Elena Brower began the interview with, “I’m proud of you.”
She was speaking to her son. Yet Elena’s style of teaching has touched many people who feel that she is proud of them; that she is with them.
The Art of Attention author is pretty good at paying attention to her own life. She thinks that it’s her “quality of attention” that draws people to her, whether it’s through her YogaGlo classes or through one of her sold out events around the world. She also designs a clothing collection for Lolë and collaborated on the book
The Art of Attention with Erica Jago. “There was a fluidity and ease to the way Erica and I came together and made that happen,” she says.
Elena teaches yoga, sure, but she also teaches
the art of being present. She speaks deliberately and listens well. She had a dentist appointment the afternoon that we spoke: “It couldn’t have been finer. I had a great experience!” she exclaimed, as best she could exclaim in her calmly silky voice. If meditation with Elena can make dentist appointments sound soothing, count us in.
Are you a planner or a go-with-the-flow kind of person when it comes to your career?
It has always been a flow. I follow my heart to make sure things work for my family. Everyone gets considered.
How do you keep your feet on the ground when you’re so in demand?
I basically schedule one thing a month that requires travel. I get asked to do things, but I can’t do much. What I can do, I do with great gusto. I get really excited about the thing that I am involved with. Whatever I am doing gets
my full attention in the moment. Nothing else is really happening.
How do you stay present in classes that can be in the thousands?
It never feels overwhelming anymore. It always feels like a really beautiful privilege. In my teacher training,
Cyndi Lee had me teach three poses. I was basically looking out the window.
I was so nervous that I would forget what I was going to say that I couldn’t look. She called me on it. From that point on, I never took my eyes off the class.
When you are bowing in gratitude, who or what do you think of?
My parents. My teachers. My boy. My man. My exes and their fine women and the relationships we have all built.
We got approached by a company who were interested in featuring me as what they called the pioneer of the program. My website designer Michelle is incredible: she is a yogi and up-to-the-moment with regards to the online space. She and I brainstormed and decided that we would make something that was a gift. We would worry about monetizing it later, maybe in the form of an energy exchange.
It is great to have an online community for teachers.
Teachers contribute the awesome content. We make it beautiful. We gave it our heart and soul. In the first weekend that we launched, the site crashed. Twice! It was so great. It was a thank you note from me to the teachers who supported the book and all the
teachers doing good work contributing to the well being of the world. It just wasn’t being done. There wasn’t a place where you could have all the teachers, all the traditions, and all the styles there at once.
Before this site existed where would you draw from to plan your classes?
It’s very rare that I will explicitly turn to another person’s class for ideas. I will look to myself and to my bookshelf and to the sources that I nourish. I go to
Katonah Yoga in New York. The women there are older and wiser and passionate about giving their wisdom. They have taught me a great deal.
Do you have rituals that are essential to keep you in your Elena-ness?
I make sure to meditate every morning. I make sure to cook nourishing food. I make sure to take care of my family. I make sure to get physical exercise. I keep my writing going. I keep painting.
I read and research for my upcoming projects in the tub. I practice yoga.
What are you most looking forward to in the coming year?
More time with my kid in the kitchen - he has just figured out he loves to cook. I am really excited to co-teach with
Rod Stryker in December. We will teach on the Upanishads. I know I am going to learn so much. I also know I have a lot to give.
During the interview, Elena was as much interested in us as we were with her. “To find my heart over the last 20 years has been the biggest gift of all,” she said.
Thank you for sharing that gift, Elena.
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