In 2014, like many people that year, Emily Joyce decided to make becoming healthier her new year’s resolution. After a month of learning to cook a few recipes that didn’t come from boxes, she felt like her diet was still falling short. So, in February of that year, Emily decided to become vegan. Though initially motivated by health, Emily has continued to remain vegan for ethical and moral reasons tied to her following the Buddhist path.
Fast forward to May of 2014. Feeling energized by her newfound diet, Emily start doing yoga as way to be more active and stress less. Until this point, yoga had always been something a little trendy to do but kind of boring. It was mostly stretching, right? But when she discovered the world of arm balances and inversions, Emily was hooked. She started practicing yoga almost every day and set her sights on mastering the most difficult poses.
However, her enthusiasm (and egoism) quickly proved detrimental when it led to a hamstring attachment tear that made even sitting for long periods difficult. She had to completely reevaluate her yoga practice and what it means to “do yoga”. Though the experience was humbling, and the injury took over a year to heal, it was ultimately the catalyst for her desire to teach–both because she wanted to help others avoid similar injuries, and because she realized there is a lot more to yoga than just the physical poses.
Emily started teaching in May 2016 while completing her yoga teacher training. In 2016, she finally completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training through Schoolhouse Yoga in Pittsburgh, PA and became a registered Yoga Alliance teacher. During her training, she studied kundalini, yin, slow flow, iyengar, and ashtanga styles of yoga, along with meditation, philosophy and history, and a heavy dose of anatomy. She continues to refine her understanding of yoga, and teaches vinyasa flow yoga to groups around Pittsburgh.
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