Marie Friedlander

My purpose in teaching yoga is to help my students take yoga off the mat and into their lives. To bring balance into body, mind and spirit and create freedom to be all they can be. The mat is our reflection. Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga taught me to stand in my power and it transformed my life. It was an awesome awakening felt in every fiber of my being. Since Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga came into my life, I have never walked the same. It is through that light, that passion that I reach out to others and share what has rocked my world.

I started in dance at age 5 and discovered the freedom of expression in movement. I stayed involved with dance for 15 years learning to share it through teaching others and performing at various functions. I went on into Psychology and earned my BS degree at the University of Minnesota and hoped to continue on into Dance Therapy but it never came together for me. It lacked the realness of connecting to the heart and soul of another's being. I got involved with counseling at a Crisis Center and worked with suicide prevention. I also got involved with Runaways at a shelter as they first came off the streets. Life became real fast. I had always known how to listen to my body through dance and I now learned how to listen with my heart. Through presence of being and shared community, strength is spread and the power to go on and grow is planted. My life became connected when I first heard Baron speak at a Yoga Journal Conference in the 90's. At the time I was living in Kohler,WI and taking Power Yoga classes from Debbie Williamson. I asked her if she could help me learn how to teach yoga and within the year we were both off to Tulum and Level 1 with passion exploding from our beings!

Yoga is a gift in my life. I can not imagine my life without it. It is interwoven into every aspect and once of my being. It is who I am and how I live. My purpose in life is to share that. I have been a student of Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga since 1999. I have been living my yoga all of my life. I am excited to share it with you! I was honored to take my teaching to the next level by assisting Greggor at the Yoga Journal Conference in Lake Geneva in May 2007. I am honored to be part of the Baptiste family and a student of theirs for life.

I am married to my best friend and we share an amazing life together. We have an awesome son who carries a light from which we grow daily. I enjoy life with many animal friends and love my new world by the ocean. Living each day as my new beginning!

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