Cindy Lusk: Live Your Yoga (Biography Text Page)

Biography

When I am asked why I started taking yoga,
I reply that it really wasn't a choice,
yoga decided to take me.

I was always spiritually inclined and searching for something. During a personal crisis while in grad school in 1985, I decided to take a yoga class, having done it once before in college. Something inside me told me to do it, and being a pretty serious runner, my body was aching for it.

I quickly found physical relief and challenge, and began to experience profound psychological effects as well. I soon found Richard Freeman, and when Richard transitioned to the Ashtanga system, so did his students.

In 1989, Pattabhi Jois came to Boulder and told everyone "you come to India!" Taking that as a personal invitation, I made my first trip to Mysore the following year, after which I made a serious commitment to yoga.

Meanwhile I completed my Ph.D. in social psychology, and worked as Adjunct Faculty at the University of Colorado, consulting for the National Weather Service and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (a very long story) for ten years.

My interest in social psychology sprang from a desire to help diverse peoples to relate better to one another, and my dissertation was on changes in stereotypes. In a way, my work with yoga has brought me full circle on this journey, as I try to help students discover their own divine essence, and see that in others as well.

During my second of three trips to India in 1994, I got very clear about the role of yoga in my life, and knew I was ready to begin sharing my knowledge with others. I began teaching at The Yoga Workshop shortly after my return home, and taught there for 11 years.

John Friend came yearly to the The Yoga Workshop to give workshops, and when he founded Anusara yoga, I began studying more and more with him, attending one of his first teacher trainings in 1997, and became Anusara certified in 2002.

John introduced me to Dr. Douglas Brooks, a professor at the University of Rochester, and sanskrit and philosophy scholar. I have studied extensively with Douglas since 2002, and remain committed it integrating yoga philosophy and mythology into my practice, life and teaching.

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