aYa 

I grew up surrounded by the ocean and mountains in Japan’s rural Yamaguchi Prefecture. My mother is an acclaimed ballet instructor so as a child I naturally gravitated to the art and practice of ballet. By the time I was a teenager ballet had become my entire life. Ballet granted me opportunities to travel to places like New York city to perform at Carnegie Hall but it also became all-consuming and caused me a lot of stress and forced me to make many sacrifices.

After ten years in the highly competitive world of international ballet I was burned out and needed a change.

I enrolled in a study abroad school program and ended up in Los Angeles all by myself with little knowledge of English. The adjustment was rough but I successfully finished school with a B.A. in Psychology.  After graduation I worked in a medical setting with seniors and special needs children.

I found my work of caring for others very rewarding, but my personal life was another story. I was unhappy and unfulfilled. Then I discovered yoga. At first yoga was just an escape but after awhile I felt my body and mind getting healthier and I gained an ability to focus on positive thoughts. Yoga became my passion.  

I traveled to India and studied yoga at an ashram under Roshan Singh and Deepa Lakhyani. Since then I’ve traveled the world, sharing my experience through practicing and teaching yoga. I’ve taught classes and hosted retreats in America, Japan, Thailand, and Malaysia. Witnessing the positive impact yoga had had on making others happier and healthier has been the most rewarding moments in my life.

I believe that life is something to enjoy and embrace rather than hold on to. Spending time everyday to focus on yourself is something we can all benefit from. When I’m not practicing yoga, you can find me enjoying nature or experimenting in my kitchen.

Mayumi Higuchi was born and raised in Saitama, Japan. She spent her life doing sports such as basketball, soft ball, swimming, and snowboarding. In her twenties, She was practicing hard to became a professional snowboarder, but she was struggling with a knee injury. When she came to visit Colorado for snowboarding in 2000, she met new people who got her to think about her future. She decided to quit snowboarding and started to plan moving to the States.

When she was 27 years old, she moved to the States. She went to college to become a preschool teacher. While she was attending college, she took her first yoga class. She was looking for relaxing and releasing stress through yoga practice. Even though, the class wasn’t easy for her, she felt really great after the class. Since then, she took classes as much as she could, while she attended college.

However, it was getting difficult to find time for yoga between school and two jobs. Unfortunately, she was away from yoga completely. When she was 33 years old, she got a pregnant. It was a wake up call for her to think about her health. Her doctor recommended pre-natal yoga. She took a pre-natal yoga class at a local yoga studio, and she totally fell in love with the pre-natal yoga. She was attending 3-4 pre-natal yoga classes every week until her delivery, and her pregnancy was stable and healthy from the begging to the end.

After delivery, she went back to the school, took care of her baby, and went through divorce. S he had a difficult time keeping her physical and mental health. One day, her sister took her to a hot yoga class. An instructor announced a yoga teacher training at the studio, she also shared how she became an yoga instructor. Mayumi was touched by the instructor’s experience, and she decided to apply to the teacher training program. She felt that she likes to guide her students to find their meaningful life through yoga practice. Now, she filled with joy and happiness teaching yoga and build healthy and joyful life through yoga practice.

During my ten year career in the fashion industry, I began to notice certain changes in my body started to show the signs of the stressful lifestyle I was living. At this time I decided to try yoga and it has been the best decision I have ever made. The changes to my body and mind were truly transformational.

In 2012 I decided to come to LA to pursue a yoga career.  I hope to be able to inspire others to try yoga so that they too can see and feel the many benefits of the truly remarkable practice of yoga.

Former trapeze artist I turned to yoga as a practice to soothe my taxed shoulder and back muscles and I surprisingly fell instantly in love with this new and holistic approach to the body.

Fast forward after 4 years of practice (Jivamukti with Nives Gobbo and Power Yoga with Max Grossi) I decided to attend to my first teacher training through YogaWorks with the desire to share what yoga gave to me.

Today I love to combine pranayama, meditation and asana with the goal to have my students leave each class feeling energized and renewed.

I enjoy exploring with humor and a playful and compassionate attitude different asana themes and yoga philosophy concepts. I’m humbled by the teachings of yoga and grateful for the teachers and practitioners who keep those teachings alive.

Coming Soon

I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. I have been married an American and emigrated to Los Angeles in 1988. I was going through a divorce, a remarriage, the divorce afterwards.　One day, I thought about the purpose of mission in life. Then, I met founder Tamara of the Tamara energy in 2002. I understood my past life from reading and, found the purpose of this life. And, I had become a first Tamara Healer in U.S.A.

Soon after, I had got a qualification of Certified Spiritual Healing Practitioner and Massage Therapist.  And I worked at the spa and a chiropractor office. Then, I started a healing as a volunteer to a parent having a sick child in the McDonald's house. Then, I helped heal person of the terminally ill patients as a hospice volunteer. I received Letter of appreciation from Los Angeles City and County in 2011. I became a caregiver also afterwards. The massage and the healing were pleased them with very much to heal the pain of mind and body. 

I began to go to a yoga class when I started work of the massage. I'm realizing that I can cure pain and the distortion of the body of various parts of myself. I have received various healings and reading, therapy. And feelings and stress were related with the distortion of the body and experienced that it led to transforming a bone with own body. The yoga became a part of my life, and it was not necessary to reach a chiropractor any more. I have desired to teach the yoga at the same time and got a qualification in a Yoga Alliance afterwards.

My yoga class that I'd like to put together as massage, healing energy, chakra balance, aromatherapy, kinesiology and cranial sacrum therapy that she performed thus far.

Born and nurtured by the serene environment of Okinawa, Kazue Yamashita was enthralled by the world of dancing from a young age.

As she moved her scene from Okinawa to Tokyo, and eventually to Los Angeles, her stress increased. She sought comfort in food; this took a toll on her health and she became Bulimic.

Challenged with anguish, one day her friend recommended yoga. Through determination, she was able to lose 55 pounds.

Not only has she lost weight, her stress was eliminated. Yoga rejuvenated her body and soul, leading to a healthier and happier life.

In this stressful society, it is said that yoga helps to heal the exhausted body and mind.

The fluid movement of yoga will make you concentrate on posture and breathing. Not only would you be exercising your whole body, you will reflect on your inner self to calm your soul.

It would be my humble pleasure to be able to help you live a richer life through yoga, which has turned my life around.