Tania McCartney

Tania McCartney

I am currently a rehab assistant for a private company and work with people ages 3 – 90, including children with autism to seniors recovering from strokes and literally everyone in between. The pandemic has taken me on a journey to research going back to school and I have decided to pursue a degree in social work beginning this fall. I am so excited. I am 42 and feel like I am so much more well-prepared to embark on my career. I went to school for theatre in my early 20s without much guidance, and I feel now what I was looking for then was a way to be in meaningful relationship with people. It has been a slow journey, with no regrets, and now I am where I need to be. 

After 2 years of research looking for a studio to do my yoga teacher training, I began taking classes in 2007 at Esther Myers Yoga Studio. I first took a class with Tama Soble and Monica Voss at the Yoga Conference and while I was so confused with the simplicity of the method, my whole being was drawn to it. 

 The approach to yoga at EMYS is the most sound and inclusive approach that I have encountered. It is a living model that feels adaptive to the times and the body that I live in. In the Interior of BC I have found wonderful teachers, who teach other approaches, but I always come back to Tama and Monica’s teachings. Having a family, establishing ourselves later in life, and having ageing parents and small children has been a rollercoaster, and I am so grateful for the practice that I have to come back to. 

I teach three yoga classes per week on top of my rehab work. I don’t have a formal daily asana practice. I hike out my back door, I yoga sometimes, I meditate, I make food for friends, I run, I garden, I play, I work, and I practise gratitude for it all – even the crappy bits. I think one of the biggest blessings of the pandemic is to be able to study regularly with Tama again on Zoom. 

The first time I went back to EMYS after moving away, I lay on the floor and cried. I felt like I was home. 

I think anyone who wants to play and inquire and experiment benefits from the approach taught at the Studio. Total beginners benefit, but it also helps those of us who have more rigid beliefs about our beings and all of the interdependent systems. The practice unravels some of that, bit by bit, and we become beginners again. And we arrive. Home.

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