Dalia Stoffer

My journey with Yoga started in 2009, as a stressed out college student who simply could not sleep. I had heard of yoga helping with stress relief, and was interested but never cultivated any action beyond that initial interest. After one particularly hard week, I was walking down a busy street in Ormond Beach, Florida and passed a small studio called Transformational Yoga. The owner, Nirinjan Kaur, was kind enough to take me into a class right then and told me all I had to do was lay down and breathe. I have been curious about, passionate about and transformed by my yoga practice since that day.

In 2010 I began my love affair with hot yoga. I began with a few early morning Vinyasa classes before school, and soon after found Bikram Yoga. For 4 years I almost exclusively practiced Bikram Yoga, up to 6 times a week! I starting working at the first studio to bring hot yoga to Orlando Florida, Bikram Yoga Orlando. It was here that I trained and competed in the 2012 USA Yoga Florida Regionals, under the guidance of some amazing teachers and friends. Inspired by training for competition, and yearning to learn more about Yoga, I started to seek out a training that would not only teach me how to lead a class through an Asana practice, but how to be a Leader in my community.

Through a local teacher, and leader in the community; Kelly Senn – Owner of Orlando Power Yoga – I found MBody Yoga. In January of 2014 I attended my first month of Teacher Training with Mark White, Dawn Clapp and Frank Markowski. They were dedicated to my growth and truly provided an environment for inspiration, perspiration, (some irritation) and magic. Before this teacher training I had been walking around with a backpack full of tools. MBody Yoga put those tools in my hands and taught me how to use them. I left my last weekend of training with a whole lot of tears, and something I never knew how to use before. My voice.

Since graduating I have taught class at every opportunity. I began in friends livings rooms and public parks! I taught my first public class at Project 7 Yoga, under the guidance of Mary Brown – the studio owner and director. There have been lots of laughs, silly cues and silent savasanas. I have had the opportunity to teach community classes, private classes, big and small sessions. This is just the beginning of a great journey of service. I am excited to see where it takes me, how far I will go, and look forward to teaching for as long as I am blessed to be here. I hope I have the chance of seeing you in class soon, practicing with or next to me.