My name is Elaine, a recent college graduate, Ashtanga yoga enthusiast, and baker!
My first encounter with yoga was April 2006, and from there my practice blossomed into mainly Ashtanga beginning in July 2006. I loved every bit of Ashtanga–the challenge, the sweat, the intensity of focus required, the breath, the perfect sequence of asanas that flow in perfect sense from one to the next. Like any Ashtangi’s would tell you: I was hooked.
College brought me away from my home in Taiwan as well as my teachers. But I kept up with my own practice in my tiny dorm rooms that could barely contain my yoga mat. Six a.m. three or four days a week I would rise like no “normal” college student would, and practice the primary series. It definitely wasn’t easy being a college student and maintaining a morning practice, but my passion, perseverance, determination, pushed through. For four years in college I maintained my practice, and whenever I get a chance to go home during winter and summer breaks, I’d go back to my teachers. I would see all my peers excel and improve, whereas I would be stuck in the same asanas I had been doing for all those years. Frustrating, yes, but the experience taught me patience.
I studied Biology in college, but I figured out just in time that I wasn’t cut to be a researcher, a doctor, or a professor. I want to lead a more spiritual life. And so, after receiving my degree from a top-notch science and engineering school in California, I did what my heart told me was the right thing to do: I went to Thailand to study with Paul Dallaghan (I am forever grateful for him!) and got certified as a yoga instructor.
Nowadays, I am teaching yoga occasionally and mostly running a bakery business I found with a friend (for more info visit Pastry Pals or find us on Facebook). I live my days in the yoga studio or at home in my kitchen and not regretting the choice I made of not being sucked into academia or research.
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Story of my recent graduate life– grateful for it and living it.
Namaste
