I grew up in Canada until I moved to the United States with my husband of 16 years, whom I met while working in my family’s carnival business. Now we travel five months out of the year with our...
Yogi of the Month: Jackie Mays
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Get in the Holiday Spirit with The Yoga Sanctuary’s Melissa Goodwin
We are so proud of Melissa Goodwin, an instructor at The Yoga Sanctuary and accomplished children’s book author. In fact, Melissa has been published extensively in children’s and national magazines and won...
Yoga Practice On and Off the Mat—Margit
I often tell my yoga students that the hardest part of class is getting there—getting on your mat to practice. But no matter how difficult it might have been (aligning those stars to get there), you’re always...
Yogi of the Month—Susann
I was born the middle of three girls on June 4, 1943 in Philadelphia. My dad was an accountant with the Philadelphia Electric Company and my mom stayed home to raise us. In eighth grade, my Spanish...
Staff Spotlight: Barbara Melanson, RYT
Imagine a juggling act that involves a person running down a row of spinning plates balanced on sticks, trying to keep them all spinning? That is an apt description of my life! Most days, I am keeping my home...
Staff Spotlight: Jennifer French, E-RYT
"If you really want to understand something, teach it," often quotes my husband (many of you know I was recently married and still smile when I say "my husband"). It's one of the reasons he became a...
Staff Spotlight: Annie Moore
For me, yoga is as important off the mat as it is on it. While I may have come to my first yoga class wanting an exercise program, I quickly learned that simply doing yoga poses does not a yogini...
Staff Spotlight: Melissa Ann Goodwin, RYT
I was fortunate enough to take my first yoga class when I was 10 years old. My mom and I went together to classes at a community center in our town. I wasn't an athletic kid-didn't run fast, wasn't good at...
Staff Spotlight: Lisa Ahrens
Yoga holds a special place with me. I love the concept of "creating space" within the body. Having been physically active most of my life, like many, I have some areas which require my full...
Staff Spotlight: Melissa Meehan, RYT
Like many people, I tried yoga a handful of times and instantly liked it, but I didn't make it a priority at first. In 2005 I learned I was gluten intolerant, and it was a wakeup call that I needed...
Staff Spotlight: Yoga On and Off the Mat with Anna
I appreciate and enjoy asana practice as the physical aspect of the yoga tradition, which I have gradually turned into my lifestyle. Learning occurs through repetition and I try to practice...
Yogi of the Month: Jack McDowell
I was born in La Marque, Texas on Aug 13, 1953. My dad worked in construction and my mom was busy raising five of us kids. We spent our first eight years in Corpus Christy, TX and then traveled around the country...
Yogi of the Month-Rene Barton
Most of my 33-year education career teaching and being an assistant principle was spent in Des Moines, Iowa; the last six years spent here in Charlotte County. This fall my husband Mike and I will celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. Our daughter Kelly lives in...
The Yoga Sanctuary Staff Spotlight: Sally Bartolotta
I first decided to try Yoga in 2006 shortly after moving to Florida. I was looking for a way to get in shape and keep active, and kept hearing things about this "trendy exercise that all the stars are doing." I found a studio in Ocala and fell in love with yoga,...
The Joy of Yoga as Practiced with Others
There is something about practicing yoga in a group that really helps you develop your practice. The benefits of practicing yoga with others are many. When we practice together, we are challenged to keep a certain pace, try new poses, and honor our boundaries all...
Yoga Teacher Training 2013 Blog #5: Love the Work and See Where it Takes You
April 2013 Over the past few months we “TT’s” have been deeply entrenched in the work at hand, perhaps at times feeling unequal to the task, and understandably rather self involved! Now, as we prepare to turn the last page of this life chapter, we can glance up beyond...
Yoga Teacher Training 2013 Blog #4: Rites of Passage
Crazy as it seems, we are nearing the end of The Yoga Sanctuary Teacher Training Program of 2012 – 2013. I’m not yet at the point to sit back and try to summarize the experience. Next month, perhaps. Or maybe never, as summary would most certainly fall short of any...
Yoga Teacher Training 2013 Blog #3: Finding Your Voice
By Sherry Bechtold In considering the topic of Finding Your Voice, I felt it more than appropriate to ask some of my fellow students to express their feelings, thoughts, observations about their own experience in the YTT program. Their remarks appear in quotes...
Yoga Teacher Training 2013 Blog #2: The Plot Thickens!
A month into our Teacher Training Program and two remarkable things have happened: 1) we have learned a LOT and 2) the reality of how much is involved in this teaching yoga thing is setting in! The LOT part includes the many hours we have spent on Asana with Jennifer....
Yoga Teacher Training 2013 Blog #1: “I” becomes “We”
My name is Sherry. I am 66 years old and I’ve been practicing Yoga for almost 30 years….with some seriousness for the past 15 years. This is my third year practicing at The Yoga Sanctuary, and I suspect it was my experience here that put the idea of teaching into my...