Josephine took her first yoga class on a slow boat to India back in the late 60s. Since India she has traveled the world studying yoga and meditation with teachers including Sarvani, Shiva Rae, Rodney Yee, Rama Birch, Rajashree, Shanti Desai, Dr. Lad, Beryl Bender [...]]]> Josephine Russell, MA/DMT, RYT and certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher

Josephine took her first yoga class on a slow boat to India back in the late 60s. Since India she has traveled the world studying yoga and meditation with teachers including Sarvani, Shiva Rae, Rodney Yee, Rama Birch, Rajashree, Shanti Desai, Dr. Lad, Beryl Bender Birch, Krishna Das, Bhagavan Das and Gurmukh. True to the origins, she allows our experience of the natural world to nourish our movements and meditations. Josephine has been a pioneer for bringing yoga out into nature; she was one of the first to lead “yoga and hiking” and “yoga and canoeing.” She is full of wisdom and is brilliant at leading groups on mindful trips. She believes that like the ancient sages arrived at the knowledge of the asanas while meditating in nature, we can also learn a great deal from practicing out of doors.

Josephine lives in a passive solar home in the small town of Surry, New Hampshire with her husband, JC; they have raised 4 children, 2 of which teach yoga and lead retreats with her. She is unique in that she lives a retreat-style life in her home. She has a great love of music, especially the piano. Her yoga therapy dog, Shadow, practices savasana during her yoga classes. During the winter months, she often has a knitting project in her lap. During the summer she is likely to be off on an exotic adventure, such as canoeing a wilderness river in Canada or climbing the highest peak in northern Africa.

On a retreat with Josephine expect to be doing yoga out in nature, enjoying the smells, sights, and sounds that nature lends for an intoxicating natural yoga experience. She enjoys her quiet retreat home life but also puts her whole heart into her full-time yoga teaching career, including leading Yoga Adventure Travel tours to Samoa, Peru, and around the USA.

Bryan Russell, Assistant Director, MBA, RYT-500, Yoga Siromani, Sivananda and SchoolYoga Certified, Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga Teacher.

Bryan has been teaching yoga classes in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire since 2005 and is also a facilitator for SchoolYoga Institute Yoga Teacher Training Courses in Keene and around the world. Bryan is [...]]]>  

Bryan Russell, Assistant Director, MBA, RYT-500, Yoga Siromani, Sivananda and SchoolYoga Certified, Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga Teacher.

Bryan has been teaching yoga classes in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire since 2005 and is also a facilitator for SchoolYoga Institute Yoga Teacher Training Courses in Keene and around the world. Bryan is an active member in the local yoga community and has been involved with projects like YogaDay Keene, KeeneOnYoga.com. Bryan’s classes vary in style and ability and he enjoys having fun and being creative while still maintaining a disciplined approach to the yoga practice.

Bryan completed his 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at the Sivananda Ashram in Val-Morin, Canada in 2005. In 2007, he received his 500-hour certification through SchoolYoga Institute, where he studied Sadhana Hatha Flow and Sadhana Vinyasa Flow with Vedantin.

Bryan has been working with SchoolYoga Institute for the past four years. He teaches Sadhana Hatha and Vinyasa Flows and leads Yoga Teacher Trainings worldwide. Bryan has also worked as an outdoor guide for Raw Shakti Yoga, a yoga retreat and adventure company, since their beginnings in 2004 (visit www.rawshakti.com). He is passionate about the outdoor places he shares with groups. If he isn’t traveling, Bryan teaches yoga in New Hampshire. An avid hiker, he likes to climb his favorite mountain, Monadnock, at least once a week when he’s home.

In 2008, Bryan started Blooming Mountain to offer yoga to business people in corporate settings. He sees so many people burdened by stress and developing unhealthy habits at work. Although workplace stress is often accepted as normal, Bryan believes it doesn’t need to be this way and that yoga has a tremendous amount of wisdom and health benefits to offer business employees.

Taialofa was born in Samoa. Her parents were Peace Corps volunteers who lived in a seaside traditional Samoan village on the big island of Savai’i. The name her parents chose for her, Taialofa, means “love by the [...]]]> Taialofa
BA, RYT-500, Founder and Director of Raw Shakti Yoga, Vinyasa Teacher, Retreat and Adventure Guide

Taialofa was born in Samoa. Her parents were Peace Corps volunteers who lived in a seaside traditional Samoan village on the big island of Savai’i. The name her parents chose for her, Taialofa, means “love by the sea” or “the tide of love” in Samoan. Living in Samoa her first year of life, the people in her village included her as one of the family and loved to hold her, dance with her, and sing songs with her. Her life was filled with laughter and joy, which is how she can be described today. After her parent’s volunteer service, they traveled a bit and then moved to the countryside town of Surry, New Hampshire, in the U.S.A. Her mother, Josephine, who had been to India before she was born, started her career as a yoga teacher and her father, JC, worked as a 5th and 6th grade school teacher. To this day they still teach yoga and school respectively.

Being the daughter of Josephine, a Kripalu yoga teacher who guides yoga retreats and workshops throughout New Hampshire and internationally, Taialofa has strong roots in yoga philosophy and practice. As she grew up, she learned the importance of proper exercise, breathing, relaxation, diet (satvic food) and meditation. She learned that yoga is a lifestyle and not merely a daily practice of asanas. She took her first formal hatha yoga class with her mother at the age of thirteen. In college, she strengthened her understanding of yoga philosophy through her major in religious studies. She traveled to Italy and studied literature with Ezra Pound’s daughter and grandson. In Switzerland, she studied world religions at the Ecumenical Institute. During her senior year in college, she visited India for the first time, the birthplace of yoga, and for Taialofa, India was like being home.

After college, Taialofa put down the books and embarked on an experiential journey that heightened her daily yoga practice. She studied many styles of yoga, including Kundalini, Iyengar, Ashtanga, Sivananda, Kripalu, Vinyasa and Bikram; and learned from teachers, including Gurmukh, Shiva Rea, Bhagavan Das, Krishna Das, Shanti Desai, Kailash, and Amma. She spent a year in Japan, studying and practicing Zen meditation with the Monks at the Sojiji Temple in Monzen, Ishikawa, as well as traveling throughout Southeast Asia.

While in Samoa in 2000 visiting the village where she lived the first year of her life, Taialofa met her husband, Kevin, who was teaching science in a traditional village on Savai’i, the island where she was born! They met at sunset on the beach and fell in love. Taialofa then traveled to the Bahamas where she received teacher certification in the Sivananda tradition of yoga. She and Kevin were married in New Hampshire in 2002, and Taialofa began teaching yoga full time. She taught yoga in a variety of locations and to a wide range of people, including health care professionals, teachers, doctors, lawyers, CEOs, children and pregnant women.

Taialofa’s highly intuitive teaching style embodies all of the senses. She senses stagnant energy and assists in clearing up the flow of life force as she guides her students toward healing their physical, emotional and spiritual bodies. Her students respond to her inspirational teaching style that builds trust and creates willingness to do the work it takes to implement lifestyle changes. Taialofa’s journey is one that continues to unfold. Her vision is to teach and be taught about the health of mind, body and spirit through living yoga and to make her Raw Shakti vision a thriving reality. She has evolved into a Raw Shakti Vinyasa yoga teacher. She enjoys taking the pulse of the world and sharing all that she gathers. In July of 2003, she debuted her first DVD, “Yoga in New England,” an active yoga practice sequence. Since March of 2004, Taialofa has based her life in Samoa. She leads classes, personalized yoga sessions and retreats and enjoys lifestyle coaching beside the turquoise waters of Samoa. She leads yoga adventure retreats worldwide.

Taialofa’s smile is radiant and she loves working with people to create a lifestyle that suits their wishes and needs as well as enhances their level of daily happiness.

Born in Connecticut, Kevin is the youngest of three children. He spent the four seasons exploring the river and nearby woods beside which he grew up. From a young age he wanted to make a difference in the world. His first experience of trying [...]]]> Kevin Petrini
MS, RYT-200, and certified Sivananda Yoga Teacher

Born in Connecticut, Kevin is the youngest of three children. He spent the four seasons exploring the river and nearby woods beside which he grew up. From a young age he wanted to make a difference in the world. His first experience of trying to better the world in an organized way was in the 6th grade, when he conducted a raffle for a “We Are the World” record single and over $100 was collected and donated to UNICEF. Since then his sharing and compassionate nature has expanded into his current work as a diversity and cross-cultural trainer, yoga teacher and Raw Shakti Yoga Adventure travel company Co-Director.

During Kevin’s teenage years, he excelled at mathematics and chemistry that led him to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute for undergraduate studies. He majored in Chemical Engineering and minored in English. He went on to study for his Masters in Chemical Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder, with a focus on Air Quality. Kevin always tried to apply his knowledge to solve problems associated with the environment. While at Boulder, Kevin loved hiking in the mountains and reaching the numerous mountain peaks over 12,000 feet. Throughout his academic studies, he was also interested in literature, and that lead to his interest in reading spiritual texts from many religions that helped guide him toward his peace promoting life.

After graduate school, Kevin spent 3 months traveling in his 1974 Volkswagen bus to Central America. Kevin describes this as his “Walden on Wheels” time of his life. He spent time writing and experiencing the Mayan culture and he enjoyed the freedom to explore the world at the mindful pace of a Volkswagen bus. He drove 15,000 miles at 55 mph from Colorado to Guatemala then back to New England. Kevin has dreams of one day having a Raw Shakti Yoga Tour in his bus traveling from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego!

After the bus tour, he wanted to focus his life on serving other people, so he applied to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. He spent two years volunteering as a science teacher in the seaside village of Fatuvalu, which translates as Eight Hearts, on the island of Savaii in Samoa. He spent time learning traditional way of life and became fluent in the Samoan language. He lived a few feet from the ocean that has a seasonal surfing wave he learned to surf on. He also enjoyed mountain biking on the numerous unpaved plantation roads that wound into the Samoan rain forest. His home was set below the over 6000-foot high Mount Silisili, the highest point in Samoa. He continued studying in depth both physics and spirituality during this time. It was at this point, he had a realization that although he could intellectually come to an understanding about the concepts of relativity, it was not satisfying his deeper questions.

Since 2001, Kevin has been studying and living the yoga lifestyle that was introduced to him by his wife, Taialofa. He has studied with Kripalu,Vinyasa, Sivananda, Iyengar, Bikram and Astanga teachers. He was certified to teach yoga at the Sivananda Ashram in Kerela, India. He spent time in India learning from Amma and other teachers. He also taught his first yoga class in India! His classes filled up. He has a daily sadhana, which includes mantra, pranayama, mudras, meditation, asana and svadyaya (scriptural study). He enjoys studying yoga texts daily. He is particularly interested in the Yoga Vasistha. Kevin’s daily practice is the most important part of the day as it brings inner balance and abundant joy.