Shannon's Teaching Schedule:
Tuesday Level II & III 5:30pm - 7:00pm
Tuesday Level I 7:15pm - 8:45pm
Friday Yin Yoga & Meditation 7:00pm - 9:00pm (monthly)
Contact Shannon; register for a class; check Shannon's Yoga Workshops
Shannon McCall, B.A.; E-RYT, has been on the yoga path since 1984 and teaching and leading retreats since 1991. She is grateful to her many wonderful teachers for imparting the spirit and practice of yoga to her. These teachers include Bob Smith, Angela Farmer, Victor van Kooten, Ana Forrest, Sarah Powers, John Friend and others within the Anusara Community. In addition to yoga, Shannon has practiced and trained in authentic movement, body-based meditation and western psychology, and is currently a student of the Diamond Approach. It is her deepest pleasure to integrate what she learns and bring that into her yoga classes; to offer an authentic exploration of yoga to her students. She sees the highest form of teaching as that which fosters curiosity and inquiry into one’s own experience to find what is true. Shannon’s classes and retreats include individual intention setting, yin and slow vinyasa style asana, pranayama, relaxation and meditation practices. She has enormous faith in the body’s wisdom, and seeks to empower students to know and trust this for themselves.
Shannon portrays a genuine interest in her students' state of being and tailors each class
to reflect our current needs. She continually refreshes her teaching with new philosophies that
help refine our personal yoga practice and she achieves perfect balance between encouraging
growth and offering gentle reminders to remain present in our bodies and minds. I
depart from Shannon's classes feeling light, energized and peaceful.
— Josie, landscape designer
From "Meet the Instructors: Shannon McCall", February 2010 Two Dog e-Newsletter
I began practicing yoga more than twenty-five years ago at the recommendation of my philosophy professor in college. I immediately fell in love with the physical practice as a way of transforming and healing my body/mind. As I grew with the practice, I became inspired by the beauty of the asanas and the payoff of diligent practice: I was doing things with my body I had never done before, nor ever dreamed possible. This was the first big teaching I received: with enough practice, anything is possible.
Though I had wanted to be a teacher since I was a child, I had never imagined myself teaching yoga. Yet, my life took a strong turn while I was in my 5th year of college study when I married my yoga teacher, and after seven years of intensive yoga practice, was invited to begin teaching yoga.
Within the first year of teaching, I became pregnant, and I had to let go of a very athletic practice, and with that came death to the identification I had with what my body could do. It was painful because I had come to equate progress in yoga with hours of daily physical practice, and mastery of more difficult postures. But as circumstances required, I let go of this way of practicing, and was led to a much deeper understanding and appreciation for the path. It was during this period, about a year after my son was born, that I met Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten and was led to study authentic movement. Both Angela and Victor’s yoga teaching, and the authentic movement training led me to embracing the wounded psyche/body as the doorway back to my essential self, which was always, already present. This is easy to say, yet it has been years of practice in many forms to integrate and come to deeper levels of embodiment, healing and personal transformation. In addition to the physical practice, I have come to see meditation, relationship/community and psychological work as fundamental to this path of awakening.
I have been teaching yoga full time since 1999. When people ask me what style of yoga I teach, I tell them that I am interested in teaching how to be present in the body. In any one moment, where is our mind? What is motivating our actions? Are we awake or asleep, fresh or habit bound?. I see yoga as a transformational practice, and while that transformation includes the body, it goes much deeper. Years of Ashtanga yoga practice, ongoing work with Angela and Victor, Teacher training with Ana Forest, in depth work with Anusara and yoga therapy, meditation practice, authentic movement, and the Diamond Approach all inform my growing understanding of yoga, and add to the tools and practices I have available to teach.
I look forward to meeting you in class sometime. Namaste
