Christine McCauley

Yoga Teacher, long Beach & Hermosa Beach

I have been a student of yoga since 2009, and was certified in 2011 to teach the Bikram 26 and 2. During my first Bikram class ever (in Everett, Washington, with the gracious Yu Wang), I instantly knew that the challenge, the sweat, the timing, and the heat and humidity would be my life’s passion. Within two years of attending my first class, I moved down to Los Angeles with my husband and attended the 9-week long training. I continue to grow and learn about different styles and formats of yoga and have taken a particular liking to focusing on breathing and meditation, both inside the classroom and out. After having my second child, I founded, and currently manage, Little Hands Yoga of LB, which specializes in yoga for kiddos, with a focus on breathing techniques, meditation practice, and self-regulating emotions. For me, practicing yoga has consistently been about the balance between strength and flexibility. You cannot have one without the other, and yet, these two forces are often at odds. It has been immensely enlightening to watch my body and my soul learn to moderate them. My biggest learning from my nearly 10 years of practicing yoga is that strength and flexibility follow you outside the yoga room and into the world. Work, parenting, relationships: all these require a different version of you throughout your engagement in these realms of existing. At one time, you need to be strong, and at another time, flexible, and on most days, you find that you need to be both simultaneously. Bikram 26 and 2 has taught me how to coordinate and exert both of these opposing, and yet cohesive, attributes. I am a better person for it.