Photo Courtesy Of Ghylian Bell"I live in Harlem, New York City. I moved to New York eight years ago. I was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and raised in NY. The best thing about my hometown is family and we are really close.
My favorite spot in the whole world? Where I live. It's Harlem! It's where I am right now. It's where I travel from. I wanted to travel so I found a job that let me do that. I thought I was going to work with the airlines, but it ended up being a NY model, then on to management for recording artist and song writer Jocelyn Brown in London. We toured throughout Europe and other parts of the world. It was a dream. I was in my early 20's learning all life's lessons. So happy to travel to see the world outside the bubble I was in. To grow from a place unknown. Most of it sounds so easy but it wasn't. Every bit of that process was about creating a way while you had interest at something. Finding out what you were good at, and I was good at people. Being with people connecting with people building family and community.
I moved back to the U.S. and modeled again for the NY fashion scene. I had a daughter and wanted to engage in something with her to keep us bonded. Yoga. My daughter, Taler, was my assistant. She demonstrated the poses to her friends as I taught the class. It was then I knew I wanted to focus on teaching children.
I was 11 years old when my father brought home a Buddha and Quan Yin. I called her my Jade lady. It would be years later when I had my daughter and walked into my first yoga class at Yoga Shambala and saw a huge Buddha. My father would at that point take credit for introducing me to yoga. He didn't know what those images were he just brought them home for me. Then, I went on to study Asthanga Yoga with Eddie Stern for about a year. "
- As told to MFB
23 September, 2017
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