Tiffany Gigi is a yoga teacher based in Orange County, California.
1. What style of yoga do you teach? And, where are you located?
I am currently located in Orange County and I teach Bikram Yoga at Bikram Yoga Irvine (BYI).
However, with the recent pandemic and quarantine, we have expanded from our brick and mortar school to world wide zoom classes. During this historic time, I have recognized the power of our bonded community along with the effectiveness and unifying quality of Bikram yoga.
We have teachers and students from all over the world joining our zoom classes online at BYI Live. It has been a beautiful experience and a trademark of Bikram Yoga, which is to bring everybody together.
2. What is your intention behind teaching?
Yoga means Union. My intention in teaching is to create a space for the lived experience of unity and liberation. I teach to bring diverse groups of people into a state of health, wellness and collective consciousness through movement and breath.
3. Who are your mentors in yoga?
Bikram Choudhury and many of my fellow Bikram teachers over the past 12 years in my practice.
4. What have they taught you?
That yoga is in Everything. It’s not about the posture. It’s about you, your body, your mind, your spirit, your life, you. The deepest, most important, most interesting subject in the world.
5. Please mention a book that you have read about yoga that has had a positive impact on you?
Sadhguru:
“Inner Engineering: A Yogi’s Guide to Joy”
6. What lesson are you currently learning in your Asana practice?
To keep a beginners mind, like a child’s mind, or in other words - curiosity. When you fill the mind with wonder everything is wonderful.
7. How often do you practice?
Every day
8. How do you implement the other 7 limbs of yoga into your life other than Asana?
I came to do yoga, but I became a Yogi.
During my practice I have come to realize that yoga is so much more than asana (postures). Very early in my practice I heard a teacher quoting Bikram saying, “One day all the pain in the world can’t take peace or happiness away from you. If anyone can steal your peace, you are the loser.” In this moment I was exposed, awakened, enlightened to the depths of yoga. I realized through these postures, I was doing much more than exercise.
When I started yoga, I was just looking to lose some weight. And I did, I lost 35 pounds. But what I found went far beyond what I was looking for. It has shaped my perspectives, my value systems, how I care for people, and how I care for the planet. What I found were the other seven limbs of yoga. What I found was Unity and Liberation, what I found was Myself.
9. Why is being present so important to you?
Depression and anxiety occur from disorders of past and future thinking. A practice of present moment mindfulness opens us to our true essence where peace and joy exist.
10. How can we keep up with you on social media? What is your IG handle and/ FB name?
IG Handle:
Tiffanyogini
Facebook:
Tiffany Girgis