brian baty

My first teacher, Chris Furtak, is an amazing woman. She is 69 years old and has lived an incredable life. She has two artificial knees, a huge heart (all her profits are donated to charities like Bread for the Jouney and Heffer International), and a large student following. I first met her in the spring of 2002. I was a 24 year old gym rat who loved to lift weights and hated to stretch. I knew nothing about yoga, but for some reason, still unknown to me, I REALLY wanted to try yoga. After my first class, I knew there was someting special there, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It took a little while but soon I started looking around for more classes and different teachers. I slowly brought yoga into my regular workouts. I would run and practice three times a week and lift five days. After a while I replaced the weights with yoga, although I still loved to run. Three years ago my knees started to bother me and I realized that I had to say goodbye to running. Since then I have practiced yoga almost daily. I meditate every morning and practice breathwork as well. I still can't pinpoint the exact reason I went to that first class, but I am very happy I did.