Emily Dillof has been practicing yoga since 1998, and teaching since 2007.  She is one of the Bay Area’s very few 800 Hour Certified Jivamukti Yoga teachers. She is also certified to teach through Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in San Francisco (200 hours) and is an Ambassador for Lululemon Athletica. Prior to teaching yoga, Emily was a family lawyer, specializing in contested child custody cases in Tucson, Arizona.

Emily teaches Jivamukti Yoga which amazingly blends the physical, philosophical and spiritual aspects of Yoga practice.  Jivamukti Yoga was created by Sharon Gannon and David Life in New York in 1984. The name Jivamukti is created by the fusion of two Sanskrit words: jivan, meaning individual soul or person, and mukti, meaning liberated, free.  A jivanmukti is a person who is freed from the constraints of their body and mind…freed from suffering in this lifetime.  Each class emphasizes the importance of practicing with an elevated intention and includes challenging, creative, and safe vinyasa sequences (vinyasa = ordered placement of intention, breath and movement), with modifications for all levels, as well as chanting, meditation, and beautiful (sometimes rocking!) inspiring music. Practitioners leave class feeling invigorated, open, uplifted and strong.

In addition to her studies with Jivamukti Yoga cofounders Sharon Gannon and David Life, Emily is hugely influenced by Lisa Schrempp and Kate Donovan, her teachers in Tucson, Arizona. She also studied vinyasa flow with Shiva Rea in India for two weeks in 2006, and completed teacher training at Laughing Lotus Yoga Center in San Francisco under the guidance of Dana Flynn, Jasmine Tarkeshi and Keith Borden. In 2008 Emily traveled to Mysore, India for a month of study with Saraswati Rangaswamy, daughter of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute. Emily continues to study for several weeks a year with Sharon and David in New York, and to study locally with senior teachers of many lineages.