Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Hills.
Hi Charlotte, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
For the purposes of this interview, I will focus on my experience as a yoga practitioner and teacher, as I believe that is what most people know me for.
I took my first yoga class when I was around 14 years old. My mother was (and still is) an avid Bikram Yoga student. My sisters and I joke about how she was doing yoga “before it was cool.”
My first class wasn’t anything special. I just remember it being really hot and challenging. It wasn’t until I went back when I was 17 that something clicked for me. I was lucky enough to live down the street from our local Bikram studio, and I got a work trade job cleaning sweaty yoga mats so I could take unlimited classes.
I absolutely loved it. I was even able to get a credit in school so I could leave early to go clean the studio and take class. At one point, I was going to two classes a day. If you’ve ever take a 90-minute Bikram Yoga class, you know how gnarly that is!
I had tried many sports from when I was a little kid to a teenager, and nothing ever really stuck. I wasn’t very competitive, and I would get nervous during games. I was too sensitive for sports and never felt like I was aggressive enough. Yoga allowed me to get into my body in a gentle way. I also loved that I didn’t have to talk to anyone. It was an entirely internal experience for me. I didn’t know it at the time, but the practice was helping me move through a lot of anxiety and depression I had felt for most of my life. It was kind of like therapy, but rather than talking it out, I was sweating it out.
Fast forward through lots of partying and questionable behavior through high school and college, and the yoga was still there. Even when I would stay up all night drinking, I would sometimes still manage to make it to hot yoga the next day. It was the only constant in my life.
After I graduated college, I started prioritizing my health, this is when my yoga practice became more grounded and effective. I started practicing vinyasa and pretty much anything else I could find. I got obsessed. I didn’t really work for a while after college. I was lacking the confidence to get a job in my field (I studied Graphic Design), so I got another work-grade job at a local studio and was sometimes taking 3 classes a day. That was where I met my Bheemashakti Yoga teachers, Troy Munsey and Angela Patriarca. Everything shifted a lot of after that. There was something special about this practice that felt right in my body. I didn’t ask many questions; I just kept coming to class because it was working, and it was working fast. The more I experienced, the more I understood that this system was what I needed.
I continued to practice Bheemashakti Yoga intensely for about 4 years and started teaching in the fall of 2020.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I never actually wanted to become a yoga teacher; in fact, I avoided it adamantly. All that time I spent practicing was simply because I felt like I couldn’t live without it. It wasn’t because I wanted to do advanced postures; it was because of how it made me feel. It not only helped me connect to my body, it helped me enter another world. A place that made a lot more sense to me.
My fear of public speaking also held me back form becoming a teacher. I was very quiet as a child, some people actually thought I was mute! I had so much fear around saying the wrong thing that I just didn’t say much at all. In college when I had to present something, I would almost black out and forget what happened. I experienced crippling anxiety whenever I had to stand up in front of people. Teaching yoga basically forced me to face this fear head-on.
When covid hit, Troy stopped teaching, and Angela moved away. One day, Angela called me and asked me to start teaching. I said yes. Although part of me still didn’t really want to do it, I knew deep down that this was the next step for me. I taught my first class online. I had one student come, and she clapped for me at the end! I was so proud of myself. I think I may have cried after.
It did, of course, get much easier after that. With repetition, most things do. As I started to feel more comfortable teaching, my inner critic became louder and louder. Imposter syndrome set in. There are so many yoga teachers out there; why would anyone care about anything I have to say?
There are still times when I drive home from class and overanalyze everything I said or didn’t say. When you take on a role as a teacher, whether it’s yoga, academics, swimming, anything, you put yourself out there. You have to be prepared to take compliments AND criticism. You have to be able to move on, not overthink your mistakes, and just do better next time. Despite of all the experience I’ve had, I still struggle with insecurities. In some ways, I feel like I’m just getting started. I’ve only been teaching for 3 years and have a long way to go.
During a pep talk with my teacher Angela, I was reminded that the yoga is not about me. It isn’t about anyone liking me. It isn’t about what poses I can or cannot do. It’s about carrying on the lineage. When I first heard this, I felt like a huge weight was lifted off of my shoulders. If I can put myself aside and make it about the yoga, it doesn’t matter whether people like me or not. I don’t have to perform, and that’s a big relief.
Today, with social media, a lot of yoga teachers (myself included) purposely put themselves in the spotlight. Our egos are bigger than ever, and we want people to like us. We want people to come to OUR class. I don’t necessarily think it’s a negative thing; maybe it’s all just part of the process. If a yoga teacher can use their ego in a positive way to ultimately help others, is that a bad thing?
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
One of the key aspects of The Bheemashakti Yoga School is the mandala rhythm. A mandala is a cycle of disciplined yoga practice that follows the cycles of nature. We typically do these in 7 or 21 day cycles, every day from 6-8 am. During a mandala, we use a system of kriyas and breathing techniques to prime the body in preparation for asanas (postures). Once the body is primed, we utilize Ashtanga Vinyasa (primary and intermediate series) as our asana practice.
When I was doing mandalas 2 -3 times a year, I essentially stopped staying up until 5 am partying and starting waking up at 5 am to do yoga. To say a flipped my life upside is an understatement. Mandalas taught me how to keep going even when I thought I couldn’t. Regardless of what was going on in my life, I kept showing up.
My teacher used to say the best teachers start as the best students. There is a difference between getting into yoga because you want to become a yoga teacher and getting into yoga because you want to become a better student.
The BYS offers a no-fluff, straight from the source approach. There is an emphasis on what we call “self-mastery.” This means that eventually, the student will no longer need the teacher. If you walk into a Bheemashakti Yoga class, you might notice everyone is doing different things. That is because everyone has their own path; there is not one sequence that will work for everyone. The student is responsible for listening to their body and discovering what they need over time.
What makes you happy?
The thing that makes me happiest when I am teaching is witnessing my students overcome their fears. To see someone kick up into a handstand for the first time can be such an emotional experience. It might not seem like a big deal, but overcoming fears in our physical practice can translate into our day to day lives. The yoga can start to serve as mirror. It’s not really about whether we can do the poses or not, it’s how we choose to react to them. When that starts to click for a student, a door is opened into another way of being in the world. It’s really beautiful to watch.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bheemashakti.yoga/
- Instagram: @charkattackattack
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charlotte.elizabeth.12
Image Credits
Jaymie Noelle
Sumeet Banerji
