RHONDA URETZKY, E-RYT 200
Head Hottie, Riverflow Yoga
I was doing yoga back when yoga wasn’t cool. Or hot. Circa 1971 when I was circa 14 years old, in high school in Queens, NY.
Yoga is ageless.
Today, some 40+ years later, I am a Yoga Alliance E-RYT 200 and Certified Radiant Child Yoga Teacher Level 2. I have practiced and taught Sivananda, Kundalini, Kids Yoga and of course, Hot Yoga in which I was personally trained by a Certified Instructor. I have taught thousands of students and trained more than a dozen hot yoga instructors.
I am a writer, an artist, a Buddhist, a teacher and always a student.
Yes, my hot yoga classes are intense - a strange mix of total relax and absolute Warrior (I was cheerleader Captain in High School...let the jokes begin). And after 40 years and many, many teachers, I have learned some stuff, so feel free to ask me anything about yoga...or anything. And I continue to learn from everyone.
Yoga is a place I come home to.
I also come home to Lambertville, NJ with my two kids a little dog-shaped-alien named Petey. My daughter Carly and son Zach are both yoga teachers at Riverflow. I love them more than I can express (and I'm a writer).
Life is elaborate. Hot yoga is simple.
The moment you walk in our front door, you are a special part of this yoga community. No eye rolling. Just show up and let us show you that you are bigger than your challenges. Let go and take the heat.
Once you get the hang of it, hot yoga - and life - can be hot.
WHY DO I TEACH HOT YOGA?
On my Mastermind call this morning, we started telling scarey stories.
Nancy became a chiropractor after living through grade school with bone-crushing migraines - at the age of 10.
Kristen's ready to move to LA to be an actress. After work, she sits at end of her driveway, unable to drive to her front door.
And me - why do I teach hot yoga?
Nothing scares me more than the idea that I might get to the end of my life and realize that I have not lived.
At age 55, I am starting over.
I was always aware that I didn't quite fit.
My father was an artist who believed that different was better, so I became an artist, too where the abstract world made more sense to me than Real Things.
Then one night I turned on my TV and I saw Lilias Folan doing yoga;and I found the Mothership. I was fourteen.
I gobbled up hatha yoga over the next 28 years - Sivananda, Iyengar, Kundalini, Vinyasa. Many years later, I wandered into a Bikram Yoga studio. Within a year, I was asked to teach.
And that's when I knew: I have always been a teacher.
When I do yoga, I tug at that thread that holds things together. Who needs to hold things together anyway?
When I teach hot yoga, I guide catch a glimpse of all the pieces out of order.
Maybe your "together life" has been brought to you by well-meaning teachers, parents, colleagues and friends...who have no idea what you really want.
I teach hot yoga to help you reconnect with your Self who always knows that you're already home.
I teach hot yoga to remind you to play for real.
You're never too old to have a life. If you dream of empowering others (is anything more delicious?) you might also be a teacher. Inspiring others with your love of hot yoga can be your life worth living.
And I can tell you from my own experience - that's hot.
