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Spending Time with Marnie Harfield

Yoga Santosha Blog Spending Time with Marnie Harfield

Spending Time with Candace Cooke

JUNE 30, 2019

Spending Time with Marnie Harfield

To walk into a class with Marnie is to welcome alignment into your being. Body. Breath. Mind. Heart. All of it. Marnie brings a depth of knowledge, both from her trainings and her life, to each of her classes.


With a straight forward approach she integrates this wisdom in her teachings, and gives space to find your truest expression. She shares with an ease that creates a steadiness in your practice. This seemingly magical combination creates a profound rooting and an expansive opening. We are grateful to have her sharing her teachings at both our studio spaces.
Below are some sweet shares about Marnie’s yoga world and personal world. Learn a little more about this insipiring Yogini and meet her on your mat at Yoga Santosha Kensington Tuesdays @12:00 pm (Flow), Thursdays 6:00 pm (Therapeutics), Fridays @4:30 pm (Flow), Sundays at 2:00 pm (Therapeutics) & 4:00 pm (Yang/Yin). You will find her at Yoga Santosha Mission Thursdays @12:00 pm (Flow) & Saturdays @5:45 pm (Therapeutics).


How did you first find yoga? Or how did it first find you?

I started yoga in the early 90’s to help with anxiety. It didn’t really stick- too much toe yoga. I picked it up again in 2003 when my body started to shut down from a combination of long distance running and travelling for work. I bought a book and taught myself- no toe yoga.

When did you understand you wanted to become a yoga teacher?

I don’t know that I ever did. I took a TT to get some cobwebs out, so to speak. The teaching part of the training came easy, likely because I had been teaching for many years by that time. So, I suppose the idea of actually teaching yoga started to percolate at that time.

What Yoga trainings have you taken?

TT 200 & 300. Yin, CAT Level 4, Nidra. Those are the main ones. I have taken random trainings, mostly therapeutic in nature.

Why do you teach yoga?

Teaching suits my energy, which is rewarding. I like people. It’s fun!

How do you prepare for a class?

Mostly, I just start moving on my mat and something usually inspires me- a pose, transition or shape. I plan a practice around that.

Funniest/most embarrassing/challenging/lightest yoga moment?

Oh man, I have those all the time. I am at an age where, thanks to hormones, thoughts just pop out of my head. I love it when I forget the names of body parts and have to ask the class for the name of, let’s say…an elbow. Good times.

What obstacles has yoga helped you to overcome?

I have a long relationship with depression, and yoga has helped with that. From a physical point of view, it has helped me to live relatively pain-free. I was a long distance runner for years, which eventually brought my body to a halt, literally. Yoga helped to get me moving again, but there was still some chronic tension that no amount of physical therapy and/or yoga would help. Then came Critical Alignment and within weeks, I was virtually pain-free.

What advice would you give to your younger self? What words of wisdom would you impart?

Get out of the restaurant industry.

How do you bring your practice off your mat into your daily life?

I try to see the beauty in everything.

Favorite indulgence.

That’s easy- Champagne.

Share something we might not know about you.

I have chronic shingles in one eye. When I first got it (2006), it went undiagnosed for quite a long time, which caused permanent scarring to my cornea. My vision is permanently blurred in that eye.

What does your personal practice look like?

I practice every day, a combination of “regular” yoga and critical alignment. I meditate. I mostly practice at home.

What makes a great day for you?

A day where I have to do absolutely nothing. I always do something, but those days where there are no commitments are great!

Share with us your favorite verse, poem, or song.

This is from a song, “Liontamer”, by Faithless.

“If you place a thing into the centre of your life that lacks the power to nourish
It will eventually poison everything that you are and destroy you
A simple a thing as an idea or your perspective on yourself or the world
No one can be the source of your content, it lies within, in the centre. ”