Restorative Yoga ``` Breast Cancer Yoga Yoga Teacher Training and Immersion
Interdisciplinary Yoga Instructor
Angela combines her studies, experience, and understanding of the Ashtanga Yoga System, Jivamukti Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Intergral Yoga, Bhakti Yoga (Devotional Yoga), and Jnana Yoga (Intellectual Yoga) to encourage and challenge her students physically, mentally and spiritually. There is an element of focus and concentration well-balanced with lightness, joy and a sense of humor. Practitioners are guided to experience and live their personal understanding of YOGA… UNION.
📷Angela has been on a path of self discovery/self study since she was a child. She is an interdisciplinary Bhakti Yogi (Devotional Yogi). Angela’s first teachers were her family. They were role models for Union with the “Divine/Creation/Self”. After a few years of “suffering” from an Eating Disorder Angela discovered Hatha Yoga (Physical Yoga), while studying for a Bachelors Degree in Psychology.
Angela has had the honor of practicing with many Masters of Ashtanga, Jivamukti, Vinyasa and Hatha Yoga through numerous retreats, workshops, classes and Teacher Trainings. Some of the more well known Masters of these disciplines that she has studied with include: Sri K Pattabhi Jois, Tim Miller, Richard Freeman, James Butkevich, David Life, Sharon Gannon, Swami Bua, Amba Stapleton, and Don Stapleton of Nosara Institute. Angela has studied Sanskrit with Manorama from Sanskrit Studies and chanting with many Bhakti Yogis such as Krishna Das. Angela also attributes her understanding of Yoga and the mind to her literary studies of many Buddhist and Yogic texts.
A Jewel in The Lotus Yoga has had many incarnations. When I started “my yoga”, A Jewel in The Lotus, I had a vision of offering the most serene, state-of-the-art yoga instruction on Long Island. Most students and friends say I have achieved my goal.
However, the journey has not come without its struggles and triumphs.
It is said, “No Mud, No Lotus.”
I am continuously evolving and growing as a woman and instructor of Yoga, and I, too, have experienced hardship from which I’ve grown.
A Jewel in the Lotus Yoga lives on within many great teachers and human-beings, as the school has certified over one hundred 200-hour teachers, eight chair-yoga teachers, and a dozen Breast Cancer Yoga Teachers…
We are, as I am, in a new phase.
Although I’ve had two spaces that I grew from nothing (one in Port Jefferson, NY and one in Islip, NY), A Jewel in the Lotus isn’t simply a physical space of Brick and Mortar –
The essence of A Jewel in the Lotus Yoga has long-thrived beyond the walls of a conventional studio, this includes the successful integration of yoga programs in gyms (before there were real Yoga Programs in gyms.) I have also started and ran successful programs within my own Space, as well as the local college. I have been sharing yoga in college since September of 2000.
No matter where I share yoga… … my home, a gym, a studio, outside… the message of Yoga is conveyed.
This is with thanks to the great teachers I both studied with and trusted along my journey. When practiced properly, the 10,000-year old science of Yoga works.
I feel in my heart, my deep study of Self since I am a teen, has made me a good teacher of yoga. I have cultivated deep compassion and empathy for myself and for all living beings. I have found that the practice and science of Yoga is one of the many paths to help relieve a human-being from their suffering.
A Jewel in the Lotus Yoga is rooted within a combination of my studies, experiences, and understanding from many years of both study and practice of the Ashtanga Yoga System, as well as the beautiful Jivamukti Yoga System. I studied Vinyasa Yoga with some of the best. The Hatha system of Intergral Yoga came a little later in my practice, but upon delving into that as well, I found that I love the Guru and the Yoga. So much so, I took a certification with them in my late thirties. Bhakti Yoga (Devotional Yoga) is a main part of my practice: I follow Krishna Das and a few Kirtan Wallahs to get my fill. You will find me singing or saying Mantra any chance I can. Mantra is always incorporated into a class or practice. I have always enjoyed studying and reading and have read many Yogic texts. I incorporate Jnana Yoga (Intellectual Yoga) into my classes and trainings to encourage and challenge our students physically, mentally, and spiritually.
I had the honor of mentoring under my dear friend, Diana Ross, for Restorative Yoga and Breast Cancer Yoga.
My students find the element of focus and concentration within their practice helps them to balance their hectic lives, and to create peace, tranquility, flexibility, health, and personal well-being. I believe Yoga to be a holistic practice, not just an activity where one comes, performs an exercise, and leaves with only a sense of physical accomplishment.
I teach with lightheartedness, joy, and compassion, making all practitioners feel welcome, no matter their level of ability.
My practitioners are guided to experience and live their personal understanding of Yoga - which is known as UNION, the connection to everything and anything around them. This practice teaches us to live yoga daily, to incorporate it into our everyday lives.
