Jason is a native to the northwest. He was born in Bothell, grew up in Everett and has lived in the Mill Creek area since 2000. Growing up, Jason was an avid athlete; playing football, basketball and running track. He endured many sports injuries over the years that eventually led him to hang up his cleats. Due to two ankle surgeries that led to a lack of activity and entering a busy corporate world, Jason began to pack on the pounds. In 2004, Jason discovered the mix of Bikram yoga and Power yoga and his life was transformed. He was immediately drawn in by the intensity of the hot yoga classes. He became addicted to the extremely powerful detoxifying effect of the sweat, the connectedness to himself and his breath, and the discipline and focus that it brought back into his life. His ankle and shoulder injuries began to heal and he was able to rediscover the strength and flexibility that he once knew as a young athlete. In addition, on this journey, Jason lost 80 lbs. doing the yoga and rediscovered his true self. Because of the life-changing effect the yoga had on his life, Jason embarked on a journey to become a teacher so that he could share this life altering gift with others.
In early 2008, Jason completed a 90 day challenge, in which he lost 40lbs. Later that year, Jason spent 9 weeks at the intensive Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Acapulco, Mexico. In 2009, Jason trained with Baron Baptiste at the Level 1 Baptiste Power Yoga Teacher Training, and in 2010, Jason obtained his Crossfit Level 1 certification. In addition, he continues to learn and evolve as a student and teacher by attending various workshops, trainings, and master classes.
In 2010, Jason co-founded Fusion Hot Yoga and is passionate about sharing his love for the yoga with the amazing community of students at Fusion. Most recently Jason has had the honor of being an ambassador for Lululemon in Bellevue and now for the beautiful new Alderwood Mall store. In April 2013, Jason was blessed to attend the Lululemon Ambassador Summit in Whistler, BC where he evolved as a student and teacher. In January 2014, Jason was featured as one of 130 inspiring yogis across 10 cities in the United States in the first issue of Mantra Yoga + Health magazine. Jason was also asked and is ecstatic to teach at Wanderlust Festival in Squaw Valley, CA this summer. When Jason is not in the hot room, he enjoys writing, reading, spending time with his wife and daughter, watching movies, traveling, working out and being in nature.
Tessie was born in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada in late '60's. She raised her only daughter who is now 47 years old and has the twin girl grand kids. Moved to Seattle in 2010.
In the late 70's, the sports of long distance running became my passion. I ran 8 full marathons in the early eighties throughout the 90's, until I endured so many running injuries where I can no longer run without pain.
I felt I that I needed to do more than walking and hiking and that's when I discovered Bikram Hot Yoga in our neighborhood at the age of 57. My very first class was so painful that I felt like walking out of the room and never coming back. But for some reason, I find myself practicing again and again where I was not even taking a day off!
Eight months into practicing Hot Yoga, I registered to participate in Teacher Training. I completed 9 weeks of intensive Bikram Hot Yoga certification in 2010 San Diego, California.
Since then, I have taught in different Bikram yoga studios, Vancouver, B.C., Woodinville, Yoga To the People in Seattle. Also, I taught in 2 Bikram Yoga studios in Manila, Philippines and Shanghai, China.
Three years ago, I had the opportunity to open the first Hot Yoga Studio in the upper highlands in the Philippines, city called Baguio City.
In my classes, I love to create a nurturing presentation of the dialogue adding a dose of inspiration to help you deepen your practice. I seek to help others thrive in life by nurturing body /mind and soul with this gift of Yoga. And my hope is that you step off the mat feeling refreshed, nourished and balanced. I am here to help you find your release so that you can be comfortable and competently move your body through life.
Yoga has been part of my life now for the last 8 years and my practice has helped me grow stronger, more flexible and fearless, both on and off the mat. Yoga inspires me to live each moment more mindfully.
My goal is to encourage men and women my age to practice yoga.
I will always be a student of the practice and am deeply grateful for the loving wisdom I have learned throughout my yoga journey. My favorite place is anywhere people are gathered to sweat, breathe and break boundaries together.
Yoga came into my life at the most unexpected time. 5 years ago I started my practice with the hopes of gaining strength back from having an infected and failing kidney removed. It left me frail, anemic, and the most weakest I’ve ever been in both body, mind, and self confidence.
My first few yoga classes at Fusion were the most challenging and I remember being surprised at how tough the classes were. I wanted to see what I was made of and signed up for the 30 day yoga challenge. I finished it and felt somewhat lighter and noticed how much stronger I was getting. I was hooked. I signed up for the 60 and then the 90 day challenge. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done and, also, one of the most significant experiences in my life.
When once I saw myself as weak and frail, I now felt strong, empowered, and passionate about life again. Following that, I switched careers to follow my passions and share yoga with others in hopes of giving others what yoga has given me.
Melissa Barasona
Certified Personal Trainer
ACSM-CPT, Power Vinyasa Yoga Teacher
Andrea is an enthusiastic, skilled and empowering instructor. For the strongest athletes she can provide challenge and new potential. The new comer can expect a safe place with clear directions that suit each unique learning style and flexibility level. She delivers each class with the mission to support optimal health as she uplifts and respects each yogi. Her expertise and intricate connection to the benefits of the postures, empowers her students to feel their best after each class. Off the mat, she has been a student and facilitator of stress reduction incorporating skilled breath work and mindfulness practices. Andrea is passionate about naturopathic health and whole food wellness. She has been a yoga professional inclusive of teaching, mentoring and studio ownership. Her yoga journey began in 1999 after graduating from University of Washington with her BA in Psychology. Her training and credentials encompassed the following methods: Hatha; Bikram Choudhury (1999), Vinyasana; Jason Crandel (2014), and Groovy Kids; Greville Henwood (2016).
Suzanne took her first yoga class in 1999 at a local gym. It was a great compliment to her triathlon training. After suffering a debilitating foot injury a year later, her friend dragged her to hot yoga. She hated it—but was hooked! Compelled to share her experience, Suzanne received her teacher training certificate with CorePower Yoga in 2009. She strives to continue her education and has attended many different workshops and trainings with international and local yoga teachers like Baron Baptiste, Rajashree Choudhury, Bikram, Bryan Kest, Aadil Palkhivala, Troy Lucero and Liz Doyle. She loves to introduce beginners to yoga while challenging experienced yogis safely to new postures. "Watching students learn, grow and find peace is truly an inspiration!"
Anna is Baptiste trained, and has continued her training with Bryan Kest, Lisa Black, Jason Crandell and Seane Corn. With over 40 hours of Teacher Assisting training, she is invested in helping students experience yoga in the deepest, most satisfying way. Anna is also a Wanderlust Wayfarer and holds community benefit classes several times a year.
In 2012, after reading a blog chronicling a 30-day Bikram (Hatha 26&2) yoga challenge, Jordan Lydia Grimmer was inspired to try it herself. After 30-days of daily practice, she realized how beneficial yoga was and began practicing Bikram (Hatha 26&2) yoga and yin yoga regularly.
Balancing yang and yin elements, Jordan Lydia has passionately devoted herself to the study and path of the Bikram and yin yoga methods. Through yoga, she has managed to overcome the negative effects of scoliosis: alleviating lower back pain, reshaping and realigning her hunched shoulders, crooked spine, and swayed pelvic girdle.
HATHA 26∓2: Jordan Lydia completed her Hatha 26&2 Yoga Teacher Training (200-hr.) in Seattle with Whitney McCormick. Always the student first - she has an inside-out, bones-to-skin LOVE for the quirky, whimsical, powerful, and life-changing Hatha 26&2 series.
ADVANCED HATHA 84: The world famous hot yoga Hatha 26&2 sequence was derived from a larger sequence of over 84 postures taught by Bishnu Ghosh and his disciplines in Calcutta, India. The 84 class is known as the ‘advanced class’.
Jordan Lydia has attended Esak Garcia’s e84 Bishnu Ghosh Advanced (Hatha) Teacher Training (200-hr.) and is currently in a two-year teaching, mentorship, and practice program. She has devoted a month to intensive training, practicing and studying the Advanced Hatha 84 series daily. Jordan Lydia firmly believes that when approached with patience and wisdom, the Advanced Hatha 84 series is therapeutic, healing, and transformative.
YIN YOGA: An avid practitioner of yin yoga for several years, in 2014, Jordan Lydia completed a rigorous Yin Yoga Teacher Training (70-hr.) and (18-month) mentorship. Her yin yoga teaching style is intuitive, therapeutic-centered, approachable and inclusive of all bodies and levels. A particular area of interest Jordan Lydia enjoys is the exploration of anatomical proportions and structures and the formation of the asana. She approaches yin yoga teaching as an art form and medium of expression — designing sequences to utilize specific asanas to stimulate meridian pathways in the body. Jordan Lydia has co-lead a Yin Yoga Teacher Training (200-hr.) with Audrey Benton (trained with Bernie Clark), including co-authoring the Yin Yoga Manual. She has mentored, trained, and provided support to yin yoga teachers.
Jordan Lydia’s goal is to create a healing space where students can engage themselves with curiosity and wisdom. I want students to feel empowered, content, peaceful, and limitless. I am just a vessel to pass on instructions and knowledge needed for students to access the healing naturally contained within themselves.
Jordan Lydia was the two-time Washington State Yoga Asana Champion and has demonstrated in Yoga Asana Championships on a national level. Outside the studio, she works as a Medical Device Quality Specialist. She loves cats and pictures of cats doing yoga!
Certifications/Skills/Training:
I started my yoga journey in 2006 was when I was pregnant with my first child. I was not comfortable going to the gym being so pregnant so I decided to try yoga at home watching a series called Namaste on Fit TV. I loved it and continued doing it for the next couple of years.
In 2010 a friend and I wanted to try hot yoga. We went to a studio in Mill Creek town center and got started with a new student rate. The first class I thought I was going to die! I couldn't believe how people could do yoga in this heat and humidity. Oddly enough I felt great that night and slept really well. I was already committed for several more weeks so I made the best of it and kept going back. By the third class I started to feel good and started to get used to the heat and the postures. By the tenth class I was hooked! I couldn't get enough of it. I have been doing hot yoga ever since. I make it a priority in my weekly schedule. I love the fact that a first time student and a seasoned yogis can be in the same class. Whether you are young or old yoga is for every BODY no matter what your body type is or what medical aliments or health restrictions you have.
In March 2015 I completed my 200 hour RYT certification through Global Vinyasa as a power vinyasa teacher. Besides teaching adults I also teach kids yoga. In Aug 2017 I earned my 50 hour certification through Next Generation Yoga as a kids yoga teacher for ages 2-13 yrs. olds.
I find that starting yoga at a young age helps kids develop body awareness, learn how to use their bodies in a healthy way, manage stress through breathing, awareness, meditation and healthy movement. It helps build concentration, increase their confidence and positive self-image. It helps kids feel part of a healthy, non-competitive group, and have an alternative way to decompress especially in our fast pace world of electronics.
When I am not teaching or practicing yoga I am a substitute teacher for the Everett School District. I am a wife and mom to two beautiful and amazing kids. I love to be active. I golf, ski, hike, read, garden, hang out with friends and enjoy time with my family. Every day that I can practice and/or teach yoga… I am truly blessed.
Jo is the original co-founder and Director of Yoga of Urban Yoga Spa in downtown Seattle, WA. Jo was instrumental in starting and growing this thriving business with the owners who were not teachers at the time of it’s opening in 2009. She is credited with growing this premium, fun, exciting, and profitable yoga community that it is known for today!
Jo has over 11 years experience teaching Baptiste Power Yoga, Yin Yoga, and Hot Hatha Yoga, and is 300 hour ERYT Yoga Alliance certified. Jo’s training is Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga Institute level 1 and level 2. Jo has also earned her 50 hour Yin Yoga Certification from Bernie Clark.
Jo's ability to connect with her students and understand their suffering, and their triumphs (emotional, physical, and spiritual) is as unique as she is. Jo always stands in her truth and power, and encourages those who take her classes to do the same. Students tell her all the time, “You kicked my butt, but I felt loved the whole time!”
Brian started practicing Hot Yoga about 11 years ago from the advice of a friend. He grew up playing sports, mainly soccer and snow skiing. He was a ski instructor for several years, realizing years ago that teaching others was something he had a passion for. Brian then got into Martial Arts. Studying Taekwondo, Kung-Fu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Brian also likes to spend time writing songs and playing music, as well as an occasional game of golf. Brian also has a passion for traveling and experiencing life to it's fullest. He has backpacked in over 35 countries to date because of a burning desire to understand the world and his place in it. Yoga has not only helped Brian with his ailments from many years of being active, but also helped him on his spiritual journey as well. “Only those who practice yoga actively can understand the positive effects it has on the entire mind, body and spirit”. Loving yoga and knowing his passion for teaching others, combined with his desire to help others receive from yoga the same bene?ts that he has, Brian decided to go to Baron Baptiste teacher training in August of 2010. He has been teaching ever since. Brian is now a full time yoga teacher and he could not be happier, because..... "living your passions is the best gift you can give yourself" !!! :)
Sustainability is my goal in my yoga practice.
2002 was the year I started to embark yoga, learned and practiced different styles and lineage. It all started for physical reasons only to find out few years later its depth beyond postures. And only then it has become an integral part of my life, it becomes the air I breath, my playground when I’m high in spirit, my refuge when I feel weighed down, on how I start my day or on how I end my night and in between. I practice the postural aspect of yoga to bring me to a space of acceptance [of my limitations], awareness and mindfulness [of my strength] of where, how and what I can do.
Fall of 2010 when I went to San Diego for Bikram yoga teacher’s training, I farther my yoga learning by taking more trainings and workshops e.g. Senior Yoga workshop in Portland, Gosh Vinyasa Flow in UK with renowned Tony Sanchez, completed the Yoga Applied Anatomy Intensive workshop with another brilliant teacher Asha Wolf in Boulder Colorado, finished Hot Pilates teacher’s training and consistently taking on line courses. I had the privilege to teach kids yoga and yoga classes for children with special needs which opened a whole new learning. I learn from trainings and workshops, from taking classes, from teaching classes from fellow teachers and from fellow students.
Yoga practice, both postural and meditative comes in different forms, styles and lineage, doing what feels right, appropriate and joyful - that is the kind of class I want to take and the kind of class I want to bring!
You will see me here and there in my kitty onesie/pajama especially early in the morning will give you a hint of what I am passionate about next to yoga.
While Working as a graphic designer I spent 10 hours a day in front of a computer, the amount of time I spent sitting at a desk left my body in a lot pain. I needed to make a change. I had always had an interest in massage therapy, so I decided to go back to school for massage school.
Just before my career change, I was involved in a car accident. After the accident I was in a lot of physical pain. After multiple doctor visits, X-rays and an MRI it was determined that I had 4 bulging discs in my neck, disc degeneration and abnormal straightening of the neck. By the time I was in my late twenties my body was beat up, inflexible and I had chronic pain in my back and neck. Then, a dear friend invited me to yoga. This is what brought me to my first Bikram Yoga class. After 5 years of a consistent Bikram Yoga practice, my cervical spine has been corrected and pain is under control. I haven’t stopped practicing in 10 years because the yoga works!
Bikram yoga method is the only program that makes my body feel like it did pre-accident. This is my physical therapy, this is how I stay healthy. It was soon after I started practicing that I knew I needed to become an instructor. Finally, I found my way to Bikram Yoga Teacher Training Fall 2011. During the training I had to face one of my biggest fears of public speaking. Since a young age I suffered a fear of speaking in public. From grade school to college my scores suffered at the thought of raising my hand to ask questions. The near thought of it would send me into panic. My body would tremble, my heart would pound and I would turn red from head to toe complete with sweating. During Bikram Yoga teacher training, I had to teach my fellow trainees in front of 500 other peers everyday for 9 weeks. I faced my biggest fear everyday in order to share this yoga. After 31 years of fear, I was now very comfortable speaking in public.
As a teacher I find it necessary to learn from other teachers, a steady practice and most importantly to learn from the students. Through this I hope to become the best teacher I can be. I know Every person is different and every “body” is different. It is never too late to change, just show up. I am excited to continue sharing the amazing benefits of this yoga with more people.
