Elana embodies everything that Amara stands for: truth, grace, and transformation. As a yoga teacher and woman deeply connected to movement and meaning, she lives with the awareness that strength and softness can exist together.
Her body tells her story through the flow of her practice, the quiet power of her presence, and the tattoos that trace her journey like living threads of truth.
Elana moves through the world with authenticity and intention. She does not perform, she embodies. Like Amara, she carries the balance of what is real and what is radiant, grounded in truth and anchored in grace.
BIO: Elana has been teaching yoga for almost 12 years. She has been practicing for almost 14 years including seated meditation. She has a BA in Religious Studies & Fine Arts and a MPHIl in Environment, Society, & Sustainability. She is a dancer, traveler, reader, writer, and lover. She’s been in Cape Town for almost 5 years and is originally from Cleveland, Ohio, USA
QUESTIONS FOR ELANA
Truth & Self
What does living in truth mean to you?
Living in truth means not compromising your integrity and center; no matter how uncomfortable or confrontational the circumstance may be.
How do you come back to yourself when life feels loud?
I meditate. And read real books, the ones printed on paper and you can hold, I also write, yoga and dance — ALOT
The Knot
What promises have you made to yourself?
My biggest promise I’ve made is to keep going. To not give up on life, my dreams, and the world — no matter how bad the odds look for myself or the rest of us, no matter how challenging the situation seems, I promise to always show up and give my 100% how the expresses itself in that moment.
What or who keeps you grounded and connected?
My mum and dad, my diverse expansive community, and my wife keep me grounded. Nature and my movement practices as well.
The Pearl
What has taught you patience or grace?
I am an avid practitioner of yoga & seated meditation. I started practicing yoga at 16 and have tended to the discipline of sitting in stillness since 17. These disciplines and self study are my anchors in teaching and guiding me towards grace.
How have you transformed through stillness or time?
My mum always told me; if you can’t be with yourself, who can you be with? The transformation of stillness is that it forces you to really be with all facets of oneself — including the unbearable parts, which enables one then to hold and meet people and society in their shadows and keep moving with love.
Body & Movement
Your tattoos tell such a story — what do they mean to you?
My tattoos I honestly don’t talk to others about often. What I can tell you in short, is that they have been a process in reclaiming and demanding the ownership of my body. I dictate my beauty, so that others are forced to contend with the triggers and projections. My tattoo practice is a direct process in actively decolonizing myself through aesthetic.
I have a Masters degree in Environment, Society, & Sustainability, I have been a teacher to the youth, i have been in world forums, and have worked as a yoga teacher around the world. My tattoos are my solidarity to a bigger struggle & fight. Dictating: don’t you dare judge me for what I look like; judge me on the value and depth of my mind, my discipline, work, compassion, and courage in meeting this violent unkind world with my heart.
How does movement help you express what words can’t?
Movement helps me stay sane! It’s a communication between me and myself. A moment where I commune with the underworld and the whispers of the unseen.
Reflection
If you could tie one knot for an intention, what would it be?
If I could tie one know for an intention; it would be for collective global solidarity and a shift of practice a between human factions. A true paradigm shift in transforming our world; realizing the planet is a whole ecosystem of 8 billion human beings.
What truth are you speaking into your life right now?
And I’m speaking into life, the continued process of ego surrender, into the earth, the trees, the sea, my heart, the teachings I come from, and that which is unnamable — aka divinity
