It’s fascinating to see the circuitous ways that some of the best teachers come to yoga. Take Addie deHilster, creator of Moved to Meditate, an Internet site dedicated to all forms of slow yoga practice. As a music major, Addie found herself constantly critiqued, growing increasingly frustrated, grumpy, and edgy. When a friend suggested she try yoga, Addie found a VHS tape created by Patricia Walden and Rodney Yee, and continued to practice along with it during graduate school. When a repetitive stress injury reared its ugly head, she was propelled into studying yoga beyond simply practicing to videos.
Once finished with her music education, Addie’s economic fears were realized: there are limited opportunities for those with specialties in ethnomusicology and flute performance. She worked for a while in the arts non-profit world, writing grants, and after eleven years of yoga study, took her first yoga teacher training in 2009 with Kelly Wood at Karuna Yoga. More study followed as Addie found herself drawn to therapeutic yoga and its applications. She taught part-time, keeping her day job until 2012, when she helped to form and build Thera Yoga in Montrose; the studio moved to La Crescenta in 2015, and a year later Addie changed the name to Spiral Path Yoga.
A full-time yoga teacher at this point, Addie found herself getting serious about meditation; mindfulness and Buddhist practice “resonated deeply” with her. When she took a Yin Yoga training with Bernie Clark in Vancouver, she found the bridge that, for her, connected yoga with meditation. As a Yin teacher, she had no one who could sub for her when needed, and so created a Yin teacher training of her own.
In 2018, Addie started recording classes for on-line viewing. She states: “I knew how much you can learn and how accessible it can make a practice.” The timing was auspicious, as the advent of the pandemic effectively closed the studio. Addie learned to use Zoom and allowed the lease at Spiral Path to expire at the end of 2020 and committed herself to teaching online: “I genuinely enjoy teaching this way – it has a lot of interesting potential.” When her husband went to fully remote work as well, the pair re-located to Vancouver, Washington in 2021.
With continued uncertainty due to COVID, Addie’s not the only one who has found a solution in online teaching, but she does stand out in her full embrace of its potential. “I’ve never been a very touch-heavy teacher… if I offer the use of a prop instead, the students can find the shape and learn so much more on his or her own. Adjustments are very problematic in so many ways.”
Full disclaimer: I’ve taken two Yin Yoga teacher trainings with Addie, and am planning to take a third sometime in 2022. In 2018, she hosted an Accessible Yoga training by Jivana Heyman that literally upended the way I teach. Today, she reminds me that the pandemic is a “good opportunity to think about who is being left out.” She also notes that “we need to think clearly about how we are participating in the tradition of yoga, how we can honor rather than exploit it.” Wise words for difficult times, and ones I try to take to heart.
If this profile has piqued your interest, be sure to check out Addie’s Internet offerings at MovedToMeditate.com. You’ll find an online class library as well as upcoming special events, trainings, and other ways of making digital contact. As a denizen of the 21st century, Addie’s using the technology to bring yoga far and wide.
Yoga Cielo Stellato 