How I became a teacher

If I could go back in time and tell myself that in my thirties I’d be teaching yoga, Pilates, and aerial fitness, teenage Alana would’ve scoffed in disbelief. I was never an athletic kid and have always had an uncomfortable relationship with my own body.

Then my mom (that’s her on the right in the picture) enrolled us in a Mom and Daughter yoga class at a Mississauga community center. I was fifteen, with all the grumpy charm of an awkward teenager, and grudgingly went along.

I was mortified when we arrived and all the other daughters in the class were little kids. But then the teacher, Anne Marie, got us moving and for the first time in my life, I forgot about my thick thighs or splotchy skin and just felt good moving my body.

I was hooked. My yoga journey had ebbs and flows over the decade that followed and I continued to study with Anne Marie and many other teachers in Kitchener-Waterloo, where I moved for school and eventually started working full-time in marketing and communication.

Then the pandemic hit. Yoga once again became my refuge - a place to come back to, to settle the mind, and to continue to connect with others online. When the pandemic began to wind down, I realized that I didn’t feel fully myself working my office job anymore. I wanted to share the things I’d gained from yoga with others.

I took my teacher training in winter of 2022 and haven’t looked back since.