Todd

Since I was 6 years old I have memories of doing yoga and watching my parents practice yoga postures. As part of early martial arts training and dry-land training for competitive swimming I did yoga postures under the guidance of yoga instructors. Towards the end of my ski competing/coaching/instructing days I was reintroduced to yoga with a gift of a yoga book that I used very often.

In 1999 a close friend took me to my first Bikram Yoga class in Vancouver, and it changed everything. The universe first urged me out of my HR/computer systems administration career into the field of the ultimate HR position of managing Bikram yoga studios. Of course, the next step was to complete a teacher training. I immediately started teaching in all of the studios in the Lower Mainland.

6 months later I taught Bikram yoga in Thailand and then in Australia and New Zealand. Stepping outside of the comfort zone of my adopted home city to teach in these countries began to really hone my teaching skills for it is one thing to lead a class of yogis proficient in the 26 postures, and it is quite a different animal to actually have to instruct people who do not know the postures and who have English as their second language. Therein lies the difference between instructing and teaching. Back in the Lower Mainland in 2004 I concentrated on teaching and practicing at studios in Vancouver and Surrey.

From my experience of teaching here and around the Pacific rim I bring a strong sense of compassion and respect for all who enter the Bikram hot room. I have an excellent ability of offering individual corrections while never losing the overall group energy. I teach with a very clear and direct style basing my classes on the Bikram yoga dialogue and looking at each and every class as having its own distinct life cycle. Never any two classes are the same for me. This is what fuels a continuing passion for teaching and practicing most every day.