Today we’d like to introduce you to Angela Patriarca.
Angela, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I moved from New York City ten years ago to San Diego. In New York City I had spent five years in the yoga industry running yoga studios, teaching classes, leading training, etc. After moving to San Diego to work on a Masters of Science degree in Chinese Medicine, I met a yoga teacher, Jonathan Patriarca, who I studied with for five years. During these five years, we begin working together as yoga business partners collaborating, creating training, retreats, etc. He was the main teacher and I organized things in the background. During this process we also ended up falling in love, getting married and pregnant, all under six months!
We were married for another six months until he passed away suddenly from a heart attack. I was seven months pregnant when he passed and literally, overnight I became a single mom, an owner of a yoga school, and a widow. This added to being a full-time graduate student. Because we were married, the yoga school legally was transferred to me, and also because I was teaching at the school it made sense for me to also take over his classes. People kept showing up to class, so I kept showing up to teach. I had the great fortune of another dedicated yoga student, Troy Munsey, literally dropping everything to help me run the school while I was getting ready to give birth, become a new mom and finish my degree.
Out of this chain of events birthed a new chapter at the Bheemashakti Yoga School. The first two years we spent holding down the fort for Jonathan and all the students he left behind, trying to teach just like he did and doing things the way he did them. Then over the past three years, a new generation of students has evolved and Troy and I have paved a new way for us that feels in honor of Jonathan but also deeply resonates with who we are as teachers and business owners.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There were and continue to be a lot of struggles along the way. Having a new baby to take care of, while going to graduate school, while stepping into the CEO role and teacher role, while in complete shock over the death of Jonathan…while living with my parents at age 38! My parent’s moved down to San Diego when Jonathan died to help me with my daughter while I went to school. This was how I did it. People rallied to help me. I had a nanny who watched her while I taught yoga. I would bring one of my sisters, who thankfully, love the yoga that we teach, along on retreats as a trade for childcare.
Day by day, I would figure out how to make it all work, but the juggling and management of it all were extremely challenging. Basically, I didn’t do it by myself, and that’s how I did it. I could have dropped the yoga, or dropped out of school, but nothing felt dispensable. I couldn’t get rid of my daughter, couldn’t let the father of my daughter’s legacy not carry on, and I had already invested six years into graduate school and was only two years from graduation.
There were a lot of personal struggles as well. Its been an era of coming into my own. Becoming a mom, becoming a business owner, becoming a medical provider. As you become more of a public person or a leader in the community, your every move is much more on display and people have more things to say about you, good and bad. Jonathan used to say that if you take to heart the good things people say about you, you also have to take the bad. But he also said that there is another option that is to not take to heart either the good or the bad.
I’ve been experimenting with both options, and I think that there is a trusting in yourself that has to develop in order to keep going under the pressures of what people think of you. So slowly, year by year, this trust is building and people’s opinions, both familial and public, are fading into the background and I am finding more creativity and joy in the projects I do and the directions I am taking things.
Please tell us about your work. What should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Bheemashakti Yoga School was founded by Jonathan Patriarca and his yoga Master, HR Suresh in Mysore, India. The original teachings are based on what Jonathan learned while studying with Master Suresh for five years. Over the past five years Troy and I have completed what Jonathan started, a comprehensive system of exercises designed to quickly transform the body in preparation for asana practice. We are the only yoga school that practices rhythmically in cycles we call mandalas. This kind of practice is unique as it gives the student the option to practice very intensely for cycles of time, usually 21 or 48 days consecutively. When we are not in a mandala training, most of our students will practice at home 3-4 times/week or will take group classes, either Bheemashakti Yoga or an asana class of their preference.
The practice itself also sets it apart from other styles of yoga. The two main differences are: 1) we do 4 different styles of breathing in class. In most westernized yoga classes, the “ujayii” breath is mostly used. 2) We don’t do asanas (until the body has been “primed”). To prime the body, we use “kriyas” or exercises designed to energize and strengthen seven basic positions or dimensions of the body.
We are most proud of the type of practitioners our students become. Because of the intense mandala trainings and because the BY system is so comprehensive, students are always growing and becoming more and more independent. When you walk into one of our trainings, everyone is doing different things, because there is a level of self-mastery that is built into our methodology. As a teacher, I feel my job is to eventually be able to get rid of the student. The student shouldn’t need me if I’ve done my job. It’s a tricky business plan, but its the only way to self-mastery.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
There aren’t any big moments of feeling proud, but lots of small ones. I feel proud the most on the 1st day of any training and there is a room full of people, most of which didn’t even know Jonathan and many who are from out of town or an even a different country and I look around and I get an overwhelming feeling like “its working”. People are ready for something new, something that doesn’t hold your hand or offer a fix to your problems. People want to do the work and enter a path of knowing themselves. Discovering the voice inside that is their true teacher.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 6198002292
- Email: angela@bheemashakti.
yoga - Instagram: @
bheemashaktiyogaschool - Facebook: @bheemashakti
Image Credit:
Troy Munsey (portraits)
Sumeet Banerji (first yoga photo)
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