We were lucky to catch up with Heather Berg recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Heather thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?
Before I began teaching yoga, I spent two years in Japan teaching English as a second language. This experience ignited my passion for sharing knowledge, prompting my return to NYC to pursue a master’s degree in early childhood education. During this period, I worked as an assistant Montessori teacher. Newly married and planning to start a family, my husband accepted a job offer in South Florida, prompting our relocation.
As a new teacher, I often doubted my ability to lead a classroom. However, I was fortunate to receive generous praise from the staff and families at the Montessori school for my dedication and passion. I still cherish a handwritten note from a mother who wrote, “Never underestimate the power you have upon those you teach.” These words have remained with me, even though my Montessori teaching days are behind me.
Today, I carry that sentiment into every yoga class I teach, whether it’s a group session, a private client learning to feel comfortable in their body, or leading mindfulness and breathing exercises over Zoom.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Growing up, I was a very physical child. I played tennis and softball, and I rode my bike everywhere. I danced until my senior year of high school. When I took my first yoga class in 1991 at the age of 21, I realized there was something truly different about yoga. It wasn’t until we laid on our backs in Shavasana (corpse pose) that I felt a profound connection between my mind, body, and emotions. Yoga allowed me to feel good both physically and mentally.
For many yoga teachers, trauma brings them to the practice. I was fortunate to have an even-keeled childhood and young adult life. Although I took my first “official” yoga class at 21, I feel I have been a yogi for as long as I can remember, practicing mindfulness and the mind-body connection from early on. Nature opened my eyes to this connection. My time spent outdoors—riding my bike, sitting under trees, balancing on slippery moss-covered stones in a stream, catching tiny frogs, floating in the Gulf of Mexico, and hiking mountains in Japan—taught me valuable lessons. Nature taught me to slow down, pause, and appreciate the wonder around me. This sense of peace and inner knowing comes back to me during meditation.
After teaching early childhood education and becoming a mom of 2 beautiful girls, at age 42 I began teaching yoga full-time in 2012. The teacher I practiced with for years suggested I take the training. Initially hesitant, I feared that teaching yoga would make it lose its magic. However, after a few years, I decided to go for it. Teaching yoga and meditation came naturally to me, as my long practice had made yoga a part of who I am. My background in teaching English in Japan and as a Montessori teacher provided a solid foundation for teaching yoga.
When asked, “What type of yoga do you teach?” my response is varied:
Slower is Stronger
Intuitive Yoga
Mindful Yoga
Gentle Yoga
Fundamentals of Yoga
Back to Basics
In my 20s, 30s, and early 40s, I pushed myself too far physically. Although I didn’t sign up to be a guinea pig for my future students, my present-day physical challenges have made me a better teacher. The Yoga tradition’s physical practice, Asana, was intended to calm and soothe the nervous system, preparing the body for meditation. It wasn’t designed for exercise, though I enjoyed the physical benefits of yoga. Today, I believe yoga heals and balances our bodies and minds from daily demands. The vigorous, fast-paced yoga promoted today mirrors our life’s demands. Instead, yoga should be a place of refuge and a practice to pause.
When asked about my yoga style, I emphasize slowing down to find the true answer to what one wants from the practice. Whether it’s flexibility, strength, pain relief, stress management, or introspection, yoga offers something different for everyone. The yoga I teach focuses on experiencing what you need rather than achieving something specific. It’s about making space for inquiry.
Currently, I lead private and group sessions in Hatha, Yin, Restorative, Yoga Nidra, Stand-Up Paddleboard (SUP) yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. I share the importance of quiet and stillness through half-day silent retreats outdoors and teach classes locally and via Zoom. I created a corporate wellness program, Practice to Pause, engaging employees with mindfulness tools to enhance presence, creativity, performance, and well-being. I am part of the teaching staff at FAU School of Medicine, a guest instructor at Rancho La Puerta, Mexico, and have been leading international yoga retreats since 2018. Recently, I led yoga and mindfulness for Caritas Smile in the Dominican Republic.
In March 2020, I was introduced to the Buteyko method after reading James Nestor’s book, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. This inspired me to study with Patrick McKeown to become an international Buteyko instructor. I observe positive changes in my health and with my clients through Buteyko breathing and pranayama, the ancient yogic science of breathwork.
The joy of my work is opening people to new experiences and ways of seeing themselves. To do this, we must pause. It is an honor to help peel away the layers through physical practice and share the various yoga traditions. I am forever grateful to the teachers I have studied with and their teachers who have passed down yoga through the ages.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
There was a huge, transformative, freedom when I separated my Yoga practice and exercise. It was a gradual process. I had this realization that I can exercise (hike, use weights) as a separate thing entirely (and still be a “good Yogi.”) I can move my body with a completely different intention in mind: to get my heart rate up or to simply sweat! I started adding other activities into my week that bring me joy: walking as the sun rises, using stability bands and hiking when I travel. This separation allows Yoga to be my little oasis where there are no preconceived notions of what a successful practice should be. Yoga gives me the opportunity to be more present and that means my practice is successful.
After decades of Yoga practice, I was forced to come to terms with the aches in my body. They began as subtle sensations, what I like to refer to as, whipsers, which I pushed through and ignored for YEARS until I could no longer. I was in need of rebuilding strength in in areas of my body I actually neglected due to repetitive yoga practice.
What I came to learn was that the Asana I was doing was actually making my situation much worse. I worked with an incredible Physical Therapist (I am forever indebted to her). I had already begun a long hiatus from teaching and practicing my regular fast-paced Vinyasa practice as it just wasn’t feeling good in my body any longer. It’s funny how my body intuitively knew I needed to shift how I practiced. The actual reprieve from the Asana I thought I should be doing WAS my Yoga practice.
Now, my daily exercise is a handful of PT and functional movements, walking 2.5 miles, and even adding rucking (walking while wearing a weighted backpack) a few days a week. My Yoga practice is something else entirely. Since I took the pressure off that yoga also needed to be my physical exercise, Yoga is so much richer. It is a way to tend to my body’s needs yet so much more.
I now recognize that my physical yoga practice is done on a need to do basis. This boils down to discipline. (Also known as tapas, in Sanskrit). My discipline, then, is to only do the right amount for that day. The start of my Yoga practice is pausing and assessing what I need. One day my body might feel good and pain-free, so it’s to my benefit to challenge myself. But there are many other days where that is not the case. It’s important for me to practice without irritating my back and hips so the discipline is being able to set a boundary and work within the boundary that I set. Not so easy! Sometimes, I’ll reluctantly admit, I’m not taking the adequate time to pause and really figure out what my body needs and I push more than I should. This awareness is my work. Setting the boundary becomes the discipline.THIS is my Yoga practice.
I practice Yoga every day and each day it looks different. Some mornings I may work on moving my spine in all 5 directions and other days I basically support my body with bolsters and blankets. My body may call for very little movement, but covets only breathwork and meditation. Like I said, I am an advocate of physical Asana practice. But when it’s about challenging your body to accomplish the physical forms it is no longer Yoga to me. In class, I often talk about how I know many people who can bend down and touch their toes or who can balance in the most intricate and aesthetically pleasing poses, yet still be miserable human beings!!! Just because you can do poses, simply means: You can do poses!
In the end what I want is to truly listen to my body. To move my body with ease. So over these past 32 years of practice, I’ve observed myself evolve from the “push-because-I-can” approach to the understanding that the yoga practice develops only when we allow our bodies and minds to unfold naturally. I no longer practice for physical exercise (to get that sweat), but rather with the intention to make my movements through life as graceful as possible because I cultivated a deep listening.
My hope is to contribute in my own small way, to convey my understanding of Yoga; not just Asana, but the understanding of the deeper truths that Yoga attempts to answer.
Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?
I began my yoga journey at 21 and started teaching yoga at 42. Everything in between—teaching in Japan and early childhood Montessori teaching—has shaped me into the teacher I am today. Sometimes, I wonder what it would have been like to start teaching full-time right out of college. However, I try not to fall into the trap of “what-if-ing” or “should-ing,” as that takes me out of the present, which is truly where life is.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://soulgardenyoga.com/
- Instagram: @heatherbergyoga
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathermberg
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-marcus-berg-74858559/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp-A20JZfW-PREFwcMcMvMg
- Other: https://insighttimer.com/heatherbergyoga
Image Credits
Andrea Blakesberg Photography