Heart of Yoga Foundation: Peace on Earth With Each Person Enjoying Their Life
Our Mission is to make effective, non-dogmatic, authentic Yoga education accessible to all people, especially those who have difficulties with access. Real Yoga for Real People.
Yoga equips people of all ages, cultures, body types and health conditions to move and breathe and relax, improving our relationship with our body, ourselves, and the people around us.
“Yoga is not commercial activity,” stated the grandfather of modern yoga, our teacher Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya. To honour this, our structure in the world is a formal non-profit organisation, based in the US but working with people and projects globally. 501(c)(3) status is currently pending.
Your support will help fuel our cause.
Give peace a chance and participate in this work.
“Give people intimacy with life by teaching them to have an actual yoga practice. From there people start feeling and behaving better.” — Mark Whitwell
How are we funded?
Heart of Yoga Foundation is guided and financed by real people who want to see real change in the world happen. Our income mostly comes from donations and people participating in training programmes. Your donation will help fuel our cause, providing yoga education to those in need. No donation is too big or too small. Contribute today and help others breathe the gift of yoga. It is our mission to bring yoga to those who need it the most. We use Yoga as a common, non-religious practice to cultivate awareness around the unifying principle of peace.
Current Projects
YOGA EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
Movement & Breath for Healthy School Communities
PEACE PROJECT
Yoga for Conflict Areas and People Fleeing Conflict
YOGA ACCESS PROJECT
Helping Make Yoga Available
to Every Body
History
The Heart of Yoga first came into being around about 1995, and has operated charitably around the world over the years since, including always having scholarship places available on training, projects focused on peace around the world including the Middle East, and community projects in Fiji. However this has always been connected activities by groups of caring individuals, and it has only been in 2022 that we finally formally formed the formal 501(c)(3) non-profit, a US-registered charity. The scope of the Heart of Yoga Foundation is global, but a US base allows us to fundraise and operate effectively.
Meet Our Board Of Directors
Rosalind Atkinson
Board Member & Chief Executive Officer
Rosalind is a yoga teacher & writer who is passionate about sharing authentic breath-centred yoga with everyOne.
She led the transition from a global network of teachers to a formal non-profit organisation & is responsible for balancing the key work areas of the Foundation, funding and fundraising, strategic planning, and developing the curricula within the Y.E.S. programme.
Her background is in the non-profit sector, with time spent as a mate on youth development tall ships empowering young people in the outdoors, working for the National Council of Women of New Zealand, and working on campaign strategy for Greenpeace New Zealand.
Her activism now takes the form of helping people connect with their breath, feeling their inherent connection to nature and other people.
Rosalind holds a BDes (Hons) from Massey University, an MA in Literature from Victoria University, and an ILM Skipper’s Ticket from NMIT, Nelson.
Janet
Marshall
Board Member
Janet Marshall is a senior teacher within the Heart of Yoga who has over twenty years of training, practicing and education in yoga & yoga therapy.
She has completed several trainings on yoga for special populations (Yoga and Trauma and PTSD, Yoga for Addiction and Recovery, Senior Yoga and Yoga Nidra). Janet is a 500-hour registered teacher with Yoga Alliance and the author of research paper “Teen Yoga and Mindfulness for Stress Reduction.”
As a Yoga teacher and mother, Janet has turned her attention to the runaway levels of teen stress and anxiety in America today. Since 2016, she has developed and led a comprehensive 8-week programme to address teen mental health in schools. The intention of Janet's work is to help teens cultivate emotional and mental balance, increase mindfulness, reduce stress, and develop self-awareness and self-acceptance. Janet lends her research and practical experience, as well as her experience as a mother, to the development of the Y.E.S. programme, and is the project leader for the US.
Andrew
Raba
Board Member & Secretary
Andrew is a long-term student, yoga teacher and author within the Heart of Yoga. After completing his 500-hour qualification in 2018, he undertook a one year ashram residency in Fiji to deepen his practice and teaching.
Andrew is the Programme Director of the Y.E.S. — Yoga Education in Schools Project, an initiative that brings the wellbeing technology of Yoga into the lives of teachers and teenagers across the world.
He holds an MA in English literature, a background in libraries, and is a literacy advocate within New Zealand schools.
A published author, Andrew has written extensively on the subject of yoga and meditation for many platforms, including Embodied Philosophy and Tarka Journal.
Rose
Ernst
Board Member & Treasurer
Rose draws upon her extensive background in financial management in both the US and New Zealand as the financial officer for the Heart of Yoga Foundation.
She is a senior project consultant with over twenty years' solution delivery experience, both as an executive member of the management team and as an individual contributor, in a broad range of industries including distribution, government, healthcare, high tech and manufacturing.
Rose offers the insights that come from experience in many business models and markets, including significant time in international roles in the U.S., Europe and Asia-Pacific, and managing complex situations such as mergers and acquisitions.
Litiana Lagibalavu
Board Member
Litiana is a yoga teacher of Fiji, a new-qualified lawyer & a business woman.
She holds a wealth of activist experience in indigenous community empowerment and women’s equality. Litiana is a project lead for the Y.E.S. Project in Fiji.
Litiana was originally a recipient of Heart of Yoga Equity Project scholarship for Indigenous Fijian teachers, and now helps make this accessible to others.
Ilana
Burness
Board Member
WITH GRATITUDE to the donations of resources, time and energy of so many people, including:
Litiana Lagibalavu (Fijian yoga teaching, indigenous community outreach), Ilana Burness (Fiji yoga teaching), Melissa Forbes (artistic offerings, community classes), Moritz Kuebler (community classes), Andrew Raba (community classes, Yoga in Schools), Sybille Schlegel (Sanskrit education, Hatha Vinyasa Parampara Studio in Mainz, Germany), Rémy Tortosa (photography), Janet Marshall (yoga therapy, curricula for seniors and youth), Domagoj Orlić and Adisa Hajra (teachers of Croatia), Steph and Steve and George Gustafsson and family (New Zealand), Rose Ernst (financial, tax), Juliette Reniers and Frank Eijelkamp (the Land of Now, Netherlands), Kory MacAvoy (Australia, graphic design and Certification body), Devis Macarelli (web design and certification body development), Scott Blinman (New Zealand, online yoga studio software development and maintenance), Cheri Rae Shirin Ghoreishi (Sweden/Iran), Jason Moon (documentary film creation), Ronan Tang and Xi Zhu (the heart of yoga hosts/facilitators in China), Dean Raphael (photography), David Hysen (China consulting), Richard Tucker (Bali /US), Eleanor Moran (Ireland), Emma Warmington (Northern Ireland), Despina Rangou (website, design), Lisa Keese (learning resource development), Frederic Ballario (the art of Tea), Joanna Mack and Bruce Hamm (Hindustani classical musicians and teachers), Brooke Evans (addiction and women’s empowerment), the Black Yoga Teachers’ Alliance and Kripalu Centre (US), Christiane Keller-Krisch and her leadership with the Lion’s Foundation of Germany, Malika Abuwarda (decolonising yoga and community creation in Perth Australia), Paul Hoffman (yoga for Christians), Chinnamasta Styles (Ayurveda education), Amanda Noga and Marc Laws, Neven and Tya (Balinese ceremony), Audrey Billups (photographer), Eliska Vaea (Kailash pilgrimage), Namita Kulkarni (women’s empowerment activist, Mysore workshop), Jennifer Martin (Spanish translation), Rául Petraglia (heart of yoga Mexico), Mili Lazcano and Carla Luna Martinez (Spanish translation and co-ordination), Susanne Daeppen (host of workshops in Switzerland), Bryan Moe (Singapore), Baby K (Phillipines), Bex Tyrer (teaching assistance), Karl Mill and team (Mill Law SF), and SO many more… apologies to anyone omitted in this initial list. Thank you!
Especial thanks to Lily and Dave Dulan for their work and support to make yoga available in Fiji: new teachers are independently flourishing thanks to your friendship and generosity;
To Urban Family Foundation, for making possible teacher trainings in Fiji, Bali and the US, as well as film resources;
Thanks to Tali Tali Indigenous Empowerment Collective for their collaborations in Taveuni;
And Samyama Yoga Centre Bali, Kripalu, Esalen, Omega Institute, the Yoga Barn Bali, Hatha Vinyasa Paramapara Mainz, and every other kind venue over the years that has provided locations for learning.