Meet Alisone Bonafos, RYT 200

Tell us about the evolution of your Yoga practice:

“In 2014, I moved to the Central African Republic to work for an NGO. It was a warzone, and I needed to find a way to exercise inside, so I brought a yoga DVD from the early-2000s (I know, throwback!). That DVD changed my life. There, and since, my daily practice has helped me keep calm in the face of everything life has thrown at me, including pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. I primarily practice Ashtanga now, and yes, I found the instructor from the DVD, and thanked him.”

What’s one piece of advice you would share with a student new to Yoga?:

“Yoga props aren’t only for when you are not flexible, injured, or pregnant. Yoga props are your friends. They help you focus on what matters the most in a yoga class: your breath.”

Why do you teach Yoga?

“My yoga practice confirmed to me that people can change for the best. You can learn to see yourself as you are: the beauty and the mess. It is a very powerful thought that brings me peace and I wish to share this glimpse of bliss with those around me.”

Alisone’s favorite inspirational quote:

“In yoga, you’ll often find two people next to each other on their mats. One in handstand, backbending with their feet on their head. Next to them, one in forward bend who can't’ yet touch their feet. They are both in exactly the same place. At their limit. With all these years of yoga, some days this limit feels good and some days it doesn’t. Sometimes I suffer, and sometimes I don’t. Yoga teaches me to live in the moment and accept that, in yoga and in life, I suffer, I am the cause of my suffering, I don’t have to suffer, and we are enlightened”. 

-Richard Sigmund