HEALING SELF, HEALING EARTH WITH AUTHOR ROY HOLMAN

Roy Holman
Namaste.  I began teaching yoga and meditation in 2000, and I basically teach what has been helping me grow, awaken, and heal old wounds. I have found yoga, meditation, retreats, and hiking in nature to be very helpful in my own personal healing. I am passionate about teaching, serving, and witnessing as we awaken to our true passion, purpose and power.  My goal, in short, is to help us remember who we are.

I have lived abroad for over five years, including travels around Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia in 1986, and all around the globe in 1988, biking around Western Europe, then by train across the former Soviet Union, and through China. I graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 1991 with a BA in Sociology-Psychology. I then joined fact-finding delegations to Central America, and lived in Guatemala for almost three years doing human rights work, refugee work, teaching, and researching the effects of US policy.

I discovered yoga and meditation in 1995, at a very challenging time in my life, when my life was a mess and I was beginning the inner journey.  Yoga helped me ground, center, and find myself.  I’ll never forget the feeling after my first yoga class – it was a revelation.

I completed a two year Hands-on, Heart-centered Energy Healing course in Seattle in 1998, then completed a Meditation and Healing teacher’s training course in 2000, and was also ordained as a Minister. I was then certified as a reflexologist in 2005. I am a 500 hour Certified Yoga teacher, in the Viniyoga tradition. The style of yoga I teach is a grounded, breath-connected, meditative, flowing traditional hatha yoga - a meditation in motion really. I call it “Feel Good” Yoga, because I simply teach what feels best to me, my body, and my students. I include breathwork (pranayama) and meditation, and also try to incorporate the many aspects of healing I have learned into my classes. I finished writing my first book in May of 2010, and have two more in the works: one is my autobiography and one with my poetry.

My spiritual belief system is simple: I try to see Spirit - Divinity in everyone and everything, from looking into my cat’s eyes, to walking in an old growth forest. One of my favorite joys in teaching is seeing the look in the students’ eyes at the end of class. This is what yoga is all about – integration of body, mind, emotions, and spirit.  Ultimately, we are all connected, and made up of the same sacred energy, and the sooner we remember this, the sooner we will create a more kind and compassionate world.  I presently live in Everett , Washington , with my cool cat Mo (my guru!).