Susan Geisel

I have been an athlete my entire adult life.  I have always been drawn to (but never knew how to express it until I discovered yoga) the mysteriously profound connection between the physical and the emotional/spiritual.  I am a long-time runner, a cyclist, and a tennis player.  Once upon a time, I thrilled to choreographed aerobics classes; I still lift weights twice a week.  When I took my first yoga class, years ago, it was because I wanted a new physical challenge, a new way to plug into this experience I couldn’t quite define, but understood was significant.  I never dreamed, though, that yoga would influence my entire life in the way that it has. 

I stepped out onto my yoga path years ago with Bikram yoga, which I practiced, and happily embraced, for several years.  Eventually, though, I found myself yearning for more, wanting to learn more - but more of what, I could not have really told you. I set out on a search and found my way into a brilliant Ashtanga class, with a teacher – Shariff Roberts – who had a profound effect on my yoga.  To this day, Ashtanga remains the dominant influence on my personal practice, and has a place very close to my heart.  Over the years, I have also had the great good fortune to learn from numerous incredible yoga teachers of various styles.  My practice and my teaching are tremendously nurtured by the remarkable teachers with whom I’ve been blessed to cross paths.

To me, yoga is this life’s most abundant tool box.  If you apply this metaphor, and you look with care, and dedication – and trust – into yoga, you will find an ever-expanding resource to return to again and again.  This is certainly what I have learned over the last number of years as my practice has expanded and deepened from what was once simply a new form of physical exercise into what is now an axis for my life.  Yoga has shed such a meaningful light on my understanding of the human physical form; helped me to comprehend its structures, functions and relationships (both interior and exterior) in ways I never did before.  Yoga has challenged my notions of the intellectual, of spirituality and religion, and has asked me to investigate my own ideas, learn more, discuss more, think more.  Yoga has taught me the skills I need to look inward, to quiet my mind, to face life’s stresses and my own fears in healthy, positive ways.  Yoga has shown me over and over again the path to self-acceptance.  I think – still – that, in our culture, it is so easy to lose sight of that path, and that one must find it anew every day.  Yoga helps me find that path.  Yoga quietly reminds me to be me – to be honest, genuine, and authentic at all times.  Because yoga places one in a community of people walking the path of self-acceptance – and, many times, self-expression - by design it fosters honest and authentic relationships – in the classroom and outside. 

After many years of practice, I chose to pursue my teaching certification through Kripalu, in western Massachusetts.  Kripalu’s viewpoint of yoga as a way of life really resonates with me.  I think that living yoga is undoubtedly something people respond to in me, and I strive to be a teacher who effectively communicates that to her students – in class and off the mat.  Because yoga found me years ago, and has shaped my life ever since, I am an example of this truth to fellow students and others seeking to understand yoga more.  As a yoga teacher, I want to encourage my students to employ yoga in all areas of their life – to enhance physical awareness and health; to discover the beauty of balance (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual); to learn the connectedness in breath, body, mind; to find peace in the stillness and quiet of meditation; to support other healthy lifestyle choices; to find and cultivate the path of self-acceptance; to learn the exhilarating freedom in non-judgment; to embrace and nurture authentic relationships.