Sue Cushing

Sue Cushing, E-RYT 200
Sue discovered yoga in 2001 after being laid off from a job in technology — which confirmed that when a door closes, a window opens. One class was all it took for her to find that place in life where you can truly be comfortable in your skin. Yoga provides a space without judgment and expectation and allows students to focus on cultivating the positive aspects of their physical and mental selves. Yoga can be whatever you need it to be — a gentle or intense physical work out, a mindful meditation, a simple act of kindness, and so many things in between. Sue has experienced many styles of yoga including Ashtanga, Hatha, and Forrest and blends the styles together into a fluid vinyasa practice that focuses on increasing flexibility, building strength and understanding the individual body through intelligent sequencing. After so many years of practice, Sue loves that she has only begun to scratch the surface of yoga. She completed her 200 hour teaching certification with Natasha Rizopoulos through YogaWorks, is a Registered Yoga Teacher through Yoga Alliance and continues to deepen her yoga education through workshops and master classes.

How has practicing yoga impacted your life?
At its root, yoga gives me that space and opportunity to connect with and understand my physical, mental and emotional self. I understand how to take care of myself better – whether that means keeping my body healthy, detoxing my brain from the insanity of life, or healing emotionally. Ultimately, when I can take literal care of myself, I can then take care of others with more attention.

What is your favorite yoga asana and why?
I am sucker for any inversion or arm balance. There is no match for the high I get when I balance on my hands and feel strong, flexible and light. Even though those will always be my favorites, I have come to discover the true importance of the quieter poses to balance those invigorating asanas.

What is your favorite yoga-related book/movie?
“Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses” by Claire Dederer. I read this book years ago, but there is a chapter on Half-Pigeon pose where the author describes the pose as something you see at the end of a car wreck. That thought makes me laugh and has stuck with me. I think many of us feel like that we do something new. It all feels wrong, uncomfortable, or foreign because we don’t know what we don’t know – yet. But then we practice and each time we practice we find another little piece of the puzzle and the pieces start to fit together. And, when you practice you build patience and understanding that the next piece is just around the corner.

What is your favorite inspirational/spiritual passage or quote?
“When a door closes, a window opens.” As a recovering control-freak, it’s hard for me (and many!) to accept when life doesn’t go my may and make assumptions about that being “bad”. Maybe it comes with age and lots of yoga, but I do find I am more accepting of how often our lives come to intersections and whichever way you go, the path is the path and I should be open to what happens along the way. If I hadn’t been laid off from a fancy job in the technology industry in 2001, I may never have been available on that Tuesday morning when I stepped into the hole-in-the-wall gym for “Yoga: 90 minutes”.

What is something others might not know about you?
In my youth of the 1980’s, I was totally into hair bands. Aqua Net was my best friend and had many varieties of acid washed jeans. All photos of that era have been destroyed.