Name: Everett Forrest Mason
Country of origin: Norwalk, Connecticut – USA
Position at OM Yoga Stuttgart: Teacher, Student
Years of yoga practice: 20 years practicing, 9 years teaching
Before I became a yoga teacher…I was working in the film industry as an assistant cameraman. I’m still a film nut but prefer the direct response I get from teaching and helping people feel better in their bodies.
I loooooooooove this song: Really? Is there enough space for this? OK, OK: “Lord Help Me” by the late, great Donny Hathaway.
I cannot resist: Like Isabelle, I am unable to say ‘no’ to a fresh Knüsperringle from our pals next door at Plattsalat.
My motto: “Du mußt dein Leben ändern” (You must change your life), a line from a Rainer Maria Rilke poem.
My favourite Asana (for the moment): keeping open in the Heart chakra even when sucking in the stomach. Not technically an asana but that’s what I’m working on right now.
When I don’t teach…I make music.
My mama brought me to my first yoga class when I was 14. It was hot yoga and let’s just say the hot room was not as nice as the one here in Stuggi. Read: thick, moist carpeting smelling of unwashed dog; no natural light; extremely loud heat blowers that made my nose hair smell like burning. Anyhow, I was hooked. The intensity, the inner calm (in spite of the circumstances), the feeling of being purified inside and out – it was all right up my alley.
Like with music, I knew I had found something that I could spend my entire life doing and never “master” but always find in it new insights, approaches and applications.
After about ten years of practicing, I attended the Bikram Teacher Training in 2010. At first, I had a really hard time finding my own “voice” as a teacher. It felt uncomfortable to tell students what to do, many of them obviously more experienced than me.
Over time, and with some guidance (…Oz…), I realized that I did indeed have some mildly interesting things to share with people about yoga and could inspire people to go safely and successfully beyond their preconceived boundaries, physical or otherwise.
The studio here in Stuttgart is truly a home to me. It is the place I feel most confident, most safe, and most certain that I am spending my time doing something important and beneficial, both for myself and for all the students who come through the door.
Oz has created a space that, like the practice of yoga itself, makes you you. A space that is many different things to many different people, but is, for everyone, me included, a space of inspiration and joy. Do your yoga, and all is coming.
