Meet JiaJia

Certified Anusara Teacher 

Beijing, China

It is a true grace to me getting to know Anusara yoga. Anusara is like a light for my yoga path in the past decade. Before I met Anusara yoga, I used Iyengar’s method to teach. When I was pregnant, I found one Anusara’s textbook. At that time, I was deeply attracted by the book’s philosophy, especially when it came to the “Dance with grace，Embrace all magical life forms” chapter. So right after giving birth, I immediately jumped into Anusara training class with an informed vision of light and love from the book.

I have studied the courses of Chen ya, Benjamin, Adam, Bridget woods Kramer and Carlos. What touched me the most was their smiles with ease and joy on all the teachers’ faces plus their genuine compassion for their students. I believe there are two kinds of smiles in the world. One is called the Duchenne smile. This kind of smile is a smile from the heart such as the teachers. The corners of your mouth rise and the crow’s feet appear and you feel it. The other kind of smile is not from the heart, or Chinese people often say that “the skin laughs but the flesh doesn’t”. Anusara’s philosophy taught me to smile with my heart in practice.

Anusara yoga class is full of happiness. Before that, I thought yoga classes were supposed to be quiet. Especially the yoga class that teacher Benjamin taught me can be so cheerful and happy. Everyone in the class will laugh or smile from their heart. It is this joyful atmosphere that makes me relax. I was always afraid of handstands until one of the teachers, Benjamin, taught me that ease and love at the moment is more powerful in the face of fear in doing difficult postures.

Anusara yoga has a beautiful alignment. It is scientific, safe, systematic and effective. This beautiful alignment helped my body and mind return to the best “blueprint” of myself. It is also one of the best postpartum repair techniques. I later used this technique in our Maternity Yoga course, which is called “Anusara informed maternity course”. It turns out that the classroom atmosphere is much better and useful to students than before.

I started teaching Anusara yoga in every class. It is like creating a work of art. I fully enjoyed the course process. I followed my heart to intentionally create a theme then led the students to explore, create and allow everyone to creatively express their heart through the connection of various postures in practice. A collective work of art integrated with life energy was created by us. We celebrate life in this way, feeling the most real ease and happiness while enjoying the light of our souls.

 I love how each Anusara teacher needs to find the beauty of themselves and students in teaching, not just to correct students’ postures. Instead, we explore and strengthen the original beauty in students’ postures. This is completely opposite to my previous teaching. With such an attitude, we enable the students to create and explore the movement with ease, dance with grace, and show their original beauty in practice.

Anusara yoga has changed me and my way of approaching life. Move with the flow with life to find ease and real happiness. I hope that I can pass on this light and explore different forms of beauty through Anusara.