#37 - Keen on Yoga Podcast with Dena Kingsberg

Dena Kingsberg has been studying and practicing traditional Ashtanga yoga for over 30 years.  She is a devoted long-term student of the late Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and is among the most respected and senior practitioners and teachers in the world. Dena has a disciplined, yet lyrical style of teaching. Her holistic approach looks beyond external form to inspire a passion for self-discovery and reflection.  She lives with her husband Jack, in the forest in the hinterland, beyond Byron Bay Australia in a stone and recycled timber home that they built with their own hands, over a few decades. Her ashtanga journey began at the age of 21 while she was spending from three to six months of each year in Mysore.  Transformation through the practice was her primary focus. Dena went from primary to intermediate, then all of advanced A with Guruji adding asanas one by one of advanced B until it was completed.  By this time she was the age of 33. Her practice took about 4 ½ hours. After 15 years practice she was blessed with the birth of her first child, Zoli and three years later followed by her brother Izac. Dena believes that the quality of breath relates to quality of life and that to breathe in leads to inspiration, creativity, illumination and awakening.  And that the development of breath capacity and control not only enhances respiratory function but sits at the heart of emotional well being and spiritual connectivity. Chanting is another important element to Dena, one which she has cultivated as a means to connect with divinity beyond and within as a spiritual practice unto itself.  Dena remains committed, deeply inspired and continuously amazed by the vast healing potential of Ashtanga as a life changing practice. She feels that yoga does not promise a life without hardship, sorrow, or pain, but it gives us tools to keep the mind steady through success and failure.