Candace Stump - Yoga Instructor

Over the past eighteen years, Candace has experienced yoga as a young athlete, a stressed-out (and broke) college student, a young professional, through two pregnancies, and now as a busy Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor and, most importantly, mother of a second grader and a kindergartner. "Through it all," she says, "yoga has always been something I could come back to. There's something for everyone, because it's about getting in touch with and bettering yourself."

Candace began her yoga practice at age 15, as a way to unwind from competitive softball. She started her career in the martial arts four years later, more or less on a whim. After almost eight years' training in American Kenpo Karate under Skip Hancock, she hung up her gloves and shin guards and started practicing "the gentle art" of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Throughout these years, she was practicing and playing with Ashtanga, Iyengar, and more general Hatha yoga classes.

When the opportunity came along to join a yoga community, deepen her practice, and become a teacher, she did not hesitate to dive in headfirst: living, studying, and practicing up to five hours a day for months at a time. This eventually evolved into a dedicated yoga practice and lifestyle with her two young sons. When she was able to return to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, it was with a new perspective and outlook. As a current Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner - she earned her blue belt from Professor Mikyo in 2010 - she understands the needs of competitive athletes. She also recently spent five years in her sons' cooperative preschool, serving on its Executive Board for four years, one of which as its President. When she's not teaching yoga, doing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or homeschooling her kindergartner, she can be found in the community, working privately with children and adults in movement-based therapy, focusing on body awareness, personal development, and self-image.

Candace continues her yoga training weekly with one of her teachers (Nikki Estrada, Maritza, and Tony Briggs) as she continues to develop her yoga practice. As a Registered Yoga Teacher in Iyengar yoga, she focuses on Iyengar's principles of alignment but explores other forms, especially Anusara, to experience the larger perspective, to the benefit of both her own practice and that of her students.

"Anyone, at any time, can do yoga. At the end of the day, it is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and control the greatest force there is: our own inner strength."