Teacher Feature: Ian Paredes

Ian is an avid adventurer, combining his passion for the outdoors, exploring new things and sharing his discoveries in both his personal and professional life.  

He found yoga while looking for an alternative way to recover from a lower spine injury, a result of one of his (mis)adventures. Starting with Bikram yoga, he quickly became hooked on hot yoga, practicing almost every day for the next two years. 

Not too long after, he decided to take the Absolute Hot Yoga Teacher Training at yoga+ Makati in order to share his enthusiasm for yoga and the holistic benefits it brings to others.

Ian is also an organization development practitioner, entrepreneur, scuba diving instructor, and photographer. He brings his being an explorer, educator and forever student in the many hats he wears. 

As a hot yoga teacher, he continues to find light and beauty in the practice and those he has the honor of guiding in the hot room. 

Teacher Feature: Roxanne Piad

Since I was young, I've always been very active and up to the challenge to try out different physical activities. For several years, I was very into boxing, swimming, and running. The endurance, cardio and strength training helped keep me fit and strong. However, at around 2011, I took a corporate job with a new company and had to take a pause from my regular fitness routine while I was adjusting to the new workload.

Eventually, I started to feel the difference in my body and I was easily affected by the stress and anxiety that came with the job and knew that I had to do something about it. I saw that yoga+ was just in the building across my office and I went for it! After my first class, I was hooked! I kept on coming back and tried the other types of yoga that the studio offered. At first, the practice was more physical for me but soon, I started to see beyond the physical benefits that one can get from a regular asana practice.

I felt more energized, more compassionate, happier, and had more self-awareness. I've never felt healthier and stronger. I found myself sharing and talking about yoga non-stop with my co-workers, friends and family. I decided to look into the teacher training, with the initial purpose of deepening my personal practice. But having experienced teaching during training was such a high that I was immediately convinced that it was something I wanted to do.

I completed my 200-Hour Absolute Hot Yoga Teacher Training last April 2014 and my Yin Yoga Teacher Training with Victor Chng last September 2014 in Manila both with yoga+. It was amazing to be able to study and learn from my mentors, all of whom I look up to and aspire to be like. To be the kind of teacher that students can relate to and who can push them to go beyond their comfort zones. I want to inspire my students the same way that my teachers serve as an inspiration to me.

When I was given the opportunity by yoga+ to manage their new studio at De La Salle University, it was both humbling, an honor and such a blessing for me. I thought hard about it, especially the pros and cons of leaving the corporate world for good. But I knew deep down that my heart belonged to yoga. So, I left my day job and instead, worked full-time as a yoga instructor and the studio manager for yoga+ Express at DLSU.

The change hasn't been easy and the pressure was different from what I was used to back in my corporate job. But I looked at it as a challenge and as a new journey for me to embark. I had my family, great mentors and friends who supported me all the way. After teaching my first class at DLSU during our opening day, in spite of having only 5 students, that was the moment I knew I made the right choice. To be able to impart and share what I have learned and am continuously learning from my personal practice. I know that this is just the start of a new path and in yoga, the journey is what it's all about.

Teacher Feature: Jayme Timbol

Transitioning into Pigeon

My first yoga asana practice started with one of my friends in Phoenix taking me to a Bikram class. After the session, I remember thinking, I wasn't exactly sure what we did in there but it felt awesome! But it was not till I moved to Salt Lake that I took my practice more seriously. At that time, I was off-balanced with my weight. I was vegan, went to the gym and even ran, but I was bloated and was at my heaviest and did not know why.  On the outside, I was doing everything everything I should be doing to be healthy, but felt really off-kilter on the inside. So I went back to the hot room and did my yoga practice every single day, no matter how trying it was sometimes. Then I began to love it - the teachers, the practice, and became so inspired with fellow students who were so determined and were there every single day. After a few weeks, my weight went back to normal. I felt so much clarity in my thinking and I was more calm no matter what was happening around me.

After a few months, I was approached by the studio owner to join the US Mid-West Asana Competition. I didn't know what exactly a yoga "competition" meant but decided to give it a try since the goal was not to win, but to inspire others to do yoga. I was introduced to my coach who did teacher training when she turned 60 and was amazed with the other "competitors" and what they could do with their bodies! I would then be completely star struck when former champions just popped in the hot room to help train us, and even if I was in the hot room for 4 hours, it did not matter! I felt great! I was so inspired with the control I was developing with my breath, body and mind. I also started getting into my meditation easier and deeper with the concentration discipline I developed with the practice.

With Bikram Choudhury, creator of the Bikram Yoga Series

After that, I traveled all over the world with my mat, everywhere I went, and one day hoped to become a teacher to help others make changes in their lives, the way yoga changed mine. The opportunity presented itself when I came back to the Philippines and yoga+ was offering the Absolute Hot Yoga Teacher Training. I just gave birth at that time, but it did not matter since I knew that I really wanted to teach. It has been an amazing journey since. I have taken more certification courses and not only teach Hot, but also Yin and Pre- and Post-Natal Yoga. I have also been certified as a Theta Healer and currently specializing in Intuitive Anatomy, Diseases and Disorders.

My practice has been richer by doing all yoga types now, not just Hot, and my love for yoga has even more intensified. I am very grateful that my practice and teaching have given me more compassion and kindness not only towards others but especially for myself. Most important of all is my divine romance with Guru and God which continues to get sweeter with the constancy of my practice and meditation. After all, we are all divine beings who are awakening to who we truly are and yoga is our path to remembering exactly that.

Teacher Feature: Rosan Cruz

I first stepped on a yoga mat in New York in 1995, while on sabbatical leave from a stressful corporate job.  Since that first Hatha Yoga class, I went on to study and practice several styles of yoga, including Sivananda, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Bikram and, eventually, Kundalini Yoga.  This then led her to workshops all over Southeast Asia and India, where I trained under teachers like Bela Lipat (Sivananda/Ashtanga), Sri Pattabi Jois (Ashtanga), Dinah Salonga (Absolute), and Marisa Harnadh (Kundalini Yoga).

Early this year, I completed the teacher training program in Hot Yoga at yoga+ where I now teach the Absolute Series. After that, I did the Kundalini Yoga Level 1 and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction meditation technique under Guru Dass at the International College of Kundalini Yoga in Bali.  Guru Dass, a direct student of Yogi Bhajan (Kundalini Yoga) and Ramesh Balsekar (Advaita), is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced Kundalini Yoga teachers in the world.

I love how the ancient technology of Yoga goes beyond the physicality of the poses and awakens the practitioner spiritually. I want to deepen my own practice, share my knowledge, and inspire others by teaching.

I love teaching yoga. My class is in the morning and I wake the students up by telling them to look at the mirror, smile and greet themselves a good morning before we start class! It's best to start the day right and the best time is on the mat! I have regular students in the morning and each month we try to push a little harder. If you ask my students I'll be more focused on sucking the navel in, working more on the core than trying to be more flexible.

Depending on the number of students in the class, I try to give them all a gentle massage and remind them to lie longer in savasana and enjoy the healing benefits of yoga. Sometimes, I'd tell them to command their body to heal - wherever the healing is needed. As much as possible, I want the students to enjoy the class, go for stability by building their core muscles, and keep practicing!

Through my classes, I hope to help students open their hearts and eventually, master all aspects of themselves which is the true meaning of Yoga.

How to survive hot yoga: hydrate

It is said that yogis fall into three groups when it comes to hot yoga

- they love it with a passion
- want to try it but are afraid that they might not survive the heat
- they avoid it because of the heat