The word “Namaste’” is a greeting in India when people meet and part to honor the place within you where the entire Universe resides…”
It’s a word that Barbara Bannerman and other yoga teachers in the west use to emulate the spirit of the practice.
Bannerman, a resident of Seal Beach’s Marina Hill neighborhood has been practicing yoga for 45 years and teaching it in the west Orange County area for the past 17.
She was recently cast as member for Jane Fonda’s newest “Prime Time” exercise DVD, featuring Fonda teaching yoga to seniors.
“The people who were interviewed had to be 60 or older.” She said. “I was chosen to be one of the four yogis out of more than 200 people who tried out.”
Bannerman’s ties to yoga have come a long way.
However, when she was a little girl, Bannerman said she never dreamed of becoming a yoga instructor, or even doing yoga for that matter.
Her interest in it began during her 20s.
“I had a surfer boyfriend and he started doing yoga to help his balance on the waves,” said Bannerman, who is now 64. “I never made it to stand up on a surfboard … too much suntan oil I suppose, but I became fascinated with the practice of yoga.”
She studied yoga out of books for many years and followed the Richard Hittleman’s yoga practice offered through public television.
“In the ’60s there were few and far between classes to attend,” she said. “Most of the classes were offered by Indian guru types. Being raised in a Southern California Home, I was busy shaving my legs and painting my nails while attending (California State University) at Long Beach to become an elementary school teacher.”
She said she shied away from what seemed foreign at that time.
Regardless, yoga became a part of her activities, as she learned early the benefits that the practice offered mentally as well as physically.
Meanwhile, Bannerman taught elementary school in the Garden Grove School district for 13 years, then retired to raise her two sons as a single mother.
“It was at this time I thankfully found my first real live yoga teacher, Diane Harman,” she said. “If you know Diane you will understand the instant comfort and nurturing that was offered and why she called her yoga East/West Yoga.”
Harman introduced yoga with a western slant.
“It’s got just the right amount of meditation and physical assana, or poses,” Bannerman said.
Bannerman took over one of Harman’s class at Boeing. Being a certified elementary school teacher, Bannerman thought it was important to get formal teacher training.
She received her yogi training certification from the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara, the same place that Harman had attended.
As a single mother, yoga was the perfect place to make “egg money” in addition to subbing for the Los Alamitos School district and still be able to be a part-time, stay at home mom.
When she started teaching yoga it was in the early 90’s and still not half as popular or accepted as it is in the present day. Her sons were leery of Mom’s profession being accepted and referred to her as “a PE teacher.”
“Things have changed and we all know there is so much more to Yoga than just PE,” she said.
She now teaches classes in Yoga for Stress Release through Los Alamitos Parks and Recreation and other areas.
“I still attend classes and workshops with my favorite teacher, Erich Schiffmann and others,” she said. “I think it is important to stay inspired and be a good student to be able to be a good teacher.”
In the early part of this year one of her students who is a model was scanning Craig’s List looking for job opportunities and came across an add for Women over 60 who knew yoga and would like to be in a Jane Fonda DVD. On a fluke she had space in her busy schedule to fit in the casting call. And much to her surprise, they called her back.
At that time she was offered the opportunity to work with Jane Fonda in the soon to be released Jane Fonda Prime Time DVD “Beginning Yoga for Baby Boomers.”
“If you live long enough anything is possible, that’s why we do yoga,” she said. “We only have a certain amounts of breaths that we are given, so breath deeply and enjoy every moment. It is always good to remember… “Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by the moments that take our breath away.”
