JONAH’S MAMA, FOUNDER AND CO-OWNER OF VIRAYOGA, Elena has been teaching yoga for 14+ years. After graduating from Cornell University in 1992 with a design degree, she worked in textile and apparel design for 6 years, then studied with several master yoga teachers for over a decade, including Cyndi Lee, Erich Schiffman, Rodney Yee, John Friend, Douglas Brooks, Hugo Cory and others. Through her study and collaboration with the Handel Group™, Elena offers the practices of yoga as a way to approach our world with realistic reverence and gratitude. Her classes are a masterful, candid blend of artful alignment and attention cues; pure empowerment for your body, mind and heart.

From the Museum of Modern Art to the Great Lawn at Central Park in New York; from the playa at Burning Man to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, she is honoured to offer larger-scale experiences of yoga, but Elena’s true privilege and service is in shifting awareness within the smallest interactions; one family, one household at a time. She holds Reiki Levels I/II Certification and practices Pranic Healing. She’s been featured in the New York Times, Yoga Journal, Yoga International, Natural Living, the Element Yoga for Beginners DVD series, ABC News, and NBC News. She is also the voice for Deepak Chopra’s groundbreaking video game LEELA, which blends meditation with game play. As the Executive Producer of ON MEDITATION, she is curating a series of short films regarding the reality of meditation. Recent classes are available online at Yogaglo.

Along with her own Art of Attention writings, Elena contributes to the Huffington Post, Kris Carr’s CrazySexyLife, Positively Positive, The Chalkboard Mag, elephant journal, TheDailyLove, and is an original board member of YogaEarth. Elena’s recently developed an essential oil blend called GIVE that proudly benefits Women For Women International, with another scent in the works that will benefit Every Mother Counts. Her first book, Art of Attention: Book One, will be released in late 2012.

Photo credit: Chloe Crespi

Video

ARTE TV New York 3.0

White Yoga Session - Paris, Oct. 2011

Yoga on the Great Lawn June 22, 2010

Articles

2011 Stylesite profile (.pdf)

Photos