Nicole Hooley

Studios: Greenhouse Hollistic, The Loom, Awakening, Chalk Gyms and occaional local retreats

Also practices Reiki and Women’s Moon practices and is currently participating in a Master Healers Training.

Website: www.Nicolelynneyoga.com

Nicole strives to create a safe space for all of her clients and loves and adores sharing her blessings.

OE: How long have you been teaching yoga?

I’ve been teaching for 4 years and I’ve been practicing for about 9 or 10.

OE: What were you doing before you were teaching?

Before I started teaching yoga, I was a band manager and an activist for Greenpeace. In college I studied philosophy and religion as well as environmental science. Post college, I moved to brooklyn and was just having a really good time going to shows and all that.

At one point I set an intention, wishing all the shows would stop happening because I wanted to focus on being a better yogi. All of a sudden, my boyfriend’s band broke up and my band broke up and all of these things stopped… Totally did not forsee that coming when I set this intention. But it allowed me to spend more time with my practice.

OE: Why are you a yoga teacher?

At the end of my time at Greenpeace I was super depressed, I had gained a ton of weight because I was not eating healthy (vegan pizza for every meal) and drinking alot. There was a moment when someone told me I was "wasting my time" after I approached them about 'stopping the orangatan slaughtering in Indonesia', and my heart was just so broken at that point.

At the end of that day I was so emotional, I cried all over brooklyn, grieving my activist lifestyle. I really really thought that through activism I could somehow help the earth. I realized the issue was not going to be solved by putting it in peoples faces, the issue is going to be solved by changing the way people experience the world.

So I quit my job at Greenpeace and everyday after that the only job I gave myself was to just go to yoga, eventually taking a teacher training and becoming a teacher. It’s a great way for me to stay on the path of philosophy and to feel like I’m helping.

OE: What’s your favorite part of teaching or practicing?

My favorite part of teaching is actually the experience of my students teaching me. I can see their bodies responding to things and I can take it home in my practice and wonder why this body isn’t doing what I asked it to do. Teaching also creates a paradigm of accountability. This idea where I have people that are relying on me and I have to continue to show up and get better, that’s really important to me.

My own practice: I think it’s just sitting in front of my altar and the space that I’ve created. When I first started yoga I thought it could be a good way to 'get fit', or to fix things that were ‘wrong’ but I’ve transitioned my practice more into meditation and stillness, the space between the thoughts.

OE: What’s your favorite pose right now or a pose that you’re challenging yourself to work on?

I’ve always had a really hard time with inversions in general. I didn’t grow up doing cartwheels and handstands, so now I just feel like a super hero when I can come up into an inversion. In the last few years I’ve gotten to a point where headstand is part of my practice, handstand still only against the wall.

My goal is to, from handstand, fall back into a 1 legged wheel. I’m working on those two separately and then eventually I want to put them together.

OE: Hot or cold?

hot

OE: Fast or slow?

slow

OE: Loud or silent?

silet

OE: Black or white?

black

OE: Mountain or Ocean?

ocean

OE: Sky or Land?