Back Bay Yoga Bio Posted!
Bio is up on the Back Bay Yoga Teachers page & I’m psyched!!
Still working a decent headshot to go with the bio… all my photos these days seem to be very relaxed happy snaps around the house by Beloved Husband & not exactly fit for publicity purposes! (Gotta start wearing make up at home… 
If the stars align properly, hope to appear on the schedule after Labor Day (can you believe it’s already September?!?) but will wait & post that when it’s final.
Practicing at home today for some Free the Spine TLC. It’s very fun because the most recent MP3 set released on Ana’s website (www.forrestyoga.com; still 25% off via Alive Yoga!!) was recorded in DC at a 3 day workshop series that I attended.
So the “Elizabeth” she is correcting very audibly & publicly is in fact me.
PS: Bob Weisenberg was kind enough in the comment section yesterday to give a great link to Dr. Taylor on You Tube & I wanted to highlight it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU
Back Bay Yoga Link & Bio
http://www.backbayyoga.com/teachers.html#elizabethPope
Elizabeth Pope
Elizabeth believes it is never too late to be what we might have been. After a lifetime of travel, she found that home is where the yoga mat is. At the age of ten, Elizabeth moved from a small farm in Indiana to downtown Tokyo, Japan and has never really stopped moving since. She started yoga to try and change herself — to force a round peg into some pretty square holes — and found instead that yoga changed her whole life by putting her on the road to healing addiction, bulimia and it gave her back her spirit.
So she also believes in gratitude, and is grateful for the privilege of playing on the mat on four continents with some of the best teachers in the world, including Ana Forrest, David Swenson, Dharma Mittra, Kasthaub Desikachar and her fellow students. Furthermore, she believes in the power of pairs, holding two MA degrees from Georgetown University and two 200 hour yoga teaching certifications.
Elizabeth did her first Ashtanga-based teacher training at Union Yoga in Edinburgh, commuting in from Germany while working as a counterproliferation/counterterrorism planner for the US Air Force. (Yep, really. She can’t believe it now either.) The only thing better than hearing Sanskrit in a Scottish accent was when Ana Forrest came for a week and completely turned the world upside down. After a pilgrimage to India to feel, see and taste the roots of the practice, Elizabeth moved back to the US, completed Ana’s Forrest Yoga Teacher Training and nothing has ever been the same in the best of all possible ways.
Finally, most importantly, she believes that the quest for enlightenment and healing should come with a lot of laughs. If she can share with you even a fraction of what yoga has done for her, it will fulfill her purpose and delight her heart. She can’t wait to meet you on the mat!
Tags: Back Bay Yoga
September 1st, 2009 at 11:13 am
Ahhh, I love that bio! Lots of fun details I haven’t had the privilege of reading/knowing before!
September 1st, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Wow, I am very impressed by your bio! You really did move around a bit! I’ve downloaded Free Your Spine from Alive Yoga (and two other workshops, taking advantage of the 25 % discount) and practiced with it on Sunday. Have to do it again soon and pay special attention to the corrections.
Btw, thank you for your kind words in response to my first comment a few days ago. Right now, I am stuck in that in-between place where I identified some attitudes/habits that pave the way for bingeing and purging episodes, but that, when I am very, very honest, I don’t want to give up. Seems, I am finding pleasure in my addiction! How weird is that?
Greetings from Germany!
Manuela
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:55 am
Manuela, I’m not surprised at all that disordered eating behavior meets needs & provides a sense of pleasure/relief/etc. That’s what keeps us so hooked… for me it was the momentary obliteration of anything but the sensory stimulation & then totally could be distracted by internal recrimination & need to purge. Very handy to keep occupied rather than having to engage in anything other than the disorder. Can you also get in touch with the pain it causes & covers?
Glad you’re trying the MP3s out!! Christine & Melody are called out in the Free Your Spine one; I haven’t worked through the 8 hr block set & am looking forward to it! Which other ones did you get to try?
Greetings back to Germany!
E.
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:11 pm
What a great looking bio.
Looks like you’re in great company there at Back Bay. Impressive website. I really get a feel for the place and the personalities of the teachers.
I lived near Tokyo for two years in high school. I think it was pretty formative in the sense that it got me very interested early on in other cultures.
You’ve done a lot of great stuff. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Bob Weisenberg
yogademystified.com
September 2nd, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Elizabeth, this is exactly what I meant. My yoga practice is pulling some very unwanted skeletons out of the cupboard – I’d rather they stayed hidden! Their names are Angst, anxiety, fear, self-loathing – you get the picture, I think. It is finally time to face them, if only for 90 seconds at a time. I think I can do that
.
I downloaded “Open yor Heart” and “Unravelling the Mysteries of Neck, Shoulders and Hips”, but have not tried them yet. Those workshops are a bit too long for workdays, but perfect for long, quiet Sunday afternoons. There are no yoga studios nearby, therefore I practice at home with DVDs and podcasts, with the occasional workshop thrown in. “Strength and Spirit”, the Forrest Yoga DVD for beginners, is still one of my favourites, although I revert to it mostly when I want to do a nice, relaxed, not too taxing practice – and it was so tough at first!
Manuela
September 2nd, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Manuela, anytime you can hang with those yuckola skeletons for 5 seconds or 30 or 90 or whatever is a giant victory, deserving of much self-praise & inner hugs. Really. Please appreciate all you do to take care of yourself. Am very familiar with all them demons & you’re a warrior to take them on.
The MP3s you named are all great. I love the Celebrate Your Practice alot, but its 3 hrs… for shorter Forrest MP3s, Heidi Sormaz has a bunch on Alive Yoga under her studio name “Fresh Yoga” that run 1 hr on up to 2 plus. All are pure Forrest but with shorter time frames.
Thinking of you & big hugs,
E.
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:45 am
Awesome bio! That was a cool read.
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Thank you for the support, Bob & Zmama & Terra! It was fun to try & write something that would make strangers want to come take class with me.
Bob — where did you go to high school? I was at Sacred Heart, right in Hiroo, but my brother went to St Mary’s, & a whole passel of Americans go to ASIJ as you may well know.