Selena Isles (CYA-E-RYT 500 Member)
- Location: Brossard, Quebec Canada
- Website: www.selenaisles.com
- E-mail: Private
- Service Offered: Hatha, Ashtanga, Yin, Restorative, Meditation
- Certified: Happy Tree, Jamie Lee ( Yoga Loft)
- Years of Practice: 23
- Teaching Experience: 18
- Professor, Guru or Teachers: Albert Bissada, Melaine Richards, Mark Stephens, Jamie Lee, Eoin Finn, Janet Stone, Sadie Nardini, Donna Farhi, Natalie Rousseau, Barrie Riseman, Carina Risman, Eddy Stern, Sri Dharma Mitrra, P. Sharath Jois, Steve Sims, Richard Miller, Janice Clarfield, and Noah Maze.
- Date Joined: August 24, 2020
- CYA Insurance: No
About Me
Often called the Urban Yogi, I am a Yoga teacher, yoga studio owner ; international DJ and single mother.
My journey officially started when in 1995, after a traumatic injury during the Canada Games which ended my athletic career in 4 seconds. While recovering I found a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi which then led me to discover my mother’s copies of Light on Yoga, The Yoga Sutras, and The Bhagavad Gita.
My mother, was my first teacher, as yoga has been with me since birth. It was in those discoveries and her guidance and teachings that I realized that Yoga had been with me weaving in and out of my childhood and adolescence and I ran from it at every turn. However, when I needed it the most, the practice, the path, was there. It brought me back from the brink of losing everything I had worked so hard to achieve during my athletic career to a place of stillness and healing. I spent the rest of that summer in full leg cast and crutches, secluded in my parent’s basement, trying to wrap my mind around this age-old practice and its concepts.
The AHA! Moment I believe came through reading Yogananda’s reverence for simplicity in his writings; and a visit from my great uncle a fierce rishi and sage, who shared with me his insights and outlined my path then like a magician was gone. I learned to find the joy in the rise and fall of life, the triumphs and tribulations and learning to understand the impermanence of everything around me. It was also at this point that I stumbled down the path of meditation like an elephant in a china shop, seeking refuge.
I learned important lessons in the basement, that summer that live on in my practice and teaching today.
In 1999, I travelled to Thailand and became dedicated to the path of yoga and meditation, the right-handed path of the Nath Yogi. While there I lived in a small ascetic village which affected my practice greatly, this was not a cool resort teacher training at all; it was a day to day living, offering oneself up to serve and being humbled in the most painfully extraordinary ways. I will say that being in that tiny village, and all the challenges it presented was the start of my path, as I spent the first few years learning nothing of asana yet everything of the mind, mantra and meditation.
Today I work at blending the alchemy of my own practice with my years of studentship. I aspire not to teach but to allow the practice to emanate from me, letting awareness blend with movement and breath. My practices are dynamically focused classes that force you into the present moment, using a bit of urban vernacular. In 2016 I started to move away from the Hatha Tradition and explore the Ashtanga traditions of my forefathers.
About My Service
I am co-owner of Béco Yoga + Boutique Écologique, leading the yoga programming and events. I teach at my own studio 4x a week leading Ashtanga Led Primary, Mysore, Classical Hatha, Vinyasa and Meditation.
Continued Education
N/A