COMMUNIT Y
course. Maybe it would have been different in California, but we practiced
together when we could,” she states. The
practice worked, alleviating her pain so
she could sit for meditation, which was
the main goal after all. So, Nancy kept at
it throughout college and beyond.
During the years immediately after
graduating from IU, Nancy delved
deeper into meditation, becoming a follower and initiate of Maharaji. Along the
way, she met her future husband, Stan.
Yoga, meditation and healthy living
were more than practices for the couple,
they formed the bedrock of their lifestyle. Eventually, Nancy and Stan moved
to Florida and founded an organic farm
in the agricultural area south of Miami.
But, there was no yoga.
Craving a regular class practice of some
sort, Nancy started driving the forty-five
minutes to Miami to an Iyengar class.
“Well, that didn’t work for me because
it was so strict, and I can remember
the teachers would actually strike you
sometimes to correct your alignment
and such. Honestly, it felt a bit like mean
yoga to me,” she says. She ended up finding a Bikram style class in Fort Lauderdale and would drive through Miami all
the way to that class. “Although [it was]
also strict, it was a bit more fun and had
a nicer teacher.” She stops here to add
that back then, quite literally, there was
only those two regular classes for her
to attend in Florida. “One day, I just
thought to myself that what I was doing
was ridiculous—spending more time
driving on one of the busiest roads in
the state than I was practicing in class.”
First came the informal classes with employees of the farm and some other local
residents. Her teaching was based solely
on Nancy’s twelve years of personal experience on her own mat. But soon, she
started to think about obtaining formalized training and certification. Luckily,
the Sivananda lineage had an ashram in
the Bahamas, and Nancy set off on what
would be the first of many yoga training
programs. The year was 1986.
“At Sivananda, the focus really wasn’t
on asana, like many of today’s YTT pro-
INDIANA & YOGA MAGAZINE ISSUE I
grams,” Nancy says. “There was a whole
lot of karma yoga, chanting, pranayama,
sitting in meditation—as much as thirteen hours per day for an entire month,
quite intense!” She also recalls how there
were many masters who’d lived at the
ashram for years and taught specialty
topics from the 8-limbed path. With a
chuckle, Nancy described the “uniform”
that was (and still is) mandatory for
yoga students at Sivananda: loose-fitting
white pants and a short-sleeved t-shirt.
Modesty was a requirement, and skinbaring, or tight-fitting clothing that is
the norm today was a no-no.
Sivananda certification in hand, Nancy
returned to her farm in Florida for a bit,
but then found herself traveling once
again to deepen her studies. This time,
she landed in California. There, she enrolled in a second 200-hr yoga teacher
training with Ganga White and Tracey
Rich, founders of The White Lotus
Foundation. She relates that this experience was almost at polar opposites with
the Sivananda training. “At Sivananda,
nobody talked about the business side
of yoga…I guess they thought you’d
just live in an ashram,” she says. “But in
California, Tracey had painted nails and
was all pulled together and we learned a
bit about how one could make a living
through yoga. Plus, it wasn’t so strict. It
was hip California yoga.”
For a few minutes, Nancy draws more
comparisons and contrasts between
her first two yoga teacher certification
courses. It quickly becomes clear that
she relishes those memories. And, that
she seems to feel something has been
lost along the way, with the rapid growth
of yoga and the proliferation of training
programs of all varieties. “At Sivananda, for example, everything was based
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