My name is Julia Romano, and I am a 500 hour certified hatha and vinyasa flow instructor (Yoga Alliance). My teaching focuses on coordinating breath with practical movement, transforming yoga asana into powerful meditation. While my classes range from the soft and meditative to the challenging and fiery, all are grounded in accessible, practical movements, and above all, in the cultivation of breath-linking awareness. In both my physical and meditative instruction, I integrate the variety of styles and instructors in and with which I've trained, including Ashtanga yoga(Saraswati Jois 2009), Hatha yoga (Bharath Shetty, March 2010 and December 2013), Dharma yoga (Dharma Mittra, June 2012), Budokon yoga (Cameron Shayne, November 2012), and Power Yoga (Bryan Kest, August 2013). My belief in yoga as therapy stems from my own experience of its rehabilitative properties; traditional physical therapies having proved unproductive following reconstructive ankle surgery, I turned to yoga and gained not only the ability to again walk and run with ease, but also a profound acceptance for the inevitable times in life when we falter. Yoga is a process of continual refinement: poses are not achieved, but rather joyfully explored. I offer variations for every practitioner, from injured, to beginner, to “advanced,” although I believe that there is no such thing as a “better” yogi, only a more conscious practitioner–and anyone, regardless of physical prowess, can practice with awareness. Such regular practice helps cultivate strength, flexibility, peace of mind through acceptance, and comfort in, difficult positions–qualities that the practitioner can take off the mat and into daily life. I am, additionally, trained in clinical psychology (M.Psy. August 2013), and am also currently completing a Masters of Science in Yoga Therapy. I view the work of yoga as both a “being” and a “doing”: as the enlightened state, as well as the process of clearing the shadows. The eight limbs of yoga, of which the physical practice of asana is only one, are ultimately a tool; asana is a conduit for what is essentially a practice of the mind. A complete practice of yoga is a means by which the suffering-inducing patterns of the mind can be untangled and rewoven in ways that better serve the ultimate goal: union with the joyfully self-accepting higher Self. For more information, visit www.em-poweryoga.com