YOGAJOURNAL.COM / 10 / DECEMBER 2017
PHOTO: PAUL MILLER; STYLIST: EMILYCHOI; HAIR/MAKEUP: BETHWALKER; TOP: OLYMPIA ACTIVEWEAR; BOTTOMS: VOLCOM; JEWELRY: MOONSPUN JEWELRYTHE CONVERSATION
WITH TASHA EICHENSEHER, BRAND DIRECTOR
Sian
Gordon
YJ’s cover model and owner of
Love Yoga studios in the LA area
talks about growing up at Yoga
Zone, values, and Katonah.My dad woke up every day at 5 a.m. to
meditate, pump his breath, and chant
to Shiva. When I was very young, he brought
me to my godfather Alan Finger’s classes
at Yoga Zone in Los Angeles (the original
YogaWorks). When Alan moved to New York
City, he opened a yoga studio above my dad’s
salon. I’d go there after school and take yoga
while I waited for my dad. Yoga was such
a normal part of my upbringing that it
became analogous to brushing my teeth.
There’s still a part of me that feels surprised
when people tell me that they don’t do yoga.
I took a Landmark course after college
that had a profound effect on me. I felt
awakened; I wanted my life to be about
helping others. But I needed to help myself
first. I moved into an ashram in the Bahamas,
doing all I could to help cook, clean, and
more. It was intense. After six months, I was
like, “God, I just want to kiss a boy.” So I left
and went to grad school to be a therapist.
Grad school didn’t give me what I was
looking for, but it did teach me discipline.
I was searching for a way to be of service, but
it didn’t teach me how to connect to myself or
other people. I’d learned more about that on
the playground at elementary school. I came
to realize that you can spend the rest of your
life trying to fix yourself.YOGAJOURNAL.COM / 10 / FEBRUARY 2018
It’s hard for me not to get caught up
in the business side of things and the way
social media can make everything a big
contest, but the most important thing
I can do for myself every day is ask, “Who
do I want to be?” and “How do I want to
help the world?” I keep my values simple
in that I say what I do and I do what
I say. To me, that is having integrity.
The first time I took a Katonah Yoga
class, with founder Nevine Michaan,
I was completely mindblown. I had severe
lower back issues, and Nevine took one
look at me and said my right kidney
wasn’t getting enough air. She moved
me around a bit, and then I didn’t have
pain for months. I hadn’t told her
anything, but she seemed to see every-
thing. So, Nevine became my teacher.
Katonah Yoga is unlike anything else.
Instead of being based on an Indian
lineage, it is based on Chinese medicine
and Taoism. It incorporates a lot of
sacred geometry and metaphor. There
is no iconography. No Savasana (Corpse
Pose). No Namaste. Nevine says that
everyone’s physical body is going to break
down, so the real reason to do this
practice is so your mind doesn’t break
down too. And of course, the psychology
is connected to physiology; we use the
body to access the mind and vice versa.
Katonah aims to give you a spherical
perspective, allowing you to see all
possibilities, and in every possible
direction. Then Taoism is all about
polarity and the seasons. My practice is
different in the summer, when I want to
move outward into the world, than in the
winter, when I want to turn my attention
inward and gather insight.