by Christian Berry Who are your teachers? Life has been a great teacher. My yoga practice comes from a place of need a need to expand and for silence, surrender, and humility. Yoga makes me feel strong, but it also makes me feel like an outside energy watching the big game of life. I give credit to where I did my teacher training and the yoga wizards that gifted me their knowledge; Kari Harendorf, and Michael Carroll of Kripalu. Learning from someone so incredibly passionate is always a profound experience. Just truly magical. What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a studio to teach? To practice? Smell and lighting. I own a studio in Chapel Hill, NC and everytime in, I always make sure it smells nice and the lighting is natural. I like to have and create an experience that eliminates sensory overload. No overhead fluorescent lights, no shiny fabrics and statues, no massive amounts of incense burning. Nothing to think about but your practice. Where, or what, do you consider your center? My center is sound. It doesn’t even have to be a song. Sound is such a universal language and it almost becomes a vehicle. A vehicle to be taken somewhere other than where you are, and I think having that escape, combined with yoga, is spectacular. Sounds of nature, the AC running, your favorite song; it’s all just frequency and it makes me feel things– makes me find my center. What is most important to you when you teach? Making people feel comfortable. There’s nothing worse than taking a yoga class and feeling invisible or overshadowed. That makes me not want to take class. Eye contact makes a huge difference. A gentle smile at each student, that you see them and you’re moving with them can be encouraging. If you could change one thing about yoga in the West, what would it be? Two things. (I know you only asked for 1!) First, price per class. I totally get that real estate is psychotic, but when I hear if yoga studios charging upwards of $22/class, I am completely shocked. That is so insanely unaffordable for the majority of the world, and it excludes the people who could potentially need it the most. I think a balance of donation based and/or free classes is really important to make that work, but it’s hard, I know. Second, the almost god worship of people that “lead” the yoga industry. The biggest names in any field end up being worshipped in some way, but yoga specifically, I think that’s dangerous. You trust your teacher and want them to teach and help you. But in my opinion, it’s important for me as a teacher to inspire that god-like feeling in others. Like if they wanted to do what all the famous yogis do, they absolutely could and SHOULD. This exclusive club type vibe that’s been generating around is just not for me. Yoga is for everyone. I can’t say it enough. What is the quality you most respect in a student? In a teacher? I love when students truly follow along– I mostly mean in the sense that I love when my students actually listen. And I think what I like in teachers is the same thing. Someone who checks their ego at the door. That kind of teacher wants you to surpass them in knowledge. They want you to teach them something! A good teacher is one that is still a good student. What is your motto? I recently watched the film Atomic Blonde (highly, highly recommend,) and there’s a scene in the film where the main characters are in a nightclub, and the camera pans to a giant neon sign on the wall that says “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” I was so blown away by the glowing, bright blue. I kept saying it to myself days after, just totally taken by it. The times in my life where things have gone horribly wrong were always at the crossroads of moving past fear or turning around and jumping back into a negative cycle I’d already been in. And I always chose the cycle, not the liberation. So that phrase has become by new life motto. ChristianTBerry.com @ChristianTBerry
