TEACHER SPOTLIGHT: TANYA KOCSIS

I took my first yoga class 17 years ago.  I had moved back to the south bay after college and my mom invited me to take a class at the studio she had just discovered.  All it took was the one class and I was hooked.  I’ve been practicing regularly ever since.

A few months after that first class, I found my way to Harmony and that became and has remained my home studio.  I moved to New York City for a couple years in my mid-twenties wanting to discover the city, to see what it had to offer.  And this of course included trying out as many yoga classes and studios as I could.  None offered what Harmony gives me but it was interesting to experience other takes on teaching yoga.  One of the many things I savored when I would visit home during that time was taking as many Harmony classes as I could squeeze in — sometime more than one in a day!

For many years, I would practice yoga 5 or more times per week.  As time has gone by and my responsibilities (and body!) have changed, I feel lucky to get in a couple classes a week.  I still experience my practice daily but most of the time this consists of breathing through the difficult moments in my day; trying to take a step back and really listen to what another person is telling me even if it is difficult to hear and I don’t agree. Because of where I am in my life, if I want yoga, it really means taking it off the mat.

I took my first teacher training 5 years ago, at Harmony, lead by Najla, Susan and Katie.  It felt like the natural progression of my practice.  I went into it with an open heart and mind, my only intention was to deepen my practice.  As the training went on, teaching just started to feel right and I thank Najla, Susan and Katie for guiding me in finding my voice within the cues.  I started teaching 4 years ago and have loved every minute in that yoga room with my students. 

When I’m not teaching at Harmony you’ll find me practicing there, spending time with family and friends, hiking, running, reading (mostly novels!) or trying to teach myself some arts-and-crafty-type thing that I give up before mastering.

I look forward to seeing you at Harmony soon — maybe to celebrate 20 years of Harmony Yoga (what?!?) on June 22nd.

Practice with Tanya every Friday at 6:30pm (Yin Restorative), Saturdays at 7:30am (Vinyasa Flow Fundamentals), and every other Sunday at 8:30am (Harmony Vinyasa class).

View her full schedule here.