Priya is a 500 – hour yoga teacher whose study began several years ago in a “yogalates” class at the local YMCA, which she had joined in hopes of flattening her stomach, slimming her arms, and firming her backside. However instead of shaping her body, she found that a spiritual journey had begun to take shape. As the months went by, she was drawn more and more to what she recognized as the yoga elements of the class; those poses with long Sanskrit names that made her breath deep, concentrate fully, and eventually relax. Intrigued and determined to know more, she turned to the only place where she knew the word yoga was mentioned over and over again — the Bhagavad Gita. There she found verses that made her think deeply about her purpose in life and reevaluate the nature of her very existence, but no mention of the feel – good stretches she had fallen in love with at the YMCA. In fact, it wasn’t until she blindly walked into her first teacher training in 2014, that she began to understand the connection between yoga’s physical practices and spiritual growth.

Priya found herself at an ashram in India for the first time in 2014 where she found that yoga provided her with invaluable tools for navigating life and relationships in the face of loss and change.

These days, Priya is still very much in love with the yoga that moves breath and energy through the body, but she is also equally if not more enamored with the yoga of service and the yoga of devotion. She is grateful to have found in Small World Yoga, a community that allows her to express her commitment to all three paths.