I am gail gettler and I began studying yoga just a short time after my Mom died. Her death left me emotionally raw and riddled in conflict. I started going to therapy and with the therapist’s prodding, I began taking yoga classes in Mill Valley, California, in 1997.
I began with an eight-week, beginning Iyengar series with a very strict teacher named Maritza. I felt in both body and mind perpetually out of place.
Fortuitously, coincidetally, fate-be-with-me, I saw a flyer for a workshop with Tim Miller, a master teacher of Ashtanga yoga as “taught by Pattabhi Jois (“Guruji”). The photograph of Tim was compelling; an incredibly muscular and good-looking man in a very advanced yoga posture. I thought, how could such a muscular body be that flexible? I had never seen anything like it. I attended his demonstration and was awestruck by the inherent balance of strength and flexibility of his ashtanga yoga practice.
He inspired me to take ashtanga classes with John Berlinsky at The Yoga Studio in Mill Valley, a long-time certified ashtanga teacher. After only a few months, the rewards of my regular practice were evident to me. I felt stronger, emotionally and physically.
In November 1998, I traveled to Mysore, India to study with Guruji. My month there was life changing. My body, my mind, my spiritual practice, my sense of self, just took off.
Feeling every day the rewards of this intensely balanced, difficult and rewarding practice, I have not strayed from the Ashtanga tradition. I have since that first visit to India, studied twice with Guruji in New York City and participated in workshops with Tim Miller, Lino Miele, Nancy Gilgoff, Christine Hoar, Adi Amar and Nikki Doane and Eddie Modestini – all master teachers. In 2007, I travelled back to India to study with Tim Miller at Purple Valley Yoga in Goa; and in 2008, I completed a one-week , intensive, teacher training with Tim in Tulum, Mexico.
In September 2011, I completed the 5-day teacher training with Live, Love, Teach, taught by Philp Urso, Deborah Williamson and Stacey Dockins.
Now my personal practice is expanded to include teaching this magical and powerful practice. I hope you will join me.
On a more earthly note, I am married to my wonderful and supportive husband, Alex Eby, and I have two beautiful girls, Anna, 10, and Layla, 6. I have lived in Bozeman since August 2000.
Namaste.