Meet Amani Eke

Amani has had a yoga practice spanning 15 years and has been teaching adults, children and teens for the last 9 years. In addition to her smai Tawi Egyptian yoga certification, she has trained to teach Hatha yoga, teen yoga, children’s yoga, mindfulness, meditation and breathwork. She focuses on bringing wellness practices to under-served and under-represented communities. 

Join Amani for a special class on Egyptian Yoga, find out more and sign up here: https://www.yogamatters.com/pages/community-yoga-classes-2023

How did your yoga journey begin and what inspired you to become a yoga teacher? 

I had already started to change my ways of living and was really looking after my well-being. I started to become more interested in other holistic ways of living. I was already going to yoga class regularly and had been doing so for many years. An opportunity to get a certification in Smai Tawi Egyptian Yoga came up. The training was for 5 months, and initially I took the opportunity just to learn and understand more about this practice. It wasn’t until I had completed my training when I decided that I would like to actually teach others. I was more interested in teaching yoga to young people because at the time I was teaching in a secondary school. This is the reason why I decided to train to teach teens.

What inspired you to specialize in your practice?

I was doing a lot of reading and research on black history and ancient black cultures. I came across quite a few bits of information about “yoga” practices in west Africa and Ancient Egypt. The practices were obviously not know as Yoga, but they definitely had similarities. I began to try and find out more information and came across someone in London who was teaching Kemetic Yoga (similar to Smai Tawi, Kemet is one of the ancient names of Egypt). This is when my practice began, back in 2008/2009. 

How have you seen yoga benefit your students?

I have been teaching the few regular weekly classes that I have for the last 3 years or more. Some of my students have been coming since then. It’s great to see their progress and how they have stayed committed to a regular practice. I teach classes in communities and have students of all levels, abilities and ages. I have had some students start with chairs for support and now no longer need to use them due to their progress. Physical benefits like that are always good to see.

What is your favorite quote or life motto?

Life becomes a lot easier when you let go of expectations and live in the present moment.

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