JESSIE SCHIEN
photos by Sarit Rogers
I
met yoga teacher Jesse Schein while on the set of a docuseries—the
reality television show Yoga Girls (which airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET
on health-entertainment cable network Z Living). We were doing
a photo shoot in the blazing late afternoon sun. Our jokes about
feeling a bit out of place and our laughter helped create a lighthearted
environment. I was taken by Jesse’s infectious sense of humor and no-
bullshit attitude. Jesse Schein is hilarious, honest, straightforward, witty,
intelligent, and deeply passionate about yoga. And when she says ‘yoga,’
she’s talking about the complete practice—not just the asana.
Hailing out of New York from a “nice Jewish family,” Jesse has a
degree in history and political philosophy. Throughout her education,
she pushed herself to perfection, viewing failure as something that can’t
and won’t happen to her.
Jesse will be the first to tell you that she deals head-on with anxiety.
At the age of 25, she found herself in a state of “existential malaise,”
as she puts it, facing anxiety, depression, and managing tons of health
problems. Jesse felt like she was in perpetual crisis. One of the things she
pursued was acting classes at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute.
“It soothed my anxiety to get out of my head and into a different charac-
ter.” At the time, she wasn’t able to articulate what it really meant, but
from today’s perspective she recognizes that the work with the Method,
the breath, and being in the present moment were like yoga.
She moved to California, the land of “daytime and not nighttime”
where she dabbled in acting but ended up leaving that world because it
felt fake to her. Then, while in her late 20s, she was chain smoking, anx-
ious, and unemployed. Her roommate suggested she try yoga. So Jesse, in
low spirits, made her way into Seane Corn’s class at YogaWorks. She re-
members thinking, “Here comes this gorgeous, strong, confident, blonde
woman from Jersey who said it like it was, telling at me to do things with
my body in a no-nonsense kind of way. I thought, ‘I could do this’!”
Six months later, Jesse had an ‘ah-ha’ moment while weeping on her
mat. She fell completely in love with yoga, recognizing the deeper layers.
Jesse dug in and practiced diligently for two years with Seane Corn and
Vinnie Marino. She eventually signed up for her first teacher training
with Maty Ezraty. Jesse describes herself as a “hot mess” and a “kiss-
ass,” sitting in the front row, asking tons of questions, and embracing her
type-A personality. She signed up for the next training as soon as the first
was finished and then took three 200-hour trainings back-to-back until
Ezraty told her to stop.
For the first year of her teaching career, Jesse apprenticed with Annie
Carpenter, Laura Miles, Seane Corn, and Maty Ezraty. Ezraty groomed
Jesse, providing her with a solid foundation and some sage advice: “For
your first two years, you teach, you don’t sub out, you don’t travel, you
show up, you build trust, and you create safety.”
Jesse continues to teach and practice with this foundation. She con-
fides that as a teacher she prefers smaller classes where she can pay more
attention to her students, and has recently chosen to give up prime time
slots to accommodate this preference. Jesse says, “No one gets hurt on
my watch. Period. What you say and how you say it affects students.”
Considering this, I asked Jesse, “How did you find yourself on a real-
ity TV show?” Simply put, she says, “I love television. It’s entertaining. I
love making people laugh. I love reality television—it’s hysterical!”
According to Jesse, being on Yoga Girls feels like an opportunity to
be herself in a social experiment, and she has been able to find humor in
the experience. She said, “On the show I am extremely outspoken and I
don’t hold back my opinions!”
The network lets her be herself. Jesse is 43 and has a family that in-
cludes her husband, son, and pup. She’s been practicing asana for 18 years
and feels frustrated seeing teachers using yoga as click bait or as a charge
point—it defies the “Do no harm” policy that guides her teaching. Jesse
adds, “There’s a difference between what a quality teacher is and what the
other crap is. I want the world to see the bullshit and know what it is.”
Yoga Girls has already caused a stir in the yoga community; many see
it as a bastardization of yoga. Jesse is lighthearted about it all. Perhaps
it’s her love of reality television or the simple fact that she doesn’t take
herself that seriously. Regardless, it’s refreshing to meet someone who is
able to laugh at herself with grounded grace.
Perhaps that perspective comes from her attitude, “I’m going to be a
student for life. The beginner’s mind is what needs to be cultivated. I’m
inspired to be in the present moment - the experience of ‘now-ness,’ to try
to ease the suffering of being human. Some days it works and some days
I have to take a Valium, but I have better coping skills now in my 40s.”