Elliot Telford
My name is Elliot, I’m 31 and I live in Auburn. I’ve been teaching yoga for almost 7 years now and I love every chance I get to teach a class.
I recently did a really fun podcast about my yoga journey to India with my friend Kyle Murphy, who created the Bewilderness Podcast, which has become pretty awesome in the last year; check it out:
I teach yoga 2 times at week at East Wind Yoga… you can view my schedule here
I also landscape full time. I mostly install plants, irrigation, and drainage, but am working to understand all aspects of home construction.
I produce electronic dance music on a daily basis. I have just gotten together enough funds to finish my studio and now am producing my favorite music ever. I’m hoping to start touring some time in the near future.
My experiences teaching yoga have been changing me significantly recently. I am doing my best to adapt Ashtanga’s lessons to modernize them into the Western vinyasa yoga that is currently popular, but its tough. People want to go faster at the cost of the body, so I try to coach to that.
I also teach private yoga classes, you can sign-up or read more about them here
Elliot’s History with Yoga
I feel very blessed and lucky to have found yoga when I was 20. I walked into the East Wind Yoga studio with my mom completely randomly and ended up loving the physical challenge that yoga offered. My world opened in a way that I am still in awe of. I stayed for the mental effects, meditation, and the how yoga can create powerful focus for achieving goals and creating sustained contentment in life.
I teach yoga because the practice resonates with me and I have done my best to assimilate yoga into my life. I am not religious, but I love religion. I was a French major at Gonzaga University and love philosophy and art. Currently, I am teaching yoga full-time and am doing my best to record a lot of my classes; you can access and download the audio from certain classes on this site.
What is Elliot’s Yoga Class Like?
I normally employ breathing exercises at the beginning then move into abdominals, but every class is different. It’s going to be challenging, but not impossible. Pretty close though if you don’t practice yoga regularly.
I think that classes should provide enough challenge for every student in the room. I try to variate and create space for everyone to be in a pose, while allow anyone to push themselves to their edges. Every body is different, and I try to simply teach to what I observe in the posture and alignment on my students.
I use a lot of precise cues that you may never have heard before, so make sure you are ready to listen with fresh ears! Every class, sequence, and playlist are unique, I change my teaching as my practice evolves.
If you take my class expect meditation, unique sequences, back-bends, inversions, arm-balances, sun-salutations, and more! (but not in that order…)
I am teaching some very unique and adaptive sequencing so that everyone in the room can get a great disconnection from their internal dialogue and state of unison between the body and mind. Come find out what’s going on inside of you.
Currently Teaching 2 Classes a Week
I am teaching on Wednesday at Noon and Sunday at 5pm every week.