LISA MENG

WHAT DREW YOU TO KATONAH YOGA?

In every other yoga practice I encountered, I found the experience to range from mild entertainment to a rush of adrenaline and while those sorts of reactions can keep you temporarily engaged, I could never answer the question of WHY. Why were we so diligently following a sequence of postures that an instructor was calling out? At Katonah yoga, it was the first time I heard any yoga instructor speak about the organ system and the connection between physiology and psychology. I became drawn to the pragmatism of the practice, the wisdom that belied each pose and string of poses, to set up formal structure in the body in order to function better. 

HOW HAS KATONAH CHANGED YOUR PRACTICE & TEACHING?

In the past, my practice and my teaching could be described as a hobby. It was only once I found Katonah that I considered my yoga practice to be therapeutic. This practice opens to the practitioner a toolbox of devices on how to travel through the body, how to feel better in the body, ultimately leading to an understanding of how to travel better through life. With this set of tools, we are also granted the power of knowledge and imagination. We begin to know the body well and become able to utilize our vision to determine which tool to use at what time. As a student, Katonah has changed my practice in that I have become the most powerful teacher of my practice. As a teacher, my aim is no longer to give an experience, but rather to show how an experience can be cultivated for oneself. 

HOW HAVE YOU SEEN KATONAH CHANGE STUDENTS?

The most profound change I've seen Katonah have on students is the self awareness that it gives. Students may have practiced other disciplines for years without acknowledging that they have a particular preference to one side, or a hip that won't rotate. Through this practice, everything that was unseen becomes seen, everything that was dull has the potential to become shiny. Students develop insights into the self that they otherwise may have never been able to gain.