Instructors
Each instructor here at Pilgrimage of the Heart Yoga brings his or her own love, style, compassion, and expertise for the practice to the students of yoga. With instructors of various backgrounds and techniques, we're able to offer a full range of classes and are excited to have you discover your own individual practice. Learn more about our instructors below.
Sujantra McKeever
Sujantra was born in San Francisco in 1962 and moved to San Diego in 1980 to attend UCSD. He is the founder and owner of the Pilgrimage of the Heart Yoga Studio. He first became interested in hatha yoga as a young boy and used his practice of asanas (the yoga postures) and pranayama (breathing techniques) as a stepping stone into the “inner aspects” of yoga: concentration, meditation and contemplation.
Sujantra has authored five books on eastern philosophy, success motivation and meditation. Two of his books were used by major universities to teach wellness, stress reduction and comparative religion. Over the past 20 years, he has delivered over one thousand lectures on meditation and yoga in over 25 countries.
Sujantra opened the Pilgrimage of the Heart studio in 2006. In each of his yoga classes, Sujantra offers the complete yoga experience by teaching all eight aspects of yoga and exploring the relevance of this ancient art in our modern lives. He teaches Beginning / Gentle Yoga; Yoga for Children and Hatha Levels I and II, which includes Sun Salutations, shoulder stand and headstand. He encourages students to practice both at home and at the studio.
Sujantra has studied meditation with spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy since 1980. Sujantra is an ACE certified Group Fitness Instructor.
Please visit Soul's Delight to purchase Sujantra's books and CDs:
- 7 Secrets to Super-Health
- Paths are Many, Truth is One: Exploring the Unity of All Religions
- Learn to Meditate
- Strategies for Success: An Outline for Personal Growth
- Focus – Relax – Peace (60 min. CD)
Blair Lyman
Blair Lyman moved to San Diego in 2002 to attend UCSD, and there discovered a love of yoga. As she practiced during those four years, she came to appreciate the peace that came into her life: mind, body, and soul. In 2007, she re-dedicated herself to the practice, attending Pilgrimage of the Heart regularly. Trained in Ashtanga at It's Yoga in San Francisco, Blair learned to deepen her practice and returned to San Diego excited to share her excitement for yoga with others.
Incorporating a sense of balance between self, others, and the universe,
Blair encourages her students to follow their own inner voice and
lead a life full of compassion.
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Haunani Chong
"Be the change you wish to see in the World."
Haunani Chong, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, is here to hug the World by Being the Change. Having danced the ancient Hawaiian Hula since the age of four (another form of yoga, uniting spirit, mind, and body) and studying natural forms of healing her whole life, Yoga & Ayurveda were natural progressions to discovering a deeper understanding of personal healing, transformation, self-realization, love, and unity with All That Is. As a certified Deep Yoga Mastery of Life Teacher through Bhava & Sundari Ram of San Diego and Radiant Child Yoga Teacher instructed by Shakta Kaur she loves to guide, share, and inspire kids and adults to discover, feel, and honor the Divine Love & Light within. She also shares her loving light through ancient Hawaiian massage and breathwork.
Her studies and travels from around the globe influences her integrative approach to Yoga, Ayurveda and holistic healing: "I don't heal people, my intention is to guide and empower people to heal themselves." Haunani best motivates others to live in their highest Spirit or Soul-realization by choosing to live a life in accordance with the divine nature of Oneness, Love, Happiness, Gratitude and Trust. She loves to laugh until she's crying and cry until she's laughing, cook with organic garden-fresh produce, read, travel, and be out in nature.
Within each body lies the endless possibilities of health, healing, happiness, and liberation from personal suffering. Yoga & Ayurveda is one way of tapping into those endless possibilities and innate capabilities, to free ourselves from our past, personal agreements, and contracts. Inspiring and guiding people to balance, happiness, and self-liberation through the cultivation of awareness and gratitude continues to be her service to the One Earth Family.
"Every journey of a thousand miles, begins with one step." Whether
you've begun that journey or need to start a new, it will be an honor
to take that next step together.
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Heather Fenwick
Heather Fenwick started practicing Hatha yoga in 2001 in San Diego, CA. Exploring different types of yoga led her to take a Teacher Training Course from Yoga Works in 2005; she recently completed her second Teacher Training Course at Yoga One in San Diego. She traveled for most of 2006, spending nine months in India and Thailand, delving into yoga, Ayurveda, Indian philosophy, Buddhism, and Thai massage.
"The original purpose of the trip was to study yoga in the 'Motherland'"
she says, "Even though I didn't practice as much physical yoga as
I'd expected, traveling in that part of the world is different kind
of yoga - much more challenging than an asana practice!" While her
classes vary in physical postures, she always keeps students challenged
to their capabilities while maintaining a body/mind awareness so that
people leave feeling both relaxed and energized.
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Joshua Graner
Joshua Graner is a Teacher of Taoist Yoga, a system that focuses on reducing blockages in the body and mind. Joshua's incorporates Hatha Yoga, Tai Chi, Kung Fu, Chinese Medicine, Human Physiology and Biochemistry into his teachings. Joshua teaches it in a way that is accessible to anyone. He has a unique gift for making things simple while also paying attention to and teaching fine detail. Joshua spent ten years in all as a medic, medical instructor and fitness trainer for the Army, after which he spent six years studying nutrition, human physiology and biochemistry at the University of Nevada Reno.
For the past few years Joshua has been studying Chinese medicine
at the Pacific College of Oriental medicine in pursuit of his Masters
degree and eventually his doctorate. He now practices a form of healthcare
called the Three Jewels of Health. This is a method of medicine and
health education that helps people understand his or her body through
a very simple three-faceted paradigm namely respiration, digestion
and movement. He uses Taoist yoga along with Asian bodywork, nutritional
counseling, herbs and meditation to help his clients better know their
body and mind and how to activate the self-healing mechanisms of the
body. Joshua is available for a Three Jewels of Health consultation
by appointment.
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Leela Moghadas
Leela Moghadas has been a student of Yoga since 1978; she has practiced many styles of Yoga for the past 30 years. Yoga, meditation and Ayurvedic practices have been a vital part of her life's journey. Leela has had the opportunity to study with many highly regarded Yoga teachers and has come to know the many healing and transformational benefits Yoga offers and is both inspired and determined to share this 5,000 year old science with others.
Leela is a compassionate and nurturing teacher; her classes are dynamic
and fun, with attention on the cultivation of Prana through the breath.
She also has the steadiness of her roots in classical Hatha to create
a balanced sequence of postures, easily modified to fit all levels
of practitioners. Her classes are designed to relieve tension, create
strength, flexibility, and encourage an overall state of bliss. Leela
is a caring teacher who seeks to help her students find a Yoga practice
that can be both challenging and accessible for their strengths, goals,
and needs. She helps students to see the joy and fun in the practice
of Yoga.
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Manel Rodriguez
Manel was born and raised in Portugal. He came to the U.S. 3 years ago where he found a divine recognition of karma through yoga. Coming from a self-spiritual path and a profound exploration for the unknown and beyond realms of existence like a lotus flower Manel flourished, opening up to a new life's concept called yoga. The first divine manifestation of a long life's process was the Bird Rock Yoga teacher training in 2006 that allowed him to reinforce and define more precisely his life's purpose of devotion.
With a lot of discipline and commitment, Manel became a servant of
unconditional love, wisdom and compassion.
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Marney Jensen
Marney has been practicing yoga since 1996. She became a Certified
Yoga Teacher through the Sivananda Yoga Teachers' Training Course
at the ashram in Grass Valley, California. Marney seeks to enrich
the lives of students through a gentle and informative teaching style,
incorporating postures or asanas, breathing exercises (pranayama),
relaxation (savasana), positive thinking and meditation. Her goal
as a teacher is to help students to discover and embrace their true
nature, happiness and inner peace.
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Miranda Knox
Miranda enjoys yoga as a lifestyle. It helps her keep balanced and teaches her to enjoy the endless realms in human potential. It has helped her surrender to the old be and alive with the new.
Her classes incorporate mind, body and spirit. The body becomes aligned, the mind is freed and quieted. Spirit keeps you living your life with complete awareness, concentration and meditation.
Miranda has received certifications in Nosara, Costa Rica (Hatha Yoga) and Buenos Aires, Argentina (Chris LaValle Yoga, Water Yoga). Miranda believes Yoga brings about a deep focus and a strong sense of community health. She loves to read, learn and experience all forms of yoga. The energy she seeks out comes back to her, helping her inner senses find harmony with the communities around her.
This is her sixth year living in San Diego and she enjoys teaching
Yoga.
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Nikole Fortier
Nikole is amused by the poetic irony of pop culture introducing her to yoga: "I went in looking for 'yoga butt' and walked out profoundly changed--physically, mentally, psychically." Nine years later, she's dedicated to creating space in her classes for students to experience something similar.
Nikole has a 200 hour certification from UCSD training with Arturo
Galvez in the Iyengar & Astanga traditions, and recently completed
a 100 hour interdisciplinary flow certification from Yoga One with
Amy Caldwell & Diana Beardsley. She's been blessed to have studied
with many amazing teachers, and often credits her students for teaching
her most. In her classes, she likes to incorporate chanting, pranayama,
Sanskrit, philosophy, still and moving meditation through asanas with
emphasis on the breath so that students can experience the spectrum
of transformational yoga expressions. Foremost, she encourages students
to practice loving kindness, truth, peace and acceptance on the mat
as these qualities invariably translate into life.
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Tina Rathbone
Tina was born to a mother from a New Mexican ranching family and a father of Norwegian and Swedish immigrant heritage. A lifelong San Diegan, Tina's love of travel, languages and diverse cultures dates from girlhood, when she spent summers in the pueblos, rivers and galleries of Taos, and the rest of the year immersed in the Southern California suburban/beach lifestyle.
Tina embarked on a hatha yoga path in 1987, as a way to overcome the stresses of graduate school, but it was the discovery of Ashtanga yoga a few years ago that illuminated for her the transformative power of yoga: physically, mentally and spiritually. From that day, Tina dedicated her practice to the hope that she could bring the gift of yoga to others.
Tina brings a sense of joy and fun to her classes, tempering her exuberance with a deep reverence for the mystery and power of the human body to heal and transform over time.
Tina has completed 300 hours of teacher training with Tim Miller.
She continues to study with Tim and several other excellent teachers
in the San Diego area.
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