Meet Divya.
Divya Balakrishnan is a registered yoga teacher with over 21 years of personal practice and six years of leadership as a teacher, trainer and facilitator under her belt.
Although she was immersed in yogic culture since childhood, Divya was first drawn to yoga as a standalone discipline through the transformative power of āsana, or posture. Her daily sun salutation practice before going to school paved the way for yoga to become her lifelong companion and guide her through many personal evolutions. She knew she was ready to become a teacher when she experienced the other limbs of yoga and wanted to help others do the same.
Divya’s lived experience as a Tamil-American woman shaped the way she teaches yoga. Her classes are taught through a compassionate but discerning lens of decolonization and continuous inquiry. She honors the indigenous roots of this practice by drawing from rich histories and spiritualities across India and other parts of South Asia that contributed to the lineage, so her students have a comprehensive understanding of yoga’s evolution.
Students praise her classes for being accessible yet challenging enough that they still observe growth in their practice. She incorporates knowledge from multiple modalities including martial arts, meditation and yoga philosophy to help students get the most out of the experience.
Over the years, she’s built a strong community of hundreds of thousands of intentional and engaged yoga practitioners around the world who share the mindset that yoga can be integrated both on and off the mat.
Divya has conducted countless yoga fundraisers for social justice and disaster relief, facilitated wellness sessions for corporate and private events, and led many modules for yoga teacher trainings. She hosts her own yoga events that incorporate various aspects of yoga to help students immersive themselves in the practice, both on and off the mat.
Having spent over a decade as a leader in product development and marketing for tech, Divya approaches building her yoga community with the same level of precision and organization while having a laser-focus on quality of experience.