As a yoga teacher, Ahmed (he/him) is deeply influenced by the personal journey that brought him to the yoga practice. He began his professional life as a wildlife biologist and environmental scientist. Serving the natural environment and helping to recover endangered species was his way of giving to a greater good. This is a concept that he carries daily into his yogic lifestyle, both in teaching and in practice, seeking to serve his communities in a way that supports strength, healing, and sustainability. He also brings his science background to his students through yoga retreats in locations that provide the incomparable forces of nature as a backdrop to our yoga journeys. His retreats incorporate hikes through nature, identifications of rare species, and meditations on the privileges and responsibilities of living in a world that will go on for millennia past our natural lives.
He is equally influenced by a key life event that brought him most directly to the practice of yoga. After a serious car accident requiring multiple knee surgeries demanded that he transition away from a lifetime passion of participating in contact sports like soccer, he found himself drawn to the safer, deeper, and more sustainable practice of yoga. From this experience, he developed a keen interest in human anatomy as a guide to offer a safe and grounded space for my students, endeavoring to help them explore their physical boundaries with a focus on intelligent alignment, awareness of breath, and a steadying relaxation of the mind. Rather than merely sequence asanas, he seeks for every student to emerge from practice with me with a deeper understanding of their own body. In class, he often says "as you are." He says it in a wide variety of contexts, but at its core, it means that whatever physical or emotional energy you bring to practice on any given day, let's work with that together. With this gentle, self-acceptance, an awareness of breath, an understanding of the body, and some mental focus, we can find harmony both on and off the mat.
He is a continuing student of Iyengar yoga, vinyasa, and meditation. He is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (ERYT-200) and a Registered Yoga School (RYS-200) yoga alliance certified teacher with additional specialized trainings in anatomy, meditation, and yoga nidra.