Johnny Nasello is an experienced and inspiring Yoga Teacher and he is also a Yoga Teachers Training Leader. In fact, it was with Johnny at Ananda Yoga & Detox Center that I did my Yoga Teacher Training.
Johnny is brilliant, not only because he is a wonderful Teacher with a deep knowledge on the subjects he teaches, but also because he lives according to that same philosophy which makes him a powerful source of inspiration for any of his students. It was an honor for me to study with Johnny. I’ve described that journey in this series of posts and what stayed with me the most was one thing that Johnny used to say: “These poses are metaphors for the way we live our lives.” That thought, combined with “Your Yoga mat is always there for you, you just have to use it daily.” were very powerful ideas that stayed deeply ingrained in my mind and that were the resilience I needed in those days when we need it the most!
After completing the course, I taught a few lessons and the feedback that I’ve received was “The instructions were very clear and precise, I thought you had been doing this for years” and the merit falls in Johnny Nasello and the very complete Yoga Teachers Training that he runs.
While I was doing the course, I had the privilege of bringing you this exclusive video with Johnny and now, here’s the interview with Johnny:
1 – What has drawn you into Yoga?
Yoga has actually drawn me into it. When I started practicing yoga, I was doing a lot of weight training. On my rest days of training, I wanted to still keep active, so I started doing yoga. Over the course of several years, my interest in yoga continued to grow until it gradually became my main focus.
I also found that the more involved with yoga I became, and the more friends I made in my yoga communities, the more I seemed to enjoy my life and the people who I spend my time with.
2 – How can a Yoga practice assist one’s health or wellbeing?
I think there are many books that cover this topic. I will skip this questions as my answer is just a boring paraphrase of the things always said.
3 – In one of the classes you said “These poses are metaphors to the way we face life” something that truly resonated with me. How come Yoga is more than what one does in the class? How come Yoga is a way of life?
Considering Yoga as a metaphor for life isn’t apparent at first. In the beginning of our practice we’re consumed with the difficulty of some of the poses, and with how we look in comparison to others in the class, or the teacher.
Once we can get past that, then we start to probe deeper into our thought processes, and gain further insights into the work.
We work at our poses, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year. We grow accustomed to the effort, we become familiar with the shapes and muscular actions, we continually explore the physical boundaries, and our emotions and thoughts around our limitations.
We can really benefit when we’re able to bring that same mentality to our daily efforts. Some days are better than others, we have to recommit to the type of person we want to be, or continue to be, and there’s never a time where we “win” or it’s finished.
4 – There are a lot of challenges in the road to enlightenment: what are the main characteristics that one who wishes to suceed in Yoga or in life needs to have present?
Don’t get caught up with being enlightened, or not being enlightened. Our job is to figure out what we are passionate about, and then how to fill our lives up with as much of that as possible.