Meet Kiely Rutledge!
Introducing Kiely Rutledge! One of your esteemed faculty for our up and coming 200 hour absurdly high quality teacher training!
In order to get to know Kiely better, we asked her a few questions about life, yoga, and what she’s excited about with the upcoming training.
How did you find yoga? Or did yoga find you?
I first went to yoga while in College, but my journey really started while pregnant with my son. It was suggested that it would help with my sciatica. From there I practiced Ashtanga, then found Vinyasa and finally alignment yoga. It is my longest and most successful relationship.
Biggest challenge as a student/teacher?
As a student I would say the thing I am working on in my practice right now is presence. The asanas are really a doorway to the inner life and for me to walk through that doorway I have to be present. It really doesn’t matter if I can get my foot to my head if I don’t learn anything about myself while doing it. At some point I will lose the outer shapes but the inner wisdom lasts forever.
As a teacher the thing I work on is remembering what my purpose in teaching is. I want to serve my community and help people learn how to do yoga as a way to connect to the great truth that we are divine light. It is hard to not get caught up in the business part of teaching, but every time we chant that first Om and I see a room full of people who are working so hard and honestly I am reminded. It’s the students that mirror the truth of yoga. I feel so lucky to be witness to it.
Any advice for your fellow yogis out there in this big, vast yoga world?
Follow the path that leads you to source. For everyone it is different but you know it when you find it. It feels like coming home. Study the teachings and stay on the path. Keep coming home to practice.
Your favorite part of the upcoming teacher training?
That’s a hard one! I’m very excited about the depth of the program we are creating. The Practice teachers who are joining us are masters in their craft. There is Ayurveda, the philosophical teachings of Pantanjali’s sutras and the Bhakti of the Bhagavad Gita. Self inquiry using the quadrinity model and The Courage to Teach. I’m very proud to use my teacher Christina Sell’s teacher training manual. The practices are going to be amazing too! I’m so honored to share what I’ve have learned. It really is the sweetest gift to teach this beautiful rich tradition.