A student of movement from an early age, Adi was introduced to yoga in 1995 as a practice that could help her to overcome various dance and sports related injuries. Yoga created a physical change in her body and the practice began to sprout a mental transformation as well. Adi became aware of her surroundings in all shapes and forms and she was suddenly tuning in to this bizarre concept called “breath”. Thanks to her first serious yoga teacher, Deb Fernandez, Adi was introduced to Jivamukti yoga and began to practice regularly with the constant belief that yoga harnesses the potential to change the world we all share.
In 2002, after graduating from Skidmore College with a BA in mathematics and minors in studio art and economics, Adi moved to NYC to pursue work as a designer. She found that NYC proved to be one of the most challenging environments for anyone trying to seek clarity and truth. Constantly surrounded by urban strife, violence and pollution Adi found herself once again on her yoga mat seeking a solution.
As karma would have it, she crossed paths with Seane Corn and was blessed to study with her at her first teacher training in 2006. Adi then had the opportunity to travel with Seane as an assistant at teacher trainings and various workshops nationwide. Inspired in a major way by her work with Seane, Adi began to use her voice as a yoga teacher to raise awareness about all sorts of environmental issues with a focus on sustainability and reducing toxicity. She is most known for the workshops she created entitled the Detox series which combine her backgrounds in yoga, Pilates, herbalism and environmental activism to raise awareness about reducing various forms of toxicity in our bodies and on our planet on a physical, emotional and energetic level.
In 2008, Adi took the Off the Mat, Into the World SEVA pledge to raise $20,000 for the Cambodian Children’s Fund. She created The Mindfulness Challenge in response to this pledge, to not only fundraise but to also educate about the state of our environment and how to work towards sustainable change. Through various fundraising events, including the notorious trash tour, The Mindfulness Challenge raised over $23,000 for the Cambodian Children’s Fund in less than 9 months and Adi traveled to Cambodia in February of 2009 to work with the kids, teaching yoga and experiencing the beauty and poverty that is intertwined daily in the Cambodian culture.
Through her endless travels as a student and teacher of new and unusual forms of yoga, Adi also crossed paths with the YogaSlackers, who soon became her close friends and after a year and a half of her protesting it, convinced her to (reluctantly) get up on a slackline. Embracing the mental focus and sense of playfulness that slacklining brought to her yoga practice, Adi eventually became the 5th member of Team YogaSlackers. In addition to getting her hooked on slacking (in the “doing yoga on a slackline sense” not just being lazy), Paul, Jason and Sam also introduced her to AcroYoga. Drawn to the amazing way that AcroYoga uses yoga combined with trust to create a unique form of physical and emotional therapy, Adi attended the 2007 AcroYoga Teacher Training in Hawaii and is still constantly inspired at the potential for this practice to build trust and life long friendships between people who “fly” each other, their family members and even their pets.
As a student of many schools of yoga including Jivamukti, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Vinyasa and Anusara, Adi is eternally grateful to all of the blissful beings that help her to see more clearly every day. She offers thanks to all of her teachers past, present and future including: Deb Fernandez, Sharon Gannon & David Live, Seane Corn, Dharma Mittra, John Friend, Sianna Sherman, Edward Clark, Geshe Michael Roach & Christie McNally, Zhenja La Rosa, Jenny Sauer-Klein & Jason Nemer. Adi is a certified AcroYoga teacher and holds an advanced 500 hr certification from Dharma Mittra- the man who always makes her smile and her heart dance. She is also a certified Herbalist and Pilates instructor and is currently working towards her certification in Anusara Yoga under the talented eye of Zhenja La Rosa as well as studying with John Friend and Sianna Sherman whenever she can.
Adi has been featured in Yoga Journal, National Geographic.com, LA Yoga, Time for CNN, Yoga+ Joyful Living, Latino Leaders, Shape Magazine, GAIA, Explorer Girls, Current T.V., SHAPE, Urban Climber and elephant. In addition to teaching, Adi writes articles on sustainability and is currently working on her first book chronicling her journeys as a home free YogaSlacker, raising awareness about mindfulness in movement. In addition to yoga, Adi also has a passion for surfing, climbing, snowboarding and just about anything else that you can do outdoors with the sky as your limit and the earth as your playground.