A student of yoga since age 14, Jill brings more than 23 years of expertise including the moving arts of Modern Dance, Pilates, Breathwork, Shiatsu, and Butoh. Her teaching playfully integrates the nuts and bolts of human movement coupled with profound yogic philosophy. Jill teaches workshops and retreats internationally, is a longtime faculty member of the Omega Institute and has traveled nationally choreographing programs for the Discovery Health Channel. Recognized for her unique approach, she has modeled for Gaiam, with her work featured in Yoga Journal, Fit Yoga, Breathe Magazine, Yogi Times, and on NPR; the LA Times calls her “kinetically arresting.” Jill produced the DVD series, “Yoga Tune Up�” and Pranamaya produced her newest series, “Yoga Link: Easy Access to an Ageless Art.” Her latest DVD will be released by Gaiam in October ‘ 08. www.jillmilleryoga.com
Interview
YM:What are five words that describe Jill Miller? JM: Playful, innovative, precise, passionate, creative.
YM: You have a broad background that includes many different styles of� movement arts. How do these shape your teachings?
JM: I was extremely bookish and studious as a child, and as a consequence, very inactive. My first real "awakening" was at age 11 or 12 when my mom brought home the Jane Fonda Workout and the Raquel Welch Yoga Video. These videos became a daily ritual throughout junior high. In high school, I pursued further yoga studies at a local aerobics studio where I became Obsessed (with a capital "O" with all things related to holistic health. In college I studied modern dance especially the Eric Hawkins technique, a form that emphasized releasing joints to create fluid connected streams of motion, it was the exact opposite of the Martha Graham style that was very contained and geometric. In college I also had the privilege of learning Pilates and Feldenkrais techniques, both of which still show up in my classrooms. I also began to do work/study at a local Shiatsu school where I worked for a few semesters. My shiatsu connections finally led me to the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies where I met my yoga and bodywork mentor Glenn Black. He synthesizes Iyengar yoga with an astonishing bodytherapy called Bodytuning, along with tantric meditation. His teachings riveted me and became the foundation of my yogic studies to this day. Omega gave me a job teaching dance/movement and yoga to the staff and participants at Omega, it was a "sink or swim" experience. I was accompanied by live drummers and was teaching in large assembly halls to nearly 100 students daily at age 20. When I moved to LA at age 23 I fell in love with Ashtanga Yoga until I had shredded my hamstrings and knee ligaments. This sent me crawling towards Ana Forrest whose fierce ownership of her soul and spirit inspired me to do the same. The last great movement influence has to be my studies of Butoh primarily with LA local Michael Sakamoto. This Japanese form of modern dance is so base and primal, it helped me to channel vast quantities of emotion, I will sometimes bring elements of it into classrooms that I have a long-term relationship with the kula.
To summarize: the videos taught me "presentational aesthetics." The dance taught me truth and spontaneity. The Shiatsu and Bodytuning taught me anatomy, physiology, and how to touch living tissues with an intention to heal. And the 23 years of yoga studies with my mentor and a dozen masters has been a mind-blowing education.
YM: Who can study with you?
JM:My classes are filled with a range of abilities. For example, last Friday I taught a class called "Yoga Tune Up� : Hips" at Equinox in Santa Monica, an absolute beginner 56 year old male with 2 disc ruptures is� practicing right alongside a children's physical therapist, who is right next to a visiting yoga teacher from Orange County, who is right next to "Miss Fitness Japan, 2007." (I am not making this up!) My classes are extremely inclusive to people at every level. Everyone feels attended to and feels that they are being taught "their own yoga," even though the expertise varies wildly in my classes. I find this to be true of my retreats as well. Last summer's Yoga Tune Up� retreat at Omega was packed with students aged 23 through 73, all sweating and challenged by the same work.
I am looking for students who wish to pursue their inner world without compromise. I tend to gather� students who take an interest in their journey, and who actively participate in their healing outside of the classroom by practicing yoga, getting bodywork, staying open and willing to change. I do also work with some very advanced practitioners, particularly the teacher trainees who have been studying in my teacher trainings. They have years of exploration on the mat, and a desire to share their voice with others.
YM:How do you merge fitness and yoga so beautifully? JM: Yoga is an incredibly complete system, but it can get bogged down by limiting techniques within its branches. Technique is great as a foundation (any dancer knows this) but every technique is limited if it becomes codified and regimented. Humans evolve, life accelerates, our burdens and stresses change, and our yoga and fitness practices need to shift as well so that we are met therapeutically and appropriately by the very systems that we are using to restore, rejuvenate and balance ourselves. The world of fitness strongly emphasizes "variety" as a key to whole health. The fitness world brings in cardio-pulmonary training, plyometrics, unstable environments, and resistance training. Some of these things can be duplicated on a yoga mat with a prop or two, but others cannot.� Fitness, when overdone, can lead to a tightly wound, muscularly bound, over testosteroned, hyper individual. Yoga, when overdone, can lead to lax connective tissue, delayed response time, malaise, and an overly estrogened individual. Using yogic breathing techniques, and conscious relaxation, I introduce my yoga students to yogic based cardio and plyometric exercise, as well as new methods of creating strength resistance on the mat. When done with awareness, Yoga Tune Up� finds structural imbalances while addressing the total health of the student and as a consequence totally balances the nervous system. Classes always conclude with a deep Savasana.
YM: Is there a spiritual aspect to your teachings? JM:Absolutely. I remember an ex-boyfriend remarked that my class wasn't spiritual because I didn't make my students chant "om" or name drop the hindu gods and goddesses. I do not consider myself to be a "priestess" teacher. Rather, I prod my students to face themselves, and their inner beliefs and witness how that expresses itself throughout their bodies. I do not feel it is my place to educate them about the hindu religion other than in the form of simple storytelling on occasion, as it is really not my best area of expertise. I share with them the beauty of science and the mystical alchemy of our physiology, chemistry, neurons, neuropeptides, etc. To me that is mystical, spiritual and humbling. The other element that I incorporate into my teachings is Sankalpa- this is a chosen internal resolution or intention that helps to positively reshape and influence your direction and purpose. I encourage my students to craft their own and to use them constantly. Crafting and practicing a Sankalpa is a phenomenally profound spiritual guide.
YM:What does your daily practice look like? JM:My practice now involves some sustained or plyometric cardio exercise. I follow that with yoga asana and movements that completely open every joint of my body, I call this "joint flossing." At the end of my practice, I usually spend a long time in headstand, shoulder stand and plow pose, followed by Pranamaya and savasana. I also spend some time every day massaging my body therapautically with my Yoga Tune Up� Balls. These balls are made of a special rubber which grabs the skin and faschia,� deeply gripping into the muscles, and providing a penetrating self controlled massage breaking up the knots and adhesions.
YM: I've heard great things about your new DVD's, can you tell me about them?
JM:Yoga Link: Easy Access to an Ageless Art, produced by Pranamaya, is a series of 3 DVDs that target different micro-regions of the body. The series includes Core Integration, Hip Helpers, and Shoulder Shape-Up.� The DVDs are filled with exercises from yoga, physical therapy, and traditional calisthenics that help students at any level of practice or technique to better understand their native biomechanics. This is non-denominational yoga for students who want to begin a practice of yoga, or for longtime students who may be stuck in a rut and need to open their bodies in a different way in order to break out of old habits, heal injuries, or re-pattern structurally unsound biomechanics. Each DVD also includes a 14 minute "Breathing Primer" that provides detailed instruction on the breathing used throughout the practices.
YM:There are a lot of yoga and fitness DVDs out there, what makes yours so different?
JM:My DVDs address the bodies tissues in ways that typical yoga and fitness dvd's do not make the time for. I teach people how to find the "blind spots" that commonly show up in our practices. Then I give exercises to heal and integrate the areas that have become "dumbed down" by lack of movement and inattention. I address the "elephant in the room" which is that sometimes our yoga practice (though it's often marketed as perfect and whole panacea) can be incomplete and inadvertently neglect tremendous portions of our muscles and connective tissues. This is also true about many fitness DVD's which habitually cause repetitive stress injuries because of poor instruction, or poor sequencing.
YM:What can someone expect from the DVDs? JM:With any new work there is a learning curve. Expect to feel areas of your body that you have never felt before. Expect a little muscle soreness every now and then. Expect postural changes, pain relief, better sleep, profound levels of relaxation (if you follow the "Breathing Primer,") and overall, better performance at your preferred style of yoga and/or fitness regimen.
YM: Where have your teachings taken you?
JM:I have traversed the USA many times, teaching from Alsaka and Hawaii, to New York, Tenessee, and Texas. I love visiting remote areas, and working with students who live off the beaten path. Perhaps this is because I grew up in a fairly small town (Santa Fe) and was so hungry for more practices as a teen. I find open arms all over the US. I am now teaching regular retreats in Costa Rica, and look forward to teaching in Europe and Asia. Both DVD series, Yoga Link and Yoga Tune Up�, has sold to students in Yugoslavia, India, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Greece and Russia, so I look forward to visiting those students some day soon! My newsletter is also distributed monthly via email in which I always write an article that helps my students practice to evolve. Teaching through words and mental comprehension is just as valuable as feeling awakenings throughout the body.
YM:What is the most important part of yoga?
JM:Yoga is an amazing tool to assist with our physical and spiritual growth. The result of this growth is that we are simply better equipped to work well with others in the world. Our personal work leads to better relating. In other words, it is hard to "play well with others" if you are not feeling good about yourself, or if you are in pain. I also feel very strongly that incorporating a Sankalpa into your practice, is extremely useful for directing your every action towards a higher purpose.
YM:What trends and changes� have you noticed in the field of yoga since you started?
JM:I have noticed that along with the boom in attendance at studios around the globe, there have been a corresponding boom of yoga related injuries on the mat. Certain styles of yoga can create repetitive stress injury in the most ardent practitioners. Many students come to me looking for therapy and a new way of working both in group classes and private lessons, and they are riddled with a common pattern of rotator cuff imbalances, overstretched iliopsoas (hip flexors), and weak upper abdominals. I feel that as teachers we need to be accountable for our students health while they are in our hands, and that collectively our standards of proper form should be more strongly emphasized for our industry. Students come to us for healing, and we must learn skills so that we can help, even if that means increasing the anatomy requirements in teacher training, or mastering an adjunct art like massage or personal training where the body's mechanics are a foundation of the art.
YM:What issues, environmental or otherwise do you feel passionate about?
JM:I grew up in a solar home off the grid in Santa Fe. This meant some years we had to melt snow on top our wood stove just to flush the toilets! My parents were pioneers, opening a solar business in Santa Fe in 1978. 9 years later, the Reagan administration had decimated any incentive programs for solar, and my parents business failed. I am passionate about alternative energies, especially solar.
YM:Who is on your i-pod?
JM:I currently have a new favorite playlist that I have posted at my friend Jahna's website: www.omstream.com
I am also a big fan of practicing in silence.
YM: What can we expect from you in the immediate future?
JM: I am continuing to expand the Yoga Tune Up� Teacher Training program. I'll also be recording some new "Tension Tune Down" CD's, which are the audio companion to the beloved Yoga Tune Up� Therapy Balls.
YM:What advice do you have for beginning students?
JM: Find a teacher you trust, remain open minded, and keep practicing. This is about longevity, and it will last you a lifetime (and extend that lifetime) if you approach it respectfully.
YM: What do you like to do when you are not teaching or practicing?
JM:I like to shop at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, play with my dogs, and hang out with my fiance (we spend a lot of time laughing). Any other free time is spent on wedding planning!
YM:What are five words that describe Jill Miller? JM: Playful, innovative, precise, passionate, creative.
YM: You have a broad background that includes many different styles of� movement arts. How do these shape your teachings?
JM: I was extremely bookish and studious as a child, and as a consequence, very inactive. My first real "awakening" was at age 11 or 12 when my mom brought home the Jane Fonda Workout and the Raquel Welch Yoga Video. These videos became a daily ritual throughout junior high. In high school, I pursued further yoga studies at a local aerobics studio where I became Obsessed (with a capital "O" with all things related to holistic health. In college I studied modern dance especially the Eric Hawkins technique, a form that emphasized releasing joints to create fluid connected streams of motion, it was the exact opposite of the Martha Graham style that was very contained and geometric. In college I also had the privilege of learning Pilates and Feldenkrais techniques, both of which still show up in my classrooms. I also began to do work/study at a local Shiatsu school where I worked for a few semesters. My shiatsu connections finally led me to the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies where I met my yoga and bodywork mentor Glenn Black. He synthesizes Iyengar yoga with an astonishing bodytherapy called Bodytuning, along with tantric meditation. His teachings riveted me and became the foundation of my yogic studies to this day. Omega gave me a job teaching dance/movement and yoga to the staff and participants at Omega, it was a "sink or swim" experience. I was accompanied by live drummers and was teaching in large assembly halls to nearly 100 students daily at age 20. When I moved to LA at age 23 I fell in love with Ashtanga Yoga until I had shredded my hamstrings and knee ligaments. This sent me crawling towards Ana Forrest whose fierce ownership of her soul and spirit inspired me to do the same. The last great movement influence has to be my studies of Butoh primarily with LA local Michael Sakamoto. This Japanese form of modern dance is so base and primal, it helped me to channel vast quantities of emotion, I will sometimes bring elements of it into classrooms that I have a long-term relationship with the kula.
To summarize: the videos taught me "presentational aesthetics." The dance taught me truth and spontaneity. The Shiatsu and Bodytuning taught me anatomy, physiology, and how to touch living tissues with an intention to heal. And the 23 years of yoga studies with my mentor and a dozen masters has been a mind-blowing education.
YM: Who can study with you?
JM:My classes are filled with a range of abilities. For example, last Friday I taught a class called "Yoga Tune Up� : Hips" at Equinox in Santa Monica, an absolute beginner 56 year old male with 2 disc ruptures is� practicing right alongside a children's physical therapist, who is right next to a visiting yoga teacher from Orange County, who is right next to "Miss Fitness Japan, 2007." (I am not making this up!) My classes are extremely inclusive to people at every level. Everyone feels attended to and feels that they are being taught "their own yoga," even though the expertise varies wildly in my classes. I find this to be true of my retreats as well. Last summer's Yoga Tune Up� retreat at Omega was packed with students aged 23 through 73, all sweating and challenged by the same work.
I am looking for students who wish to pursue their inner world without compromise. I tend to gather� students who take an interest in their journey, and who actively participate in their healing outside of the classroom by practicing yoga, getting bodywork, staying open and willing to change. I do also work with some very advanced practitioners, particularly the teacher trainees who have been studying in my teacher trainings. They have years of exploration on the mat, and a desire to share their voice with others.
YM:How do you merge fitness and yoga so beautifully? JM: Yoga is an incredibly complete system, but it can get bogged down by limiting techniques within its branches. Technique is great as a foundation (any dancer knows this) but every technique is limited if it becomes codified and regimented. Humans evolve, life accelerates, our burdens and stresses change, and our yoga and fitness practices need to shift as well so that we are met therapeutically and appropriately by the very systems that we are using to restore, rejuvenate and balance ourselves. The world of fitness strongly emphasizes "variety" as a key to whole health. The fitness world brings in cardio-pulmonary training, plyometrics, unstable environments, and resistance training. Some of these things can be duplicated on a yoga mat with a prop or two, but others cannot.� Fitness, when overdone, can lead to a tightly wound, muscularly bound, over testosteroned, hyper individual. Yoga, when overdone, can lead to lax connective tissue, delayed response time, malaise, and an overly estrogened individual. Using yogic breathing techniques, and conscious relaxation, I introduce my yoga students to yogic based cardio and plyometric exercise, as well as new methods of creating strength resistance on the mat. When done with awareness, Yoga Tune Up� finds structural imbalances while addressing the total health of the student and as a consequence totally balances the nervous system. Classes always conclude with a deep Savasana.
YM: Is there a spiritual aspect to your teachings? JM:Absolutely. I remember an ex-boyfriend remarked that my class wasn't spiritual because I didn't make my students chant "om" or name drop the hindu gods and goddesses. I do not consider myself to be a "priestess" teacher. Rather, I prod my students to face themselves, and their inner beliefs and witness how that expresses itself throughout their bodies. I do not feel it is my place to educate them about the hindu religion other than in the form of simple storytelling on occasion, as it is really not my best area of expertise. I share with them the beauty of science and the mystical alchemy of our physiology, chemistry, neurons, neuropeptides, etc. To me that is mystical, spiritual and humbling. The other element that I incorporate into my teachings is Sankalpa- this is a chosen internal resolution or intention that helps to positively reshape and influence your direction and purpose. I encourage my students to craft their own and to use them constantly. Crafting and practicing a Sankalpa is a phenomenally profound spiritual guide.
YM:What does your daily practice look like? JM:My practice now involves some sustained or plyometric cardio exercise. I follow that with yoga asana and movements that completely open every joint of my body, I call this "joint flossing." At the end of my practice, I usually spend a long time in headstand, shoulder stand and plow pose, followed by Pranamaya and savasana. I also spend some time every day massaging my body therapautically with my Yoga Tune Up� Balls. These balls are made of a special rubber which grabs the skin and faschia,� deeply gripping into the muscles, and providing a penetrating self controlled massage breaking up the knots and adhesions.
YM: I've heard great things about your new DVD's, can you tell me about them?
JM:Yoga Link: Easy Access to an Ageless Art, produced by Pranamaya, is a series of 3 DVDs that target different micro-regions of the body. The series includes Core Integration, Hip Helpers, and Shoulder Shape-Up.� The DVDs are filled with exercises from yoga, physical therapy, and traditional calisthenics that help students at any level of practice or technique to better understand their native biomechanics. This is non-denominational yoga for students who want to begin a practice of yoga, or for longtime students who may be stuck in a rut and need to open their bodies in a different way in order to break out of old habits, heal injuries, or re-pattern structurally unsound biomechanics. Each DVD also includes a 14 minute "Breathing Primer" that provides detailed instruction on the breathing used throughout the practices.
YM:There are a lot of yoga and fitness DVDs out there, what makes yours so different?
JM:My DVDs address the bodies tissues in ways that typical yoga and fitness dvd's do not make the time for. I teach people how to find the "blind spots" that commonly show up in our practices. Then I give exercises to heal and integrate the areas that have become "dumbed down" by lack of movement and inattention. I address the "elephant in the room" which is that sometimes our yoga practice (though it's often marketed as perfect and whole panacea) can be incomplete and inadvertently neglect tremendous portions of our muscles and connective tissues. This is also true about many fitness DVD's which habitually cause repetitive stress injuries because of poor instruction, or poor sequencing.
YM:What can someone expect from the DVDs? JM:With any new work there is a learning curve. Expect to feel areas of your body that you have never felt before. Expect a little muscle soreness every now and then. Expect postural changes, pain relief, better sleep, profound levels of relaxation (if you follow the "Breathing Primer,") and overall, better performance at your preferred style of yoga and/or fitness regimen.
YM: Where have your teachings taken you?
JM:I have traversed the USA many times, teaching from Alsaka and Hawaii, to New York, Tenessee, and Texas. I love visiting remote areas, and working with students who live off the beaten path. Perhaps this is because I grew up in a fairly small town (Santa Fe) and was so hungry for more practices as a teen. I find open arms all over the US. I am now teaching regular retreats in Costa Rica, and look forward to teaching in Europe and Asia. Both DVD series, Yoga Link and Yoga Tune Up�, has sold to students in Yugoslavia, India, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Greece and Russia, so I look forward to visiting those students some day soon! My newsletter is also distributed monthly via email in which I always write an article that helps my students practice to evolve. Teaching through words and mental comprehension is just as valuable as feeling awakenings throughout the body.
YM:What is the most important part of yoga?
JM:Yoga is an amazing tool to assist with our physical and spiritual growth. The result of this growth is that we are simply better equipped to work well with others in the world. Our personal work leads to better relating. In other words, it is hard to "play well with others" if you are not feeling good about yourself, or if you are in pain. I also feel very strongly that incorporating a Sankalpa into your practice, is extremely useful for directing your every action towards a higher purpose.
YM:What trends and changes� have you noticed in the field of yoga since you started?
JM:I have noticed that along with the boom in attendance at studios around the globe, there have been a corresponding boom of yoga related injuries on the mat. Certain styles of yoga can create repetitive stress injury in the most ardent practitioners. Many students come to me looking for therapy and a new way of working both in group classes and private lessons, and they are riddled with a common pattern of rotator cuff imbalances, overstretched iliopsoas (hip flexors), and weak upper abdominals. I feel that as teachers we need to be accountable for our students health while they are in our hands, and that collectively our standards of proper form should be more strongly emphasized for our industry. Students come to us for healing, and we must learn skills so that we can help, even if that means increasing the anatomy requirements in teacher training, or mastering an adjunct art like massage or personal training where the body's mechanics are a foundation of the art.
YM:What issues, environmental or otherwise do you feel passionate about?
JM:I grew up in a solar home off the grid in Santa Fe. This meant some years we had to melt snow on top our wood stove just to flush the toilets! My parents were pioneers, opening a solar business in Santa Fe in 1978. 9 years later, the Reagan administration had decimated any incentive programs for solar, and my parents business failed. I am passionate about alternative energies, especially solar.
YM:Who is on your i-pod?
JM:I currently have a new favorite playlist that I have posted at my friend Jahna's website: www.omstream.com
I am also a big fan of practicing in silence.
YM: What can we expect from you in the immediate future?
JM: I am continuing to expand the Yoga Tune Up� Teacher Training program. I'll also be recording some new "Tension Tune Down" CD's, which are the audio companion to the beloved Yoga Tune Up� Therapy Balls.
YM:What advice do you have for beginning students?
JM: Find a teacher you trust, remain open minded, and keep practicing. This is about longevity, and it will last you a lifetime (and extend that lifetime) if you approach it respectfully.
YM: What do you like to do when you are not teaching or practicing?
JM:I like to shop at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, play with my dogs, and hang out with my fiance (we spend a lot of time laughing). Any other free time is spent on wedding planning!
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