Shehla first came to yoga through her dada (grandfather) and through Ayurveda (the sister science to yoga). Her grandfather blended oils and manipulated joints in order to facilitate healing. As a child, Shehla’s left shoulder often dislocated and her grandfather, along with his teacher/friend, healed her shoulder with oils and firm pressure and massage. What she remembered from this practice was the firmness and diligence that was required to bring us back to balance, and of course, the trust between teacher and student.
From classical Hatha Sivananda yoga to Hatha, Vinyasa, yin and restorative to being a certified IAYT Yoga therapist in the great tradition Krishnamacharya and T.K.V. Desikachar, Shehla has come to realize that yoga is truly a lifelong journey–full of healing and love. Her most recent love affair with yoga asana is aerial yoga and deepening Raja yoga. Her teachings are strongly influenced by all her teachers and honour the person in front of her, as well as honouring the environment around. To the best of Shehla’s abilities, she teaches according to seasons, weather changes, time of day and of course the people in front of her, honouring Ayurvedic principles.
Shehla has been teaching for almost 15 years. Along with public classes, workshops, private classes and outreach programs, she also teaches yoga philosophy and yoga therapy. Shehla is also a faculty member of George Brown College for its classical yoga teacher training certificate program. Presently, most of Shehla’s teachings are informed by field experience in serving racialized women from African, Black, Caribbean, Latin and south Asian communities offering chair yoga classes and one-on-one yoga therapy at government-funded community health clinics and working with automotive Injury clients in conjunction with healthcare providers as their rehab support.
