About
I started practicing yoga in Nong Khai, Thailand where I was working as a Sociologist. During the years that followed, my curiosity has taken me to many countries on three continents where I have kept exploring and expressing the secrets of Yoga.
My first teacher in Thailand, with whom I trained one-on-one over for three years also encouraged me to study Buddhism, Vedic philosophy and various Hatha Yoga texts. Thus my exposure to yoga was, from the beginning, deep, intimate and grounded in a broader philosophical and theoretical context.
On a trip to Portland, Orregon I was introduced to the Mysore style of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. As I started to understand the workings of bandhas and the rhythm in the deeper layers of my own body and self, I decided to stay in Portland instead of returning Thailand. Since 2005 I have been going back and forth between Oregon and my homeland Istanbul, Turkey to teach yoga.
For two years I stayed as an apprentice to many valuable teachers in the US. In 2007 I met Zhander Remete, the founder of Shadow Yoga School. With its uncomplicated yet deeply effective movements, its potential for transformation and the vast amount of information on Ayurveda, Marmastana, Vedic philosophy, Shadow school of Hatha Yoga impressed me very much. Currently I am enrolled in the 3-year long Shadow Yoga teachers training program and studying yoga under the careful guidance of Zhander Remete, Emma Balnaves and Matt Huish.
I found myself teaching what I know soon after I started the practice. Conveying the yogic knowledge to others has always been an integral part of my own practice. In my classes I use the posture, breath and bandhas (inner locks) to create movement which naturally leads to stillness. In the neutral state of mind stillness turns into contemplation and later to meditation. Clarity and wisdom appear as the natural consequences of this process.
