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About Holly Mullally

With a B.S. in Computer Science from MIT and several years of experience in the software industry, Holly is not the typical profile of a yoga teacher.  She came to yoga years ago while searching for ways to heal severe Repetitive Strain Injury in her hands and forearms which had been brought on by day after day of extensive computer use.  Holly was sold after the first class -- not only because yoga began to help her heal right away, but because suddenly her body felt more aligned and alive every day.  Yoga became an immediate addiction - several group classes a week, private lessons, and a home practice.  Holly's hands began to improve when no doctor or physical therapist had been able to help.  Her skeleton started to change in fundamental ways and her body started to feel good every day - suddenly walking and sitting were more comfortable than they had ever been, her shoulders were no longer hunched forward, her spine was straighter and longer, and all of this was maintainable - yoga had aligned her while also developing the musculature along those bones which will keep them in the right place permanently.  Mistakenly thinking that yoga was just about flexibility, she learned that it was about strength, exact skeletal alignment, control/balance, AND flexibility.  

Eventually Holly went on to take a period of time off work and focus more on her yoga.  She went to India and took a 30 day yoga intensive with a woman named Maggie Hughes who has been studying with the Iyengar family in Pune, India for the last 20 yrs.  The famous 80+ year old B.K.S. Iyengar started Iyengar Yoga - one of the major styles of Hatha yoga popular all over the world today and also Holly's preferred yoga style.  This was a tremendous opportunity - to go to India and do the real thing - pure and right from the source.  The course was intense - 6 days a week, 2.5 hrs per day, strict Iyengar Yoga.  Ever done a Sun Salutation?  Try doing 50 of them fast in a row.  There was extensive rope suspension work unlike anything Holly had seen in the U.S..  Maggie never let up - she would drill on exact skeletal alignment of the poses and use her hands to push the student's bodies deeply into the right place.  Sometimes Holly would literally yell out in pain as Maggie made a deep adjustment, but then the pain would be gone once her bones snapped correctly into place.  She had found an alignment that she'd never known before.  Any doubt in Holly's mind that yoga was an infinitely deep and complex topic was now gone.

In November of 2001 Holly's friends began to ask her to teach.  "Me?  A Yoga teacher?  I'm a techie and not a yogini!" she said.  They knew of her intensive work in India and had been hearing her tout the benefits of yoga for years, so they persisted.  Eventually Holly took on one private student - a fellow techie named Mark who had occasional neck and back pain due to long work hours.  After studying with Holly he could work longer hours without pain.  She saw how she was helping him to heal and how radiant and happy he looked after a good yoga class.  So Holly started a few small 4-5 person group classes out of her home.  Her students found the addiction.  The rewards of seeing her students bodies progress and hearing them talk about how great it made them feel were enormous.  The personal attention and focused hands-on adjustments she could give in this small class setting proved incredibly successful for the progress of her students. 

The only problem with this blissful path was that there wasn't enough time.  Holly had a waiting list - more students than she had time to teach given that she had returned to software full time.  She wanted to advance her practice more and have more time to share the joy of yoga with those who were reaching out for it.  So Holly did the natural thing - follow her heart and leave software to teach yoga full time. 

hollym (at) gmail (dot) com