Ottawa : Rideau Centre
Alumni Ambassador Justine Hoang
http://www.mountaingoatyoga.com and www.santoshayoga.com
Justine started down her yogic path about 2.5 years ago and has never looked back. The shutdown of her employer's design centre in the Kanata Technology Park turned out to be a great blessing, as it forced her to reassess her life goals. Her love for sports and working with people naturally gravitated her towards the health and fitness industry. With encouragement from close friends, she decided to include yoga in the list of potential career opportunities.
She fell in love with yoga upon taking her first studio led class, in Ashtanga yoga. She immediately immersed herself full-force into the practice, taking daily classes at both Mountaingoat Yoga and Santosha studios, and developing an intensive home practice. The more she progressed, the more she realized that she had finally discovered her niche; by the end of that summer, she had already enrolled in a teacher training certification program at Upward Dog yoga studio, whereupon she graduated in June 2006. Since then, she has expanded her training repertoire to include workshops/teacher training programs with Richard Freeman, Sianna Sherman, David Swenson, Eoin Finn, Gary Kraftsow, Wade Imre Morissette and Sri Dharma Mittra.
Justine currently teaches at Mountaingoat Yoga (Kanata and Nepean) and Santosha-Westboro studios. She also leads classes at her workplace (DND), and at MXI Technologies. In addition, Justine has participated in several Lululemon community events, including: Wake-Up Mall Yoga, Guerilla Yoga, the Global Mala initiative, and in-store power flow classes. On teaching, her motto is: " Anytime, anywhere, anyone who is open to trying yoga..."
In constructing classes, Justine strives to cover off as many aspects of the discipline as possible, experimenting with sequencing of yoga asanas to reflect a particular theme. Drawing from her dance, martial arts and music background, she aims to create challenging and fluid power flow classes that awaken and stimulate the entire body, mind and spirit.
Justine attributes all her success to the amazing and constant support from her husband and children, her family and friends. She is inspired by her teachers and students and is grateful to them for all they have taught her. Justine is excited to be part of the ambassador team, as it provides her the opportunity to give back to the community, through raising awareness about the deep benefits of yoga and through promoting lululemon's manifesto: "If you read it closely, you'll realise just how well it illustrates the yamas (restraints) and niyamas (observances), as taught by Patanjali..."
Namasté.