When she woke up, she thought, “what was that?” knowing something had changed. In that moment, she felt the first small tug on her heart that would lead her down a different path.

How did you get to Yoga One?

“This is where the magic happens,” she responds with a big smile. The summer after graduation, Hillary traveled to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. While there, she felt a growing resistance towards the trajectory of her life. It felt like a role she was ready to take on, but her heart pulled away. “I just want to be happy,” was her realization as she stood on a beach halfway around the world with the sun shining in her eyes.

When she got back to the States, she pulled out a file of magazine clippings and photos she had saved for years as inspiration for the things she would do ‘one day.’ The kind of ‘one day’ everyone has in their minds that never gets pinned down to a date on the calendar. She found a clipping from four years before, a music review for Yoga One’s CD. In a series of events that now feel predestined, Hillary listened to the CD, found the studio and signed up for an inversion workshop. It was there that she heard about yoga teacher training and sat down with Michael and Amy Caldwell to learn more.

What changed for you over the course of Yoga Teacher Training?

“Midway through the course, I realized I can let of go of where I was going. That it’s okay to shift your course in life. Just by doing what makes me happy, I can really help other people. I began to trust that I could pay my bills and build a life for myself by teaching yoga.”

“Which I still struggle with sometimes,” she admits with a laugh. “In college, the world made me think that [business finance] was what I was supposed to be doing. After I signed up for yoga teacher training, I really grabbed my life by the balls and brought it into alignment.”

Now that she teaches yoga, she sees people with office jobs and loves helping them feel better in their bodies. She appreciates the people who choose to work in the business world even more now that she’s found her passion. “If I were working a corporate job, I think I would ask myself everyday, ‘okay, when does my real life get to start?’”

Hillary bounces on her chair, so excited to talk about the city she loves and the yoga she loves even more. “Open your heart,” she exclaims, spreading her arms out wide. “Breathe, smile, OPEN!” The last word comes out somewhere between a cry of joy and a commandment.

What would you say to people on the fence, who aren’t sure if Yoga Teacher Training is right for them?

“If you have some interest in yoga, you should do YTT because it’s the most powerful personal transformation – it affects your body, mind and spirit. Even if you never want to teach yoga, it will deepen your practice and your whole experience of life.”

“Follow the tugs on your heart,” she advises. If you’re even remotely interested in yoga teacher training, follow that spark, find out more, be open to kindling a new passion in life.