Highland Yoga Center Teachers
Bhakta (Leslie) Johnson
Bhakta (Leslie) Johnson, Certified Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher (CSYT), Leading Teacher, Foundations of Svaroopa® yoga Teacher Trainer.
Bhakta has over 1,000 hours of training through Master Yoga Teacher Institute. She has practiced yoga since her early twenties. She first found and became a student of Svaroopa® Yoga in 1999, and has been teaching Svaroopa yoga since 2002. She received her training from Swami Nirmalananda, (Rama Berch), the founding president of Yoga Alliance, master teacher and originator of Svaroopa Yoga, and founder of Master Yoga Foundation.
“There are many different styles of Hatha yoga (the practice of asana). I chose to teach Svaroopa® yoga because it gave me the most profound change. Svaroopa® Yoga is practiced for the purpose of healing, transformation, and transcendent experience. By delving into and through your own body you can come to know your own True Self.”
Bhakta transitioned out of the photo business and has been teaching yoga full time since 2006.
Niranjan (Nathan) Matanich
Certified Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher (CSYT),
Niranjan began practicing Svaroopa® Yoga in 2004. “I was invited to attend a class having no idea what it would be like. After that class I knew something felt different, but I wasn’t sure what it was. I was intrigued enough to keep attending. The more I practiced, the more I noticed change in my life, not just physically but mentally and emotionally. I started to have the experience of living life from a place of being open and present in all activities and was inspired to start teaching. I’ve been teaching since April of 2007 and am a certified Svaroopa® Yoga Teacher.”
Outside of teaching Niranjana works as a manufacturing engineer in a foam fabrication plant. Nathan (Niranjan) and Leslie (Bhakta) now have spiritual names given to us by Swami Nirmalananda. Swami Nirmalananda is the originator and master teacher of Svaroopa yoga. To read about her and this style of yoga go to: www.svaroopayoga.org Nora Beckjord
After trying three different types of Hatha Yoga, Nora Beckjord tried her first Svaroopa® yoga class in August 2008 to help her with job stress and chronic pain caused by fibromyalgia. She was hooked after the first class! Little did she know that Svaroopa® would also quiet her mind, and spill over into all areas of her life. She decided to become a Svaroopa® yoga teacher to help other students quiet their minds and achieve a pain and tension-free body. She has just completed Foundations of Svaroopa® yoga and will be continuing her education in order to become certified.
Charles Beckjord
Charles started taking Svaroopa® yoga in Fall 2008 at Highland Yoga center. He has taken the Foundations course, which enables him to teach beginning Hatha Yoga in the Svaroopa® style. He is also an attorney. "This is such a wonderful style of Yoga. I have known for awhile that I had a lot of core tension, for which I have received different kind of therapies, all of which have been wonderful in their own way. The difference with Svaroopa® yoga is that I have been able to take personal responsibility for both having and releasing this tension. This yoga has had a profound effect in many aspects of my life, in a short period of time."
Instructor contact information
Bhakta (Leslie) Johnson 612-408-0434
leslie99johnson@hotmail.com
Niranjan (Nathan) Matanich 612-730-0837
nmatanich@gmail.com
Nora Beckjord 612-747-7356
nbeckjord@aol.com
Charles Beckjord 651-353-4560
cbeckjord@aol.com
Or contact us at
info@highlandyogacenter.com
Highland Yoga Center
1040 Cleveland Ave S.
St.Paul, MN 55116
For information call Bhakta at 612-408-0434