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My entry point into yoga came in 1996 when I was teaching English in Beijing, China. I was teaching Chinese graduate students at a medical school. In general, the students were amazing, hardworking, humble, brilliant, funny, and pure.

In my spare time, I was looking for “something.” I studied Tai Chi with a teacher at five in the morning, I took buses for hours to study Chinese medical massage, and I read many, many self-help books. To aid my inner quest, I had almost no distractions. When I turned on the TV in my flat, all I saw was Chinese news or dramas in Mandarin (which I did not understand); it was the time before the internet and cell phones. I was open to new information and experiences to come into my life. 

My first yoga teacher was my friend Barrie Risman. Barrie was also teaching English in China. She made a cassette recording of her yoga teaching for me, and I moved my body into yoga postures for the first time in my life, by myself, in my...