Teacher Spotlight: Angela Meyer!

Flowgis!  We are so happy to feature Angela Meyer in our Teacher Spotlight!  Read on to learn more about this unique and inspiring teacher.

What inspires you to practice at Flow?

The variety of teachers with unique life experiences and styles. Each one brings heart, passion and knowledge through different containers. Also, the genuine love and integrity of the ownership/staff is felt throughout the community.

What was your first yoga experience like?

I am an ex-collegiate soccer player. My roommate/running partner raved about yoga and drug me to a Bikram Yoga class, kicking and screaming. I sweat more than I ever had in a 90 minute soccer game and was sore in areas I didn't think could ever be sore. As a lover of intensity, I was hooked.

Who are some of your most influential teachers?

As a forever student, I have so many influential teachers. Early on in my yoga teaching days, Coeli Marsh took me under her wing as my Mr. Miyagi of yoga teaching. She is a Boston based teacher/healer/mentor, and understood my soul.

What is your current practice like and how does it fit into your daily routine?

I am a "seasons" kinda gal. Meaning, I do my best to follow my internal compass and not external "shoulds and shouldn'ts." My current "practice" is fierce love. This does not always show up through physical asana, but an everyday intention to stay open, listen to my intuition, be a kind human, face-plant often, get back up, and passionately believe "love" is worth fighting for.

What is something the Flow community may not know about you?

I think a lot of the Flow community already knows I train seriously in Martial Arts. For me, yoga is the other side of the same coin.

My other huge passions are working at a place called Joseph's House, an AIDS hospice in Adams Morgan and writing/editing for Elephant Journal. I see Death, Yoga and Martial Arts as a Triangle with breath as the common thread. Writing is a medium to share my humanness and be of benefit to others.

Teacher Spotlight: Caroline Weaver

Caroline (in the middle) with Richard Freeman (L) and Mary Taylor (R)!

Please meet our featured teacher, Caroline Weaver! Caroline is celebrating her 10th anniversary teaching at Flow - how incredible! We are so fortunate to have Caroline on staff - a teacher with a never-ending thirst for further knowledge, who is always intensely exploring the depths of yoga through her own practice.  Truly inspiring!

What inspires you to practice at Flow?

Flow is like a second home to me. Every day I am inspired by the dedication of Deb and Ian and the staff, who make me feel so supported—I'm incredibly grateful to them. I'm inspired by my Flow yoga teacher colleagues, who are infinitely generous and knowledgeable. Finally, I am inspired by the folks who show up for class—some of whom I've known for years, whose practices I've seen change over time, and some who I'm just meeting for the first time. Their willingness to show up, to keep coming back, inspires me to keep learning, keep experimenting, keep growing as a teacher and as a student myself.

What was your first yoga experience like?

I think I was 12 or 13—there was a teacher in summer school who taught us sun salutations and yoga nidra. I loved it but being a teenager wasn't really interested in equanimity or peace of mind, ha ha. So the yoga fell by the wayside until my late 20s.

Who are some of your most influential teachers?

Max Strom, John Schumacher, Richard Freeman and Mary Taylor, Doug Keller, and, as of late, Christina Sell. I'm also very interested in the work of Matthew Sanford and plan to go study with him sometime in the next year.

What is something the Flow community may not know about you?

Oh gosh, I wish I had a zany anecdote to tell but the truth is my life has probably been fairly boring up to now—at least compared to some folks I know! I'm cool with that, though. I'm grateful for this life. And I'm grateful for the people and circumstances that allow me to teach yoga.

What is your current practice like and how does it fit into your daily routine?

I fit it in when and how I can! Usually that means practicing in the morning, whether it's in the Mysore room or at home. Whatever I am doing, I want to work with intelligence, with discernment and perception, so it is a creative and truth-seeking endeavor. I approach practice based on how things are feeling—I'm definitely not a fundamentalist—but I am specific and intentional about it. So for example, this morning I had planned on going to Cory's Led Primary class, but because of some pain in my body I decided to practice at home instead, a therapeutic viniyoga-style practice with pranayama, yoga nidra, and meditation. (I know that sounds really long but the whole thing was only about 45 minutes.)

Thank you for sharing, Caroline! We are so grateful that you have chosen to make Flow your yoga home!

Instructor Spotlight: Alicia Moyer

Alicia Moyer has been teaching yoga at Flow since 2015. Join Alicia on the mat on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1230 for a creative vinyasa flow! 

Get to know Alicia! 

How did you come to your yoga practice?  

I started yoga in 1998 in Austin, TX at a local community center. The class cost $7 and the teacher had taught himself the poses from Iyengar's Light on Yoga. He was incredible and I will be forever indebted to him for opening the door to this path for my life. At the time I was very stiff from running and riding my bike a lot and I try to remember the feeling of not being able to touch the floor in a forward bend when I work with newer students. The world opened up for me when I discovered vinyasa flow after years of hatha and Bikram and now I find creative flow sequencing to be one of the most nourishing ways to awaken and liberate the body and mind. 

What are your favorite asanas? 

Two of my favorite poses have always been Utthita Parsvakonasana and Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana. They were poses I could do from the start but I find them endlessly refinable and love all of the variations you can play with when teaching a group class.

What is your favorite music to listen to while you practice?

Lately at home I have just been practicing to a recording of Nina Rao chanting the Hanuman Chalisa. It's really lovely and repetitive and therefore quite meditative. In my group classes I play music mainly to keep myself on track with the time since we usually only have 60 or 75 minutes together! There was a time when I used to spend hours creating playlists but now I kind of like the music to be more in the background just keeping a little beat to keep the energy lifted or to signal that it's time to ground down. 

Anything else you'd like to share with the Flow community? 

I am so honored and grateful to be a part of the 300-hour Advanced Teacher Training at Flow beginning this fall. Working with teachers is one of my greatest joys and I am so excited about the unique program we have put together for the participants. Flow has some of the most dedicated yoga practitioners in the city and I am humbled to pass down the teachings to such amazing students. 

Learn more about Flow's 300 Hour Teacher Training here.  

Instructor Highlight: Lisa Marie Thalhammer

Yoga has transformed my life in so many ways. The practice has given me the skills to heal my concussion, beat depression and let go of unhealthy relationships. Currently, I feel more expressive with my movements and more comfortable in my body than ever before. I’m now capable of objectively observing negative thoughts and processing them using the tools of meditation, mindfulness and asana. I feel my spirit uplifted through the practice of yoga and when I’m on my mat I use that time to give gratitude. 

As a visual artist who is most known for painting rainbow color networks and portraits of empowered humans, recently I received a 2017 D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship. My drawings can be seen at Flow’s neighboring art gallery, Transformer, located at 1404 P Street. Additionally, my murals can be seen in multiple locations around the district including Local 16 roof bar and 926 N St rear NW (Blagden Alley). You can check out my art online at lisamariestudio.com

As an artist, I like to bring creativity and interesting uplifting music to my yoga classes. We touch upon the fundamentals of meditation and yoga theory, in addition to moving through a well rounded physical asana practice. In my classes you’ll always have a moment to set an intention for your practice and give thanks for the day while also moving through a dynamic physical practice. 

Lisa Marie Thalhammer at the 2017 Capital Pride Parade standing in Star Pose in front of her LOVE artwork on a vintage VW truck.

When the Learning Starts

I’m not sure exactly when I stopped obsessing over asana. There’s been a gradual shift over the past couple of years, as I’ve become less hungry for the next pose and more hungry for how to become a better teacher, a more devoted practitioner, a better person. This year has been full of unexpected challenges which have shifted my perspective. I went to India to practice and was stopped there by life circumstances. I went to Encinitas to see my teacher to help me through an injury when I was too scared to practice, and now I’m working on new techniques and at a different pace.

I’m here in Boulder almost 3/4 of the way through Richard Freeman’s month-long teacher intensive. This has been on my Ashtanga bucket list for years, and it has absolutely been worth the wait. The practice is slow and deliberate, led mostly by Richard. Confession: we haven’t done full primary yet! It’s a different thing for me, to take a month off from teaching and not bust out my practice. I teach all year, and when I go away I really like to focus on my asana practice because I so often just don’t have the energy or focus to invest into my own asana.

But this year, it seems, is different.

It’s a new thing for me to take time off to practice and to realize that I’m not that interested in practicing asana. Don’t get me wrong – I love asana! But in not focusing specifically on asana work, I’ve been able to focus on being a better teacher, a more devoted practitioner, and a better person. I’ve been able to shift toward serving my students better, and I’ve had this modeled to me so well by my own teachers.

You know what? It’s just as exciting and just as rewarding as any study or practice I’ve ever done.

Over the years, I’ve started to realize what it means to be a teacher. A teacher performs a function to a student, projects possibilities for growth to the student, and is representative of the path – this is no joke! Students are vulnerable to teachers, and that’s a delicate relationship that needs to be honored.

A teacher nurtures the journey of the student while not interfering with their path. Teachers work with all the hopes and fears of their students. A teacher should never hold on too tightly, but instead foster a love for the practice and empower students to be their best selves.

As a teacher, I try to create a warm and supportive environment for my students. A place where everyone feels welcome, safe, and supported. A place where growth and transformation are not only possible, but happen every day. I believe that a teacher should empower students, not hold them back or tell them how to feel. My goal as a teacher is for students to surpass me and eventually to find teachers who know more than me.

I’ve only learned all this because I have been blessed with amazing teachers. Teachers who have given to me generously, who hold me up, who humble me, who give me confidence and tell me I can. My teachers encourage me to study with other people and continue to learn.

What I value most in a teacher now is someone who supports not only my practice but my teaching, and gives me something to model myself after. The way I see it, great teachers are those who want to be surpassed by their students.

As a student I have gotten to the point where I no longer want to be taught about technique. And maybe this is where the learning starts. My growth now is to try to grow into my role as a teacher. And this is why the student-teacher relationship is so important to me. This is why I prioritize spending my time and my money to go learn from teachers who I hope to someday be like. Because I’m no longer looking only to learn the next pose – what I want now is someone who can teach me how to be a better person.

A teacher has to be a leader for their students, but also a follower of the lineage. There needs to be a willingness to lead, and to sacrifice. A teacher has to come from a place of love and willingness to lift others.

And when this happens it is truly is a beautiful thing.

Think of the fullness of possibility! A teacher raises a sangha, a community, to go forth and multiply and build their own communities and support all beings.

So you see, the point of building community isn’t to patrol – it’s to raise them up. And as a teacher, I am at the center not because I want to be the boss but because I want to serve other beings. The energy, power, and love doesn’t flow outwards from the center – it comes inwards.

The most important thing that I have learned from my most important teacher is that a teacher doesn’t hold the student back and the teacher always has the student’s back.