My yoga journey initially took me from home in the cosy closely-linked family environment in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (Canada) to the hills of Val-Morn, Quebec. It is here where I was first exposed to yogic life at the Sivananda Ashram.
My experience there sparked my curiosity and made me question my life and purpose for “being”. As these questions lingered in my mind during my time at the ashram, I realised a desire to change my current perspective, get out of my comfort zone and experience the greater world.
As all good journeys go, the path isn’t always straight and often winds and twists, partly to teach us the ways of the spirit and the world.
Since my initial experience at the ashram in Quebec, I have also studied yoga at the Sivananda Ashram in Trivandrum, India, the Yoga Vidya Dham Ashram in Nasik, India, and completed training in Australia.
In the last two years, I’ve completed a 12-month apprenticeship with a Senior Teacher with Yoga Australia (Steve Hinchliffe, owner of Vinyasa Yoga Wollongong), and completed training in Anatomy and Physiology of Yoga with Simon Borg-Olivier (Yoga Synergy), Restorative Yoga with Ana Davis (Bliss Baby Yoga), and studied under Clive Sheridan in Sydney and Byron Bay (at the Tallow Beach Retreat).
During my journey, I travelled around parts of Asia, where I taught English as a Second Language (ESL), met my husband (James/Jim), and became a mother. We now have two beautiful children (who inspire me to live life to its fullest and with minimal regrets) and live in Australia.
I was a primary school teacher for over twenty years and although I have been practising yoga since 2004, I transitioned into yoga teaching about two years ago.
Yoga is not merely a new career for me. It is my purpose outside of family.
Jim has recently invested more of his spare time in helping me to develop the online aspects of Jen Kokoska Yoga. I’ll let him say a little about what he does.
Jim
Hi everyone.
Although yoga isn’t my calling, giving the best of myself and loving, caring, and supporting my wife and our children in their interests and passions is.
I work as an engineer during the day, and by night, I don a Batman suit and fight crime - not.
Seriously, I work as an engineer in a very interesting daytime job, and I invest at least 3 hours a day (Monday to Friday) and then about 5 hours a day during the weekend, to help Jen with building and maintaining an online infrastructure for Jen Kokoska Yoga.
I still set aside time to sleep about 6 hours daily, exercise about 150 minutes a week (so roughly 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week), and spend some quality time with my family. I just don’t have much time to watch TV or scour social media (outside of connecting with students and building business-related connections). I do my best to maximise the 168 hours we have every week.
I’ve been doing this 20 to 25 hour a week side-hustle (a term coined by experienced marketers and business people like Gary Vaynerchuk) since late January 2018, and I really enjoy it.
I enjoy learning the nuances of social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook, and the “mechanics” of brand building, relevant-content creation and building and maintaining a website. As a proud nerd, I thoroughly enjoy data analysis and thinking of creative solutions to achieve desired outcomes.
I know Jen’s students enjoy her teaching style and classes, and I hope I can add value to them through Jen Kokoska Yoga. I aim to achieve this value by creating an online environment that includes relevant audio-visual and written content.
Cheers, Jim.
Conclusion
Well, that’s our story at Jen Kokoska Yoga so far.
We both wish you the best in your own personal yoga journey, and we hope to provide safe guidance to you through your growth.
Please contact use via Messenger, email or the other social media channels, if you have a question or two.
We’ll do our best to help.
Namaste,
Jen and Jim