our Yoga Teacher Training Instructors
Meet our certified Yoga Alliance–experienced instructors guiding our 200-hour, 300-hour YTTs, and YACEP courses online and in-person.
MEET ANNIKA
RYT 500. Student, teacher, athlete, traveler, sun lover, moon devotee, language enthusiast, and friend.
Annika is playful, joyous, and vibrant. She is a student, teacher, athlete, traveler, sun lover, moon devotee, language enthusiast, and friend. Annika is a grounded and devoted educator with a knack for seeing her students wholly and celebrating their unique gifts.
Annika stumbled into her committed practice in 2016 after finishing a competitive field hockey career looking for physical healing and a new way to move her body. The mat provided Annika with a space to restore many things – especially her physical body and her relationship with herself.
In 2019, she completed her 200hr at her local studio and immediately went on co-found an online yoga community called Unity Yoga. Unity Yoga was co-created with her 60 year old better half and fellow YTT graduate to make yoga accessible for all bodies, all ages, and all experience levels. Beyond Yinyasa and Hatha flows, Annika teaches Yin Yoga and bodyweight and weighted circuit classes.
She completed her 300hr with Indra Yoga Institute with special focus in Ayurveda and Trauma Informed teaching. Annika’s classes aim to connect the body and mind while providing a space to practice calmness in sensation and grounding in movement. She specializes in making yoga accessible for all and inspires the love of props and modifications in her classes.
Many years ago, Annika followed her heart’s calling to the Rocky Mountains of the American West after growing up and going to college in New England. She lived in Boulder, Colorado for many years where she taught Kindergarten and finished her Master’s in Education and Human Development. Her thesis was on the Power of Play in classrooms and this follows her into all professional avenues!
She is a passionate hiker, bikepacker, baker and reader and spends any free moment she has on a trail, in a hammock, or on a gravel road. In July of 2021, she left the classroom and the comforts of a stable job/home/routine and followed her dreams to speak spanish, learn how to surf, and to deepen her yoga practice. She has been nomadic ever since!
During her travels, Annika has worn many hats: nanny, vegan-chef, receptionist, international student trip leader, river-side yoga teacher on whitewater rafting trips, substitute school teacher, yoga & mindfulness curriculum writer for middle schoolers and education guide. Annika is currently the Program Director and Yoga+Mindfulness Instructor for DiscoverTerm – five week alternative semester programs for middle school students focusing on skiing in Colorado and surfing in Costa Rica focusing on skiing and surfing.
What’s your favorite yoga pose and why?
Extended Side Angle – Utthita Parsvakonasana.
To me, this pose is a blend of all the elements. Your feet are like roots connected to the ground and the strength of the pose is drawn up from the Earth through your legs and into your body. As the energy travels upwards, the Fire begins to build in your solar plexus. As you sweep your arm overhead in Watery fluidity, the art of this asana forms in the expression of a bright heart and expanded fingertips. While your feet remain planted, your upper body unravels its wings to soar into Air and Ether. This pose makes me feel equal parts strong, beautiful and expansive.
What is your favorite quote?
This is too hard for me – I have a 50 page word document that is called “Words from Writers” where I record phrases and prose that inspire me… Instead, I’d love to share the synopsis of a dear children’s book that I come back to time and time again. This is my preferred lens of looking at the world.
The story of Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, also known as the Lupine Lady, is the tale of a woman who longed to travel the world, have diverse experiences, live in a house by the sea, and to do something to make the world more beautiful. She travels far and wide, and in her old age settles down into her home by the ocean. Still seeking to make the world more beautiful, she one day looks out her window and sees that the wind and birds have carried the seeds of her purple and white lupine flowers across her yard and into the meadow. The colorful flowers bring her great joy and she vows to spread the seeds of lupine flowers wherever she goes as her contribution to making the Earth more beautiful. The story asks us to ponder what we will do as our part in making this world more beautiful, whatever that means to you. It is a reminder that it is sometimes the simplest things that bring pure beauty and light to our surroundings.
What inspires you in your practice?
That it is YOUR practice. That I can empower myself and others to meet oneself exactly where they are at and respond with nurturing love to whatever the body is asking for and needing in that moment. I am inspired by the endless paths to study and deepen my learning and understanding. I am humbled by the fact most of the practice takes place off of the four corners of my mat. When I close my eyes and connect to my breath, all the wisdom I need is there, I am home.
STUDENT TESTIMONIALS
~Annika’s presence felt like one of a big sister. Her energy is very warm and always had a smile. She brought so much to the course by offering all the alternatives with props and normalizing that every position may look different on every body and that it is still yoga. She was very attentive and she felt very real and genuine.
~Annika brings so much teaching ability, energy, creativity, and fun. She has a strong understanding of the human body, sutras, and asana. She is able to share her joy of teaching and create a wonderful learning environment.
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