Jean Koerner, Mexico, 2008

A conversation with Jean Koerner reveals what a yoga teacher of twenty years (not 20-minutes) has to say about how yoga helps you gracefully thrive emotionally and physically challenge- from a bad vibe to back pain and from miscarriage to motherhood-to a name a few of her own experiences. Paige Greenfield finds out what it is about yoga that can still inspire someone who became a teacher by accident two decades after her first class.

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Q&A

To deepen the experience of walking you through the how-tos of yoga poses in our index, we wanted to show you the benefits each one has on you physically and mentally as well as what problems they target. Enter Jean Koerner. She’s been teaching yoga for 20 years, is currently an instructor at Yoga Works in New York City, and specializes in a form of yoga called ISHTA, a Sanskrit word for “personalized practice.” Since any pose in our index can be combined into a unique practice to suit your needs, we asked Jean to provide the benefits for each one. Then we found out more about Jean’s experiences on (and off) the mat so we too can enhance our practice.

What lead you to yoga? 
I took my first yoga class in 1988 when I happened upon it. I belonged to an aerobics center next door to where I lived at the time, but never really got into that place so I found the only yoga class offered each week and started doing it. It was a better fit for my personality and I loved the way it made me feel.  

Why did you become a yoga instructor? 
I like to think of myself as a yoga teacher rather than an instructor because I hope to empower my students to do this on their own and show them how as opposed to leading them through a routine where they need me to be there. In 1992, I had back surgery and used yoga to recover and rehabilitate and I started doing it everyday. This was before the yoga boom so there was only one class a day (two at most) and three teachers at the studio. One of the teachers was moving and they needed to replace her so they asked me to teach. I had a fulltime job at the time and never even thought about becoming a yoga teacher.  There were not many teacher-training programs at that time.  I was blown away and flattered and since I was going to class every day to rehabilitate myself post surgery the thought free yoga was also very exciting.   

How has yoga impacted your life?
Yoga helped me to recover from surgery.  I quit my fulltime job and became a fulltime teacher.  I eventually bought the studio where I taught (and sold it later). Yoga has helped me through many life changes that would have been otherwise very stressful: Surgery, marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, miscarriage, many moves, as well as the deaths and illnesses of close friends and relatives. No matter how I felt there was always a practice that made me feel better and that met me where I was in that moment. 

How has yoga influenced the many roles life asks you to play?
When I practice yoga it forces me to shine a light on myself and when I can do that I become much more self-aware.  It helps me to look at my behavior and actions and helps me to hone in on qualities such as kindness, compassion, courage, patience, understanding, and love, and I feel these qualities make everything easier.  No matter my role--sister, mother, daughter, lawyer, banker, Buddhist, Catholic--yoga makes me better at it.   

What is ISHTA yoga?
The meaning of ISHTA is two-fold. It’s a Sanskrit word meaning “that which resonates with an individual spirit”.  Recognizing that every individual is unique, ISHTA honors that and offers every student a practice to fit their needs.  ISHTA is also an acronym for Integrated Science of Hatha, Tantra and Ayurveda.  Hatha is the physical practice of yoga, Tantra is the philosophy that recognizes our inherent perfection, and Ayurveda is literally “science of life,” an Indian science of healing. 

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More from Jean: Three Ways to Be a Better Person Today

Why do you teach ISHTA yoga?
ISHTA yoga is safe and extremely accessible to all ages and abilities.  It is non-dogmatic and through the emphasis of regular practice, including meditation, it empowers you to explore your true self and brings freedom, joy, and wisdom to your life.  It fits everyone's individual needs.    What do you say to the man or woman who says he/she is too stiff to do yoga?
That's why you need it!  Yoga is for everyone.  If we don’t start to move into the stiffness, as we age it gets worse and we experience more and more pain. That's the reality. 

If someone is just starting yoga, what advice do you have for her to get the most out of her practice?
Don’t worry if what you’re doing is right or wrong. Just do the best you can do in each pose, without strain. Keep in mind that you didn’t stiffen overnight and be patient with your body. If you can do 10 to 20 minutes a day at home that would be more beneficial than the sporadic class. The body loves regularity and you will notice more strength and opening with a regular practice.

If someone suffers from low-back pain are there certain poses they should definitely do and certain ones they should avoid?
For someone suffering from low-back pain they should practice poses that keep the spine long and free (instead of crunched over). Anything reclining along the floor will help to do this effortlessly (like Lying Big Toe and Knees to Chest).  Standing poses like Mountain Pose and Tree are great, and gentle backbends like Cobra can help. Poses to avoid are seated forward bending poses (like Seated Head to Knee), unless supervised, because it is very hard to keep the spine’s curves neutral.  

How do you know when you’ve found the right type of yoga for you?
You know when you have found the right type of yoga for you when everything in the rest of your life seems to improve. When you can focus better and think more clearly in your job, your golf game, tennis swing, mile time, or any other activity improves, and you have and overall sense of ease in life, in body, breath and mind. When you’ve found the right type of yoga for you, life’s irritations seem less irritating.   

Inversions make many people nervous. Why are they beneficial and what can someone do to get over their fear?
Inversions are scary because there are disorienting. But think about it: There are many poses in yoga that are inverted without totally going upside down, like Down Dog and standing forward bends of all varieties, and we can get the benefits of inversions in these poses without being scared. The strength that we need to take us into the more active inversions (like Headstand and Handstand) and out of them safely as well as hold them for an extended period comes mainly from the abdominal muscles.  Flexibility in the shoulders and upper back is also very important. The reason why inversions are so great is because they help with venous blood return (the blood lower than the heart--like in your legs and feet--comes to the heart). They help the lymphatic system and circulatory system, increase blood pressure in the head, which helps memory retention as well as alertness.

On a physiological level, inversions aid digestion and elimination and can help to cleanse all of the organs below the navel. On a mental level they are empowering.  Sometimes when a teacher says, “now we're going to practice the handstand” the “I can't” mechanism starts bubbling up. But when we eventually “can,” that enables us to move beyond what we feel we aren't capable of, which helps us to do the same thing in life and to break out of the box we put ourselves in. Inversions are so powerful because they eventually enable us to move beyond the mind and its limitations to experience our fullest potential as well what we never thought we could achieve.   

What advice do you have when it comes to starting a practice at home?
Start small. A few minutes a day can go a long way. When you feel like you need 40 minutes you may end up doing nothing at all.  So give yourself five minutes. Like taking a shower or brushing your teeth, make it part of your daily routine and then you can feel good about having done your practice and can go about the rest of your day.  The hardest part is unrolling the mat. So designate a space in your home, it can be as tiny as a corner, and leave a mat there.

Get Jean's Gentle Low Back Pain sequence
More from Jean: Three Ways to Be a Better Person Today