Fiona Stang

Ashtangi, Ashtanga Yoga Vancouver ashtangayogavancouver.com

Fiona is one of eight teachers in Canada authorized by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, the founder of the Ashtanga tradition, to teach Ashtanga yoga. Says one of Fiona’s students: “Practising in the morning with Fiona, I often think of these lines from Mary Oliver’s poem ‘Why I Wake Early’: ‘Watch, now, how I start the day / in happiness, in kindness.’”

Fiona, what’s your favourite position? My favourite positions are always changing and many times go from my least favourite to most favourite. When I started yoga I was petrified of inversions. I hated turning my world upside down. After a few years, I beganfacing inversions and I decided that they were OK. And, years later, I love seeing the world from a different perspective. I find that postures that I usually dislike, in turn, become the greatest teachers.

What keeps you on the mat? Yoga helps to set a tone of mindfulness and awareness to my day. It makes me a better mom, friend, wife, and listener. Yoga reminds me to take that one extra breath in every situation. Yoga is the ultimate reminder to listen to our inner self and respect our soul. What a way to start my day. What a gift. For this I am eternally grateful.

What’s your necessary yogini indulgence? Dark chocolate (70 per cent or more), fashion, and time in Whistler.

Naked yoga: inspirational, or icky? Naked yoga is inspirational when it involves my two kids, ages three and two, naked, post-bath, running around, spontaneously doing yoga postures. They may not have years of official yoga training, but their yoga knowledge is innate; they move so organically. They are my role models.

Gloria Latham

Co-owner and director of teacher training, Semperviva semperviva.com

Gloria opened Vancouver’s Semperviva to make yoga accessible to as many people as possible. An ardent advocate of doing yoga in nature, Gloria also leads retreats on the Gulf Islands as well as the Greek Island of Kythira. “Gloria is revolutionizing yoga in Vancouver,” enthuses one of her students, “and bringing it to those who would otherwise avoid it. She’ll change the world!” What first brought you to the mat, Gloria? The stress of my 24/7 schedule. What’s your necessary yogini indulgence? I love to go on yoga binges. I’ll fly into a big city like L.A. or New York and take as many classes as physically possible in 24 hours, and then fly back home to my kids. How can we get our partners to go to yoga with us? Don’t force your partner to do yoga. Do your practice, and as your partner sees the shifts in you, he will get curious and will most likely begin his own journey. So. How has yoga changed in the past 5,000 years? Not sure about that—I wasn’t around 5,000 years ago. What we do know is that when we practise, we feel amazing. Yoga has such a long tradition because clearly it has worked for that amount of time. A word from the wise, to aspiring yoga students everywhere? There is no excuse good enough to not do yoga. If you don’t think you have time, think again. Yoga creates time. It changes your perception of time because it takes the pressure off. You start to experience time in a different way. You start to value every moment, and make every moment count.

Shannon Alyse Cluff

Director, Sanga Yoga Studio sangayoga.ca

Shannon launched her teaching career at age 12, when she started giving ballet classes to children. Now 33, Shannon mentors new yoga teachers, and runs classes and her apprenticeship program from her Dunbar studio. “Like all born teachers,” maintains one of her students, “she cares genuinely for all her students and leaves her ego at the door.”

Shannon, what first brought you to the mat? Good old-fashioned injury and neurosis. What’s still funny to me is that I was doing yoga without understanding that it was going to be my personal therapy. I thought I was doing it just to get in shape, but little by little it was balancing my mind, and old, unhealthy habits began to fall away without a lot of suffering.

What keeps you on the mat? Everything. My students, my teachers, my husband, my mother, this crazy life, and my curiosity about the body and mind.
What’s your necessary yogini indulgence? I am a sucker for great music to teach and practise to. If there is anyone out there making great yoga music, call me!

How can we get our partners to go to yoga with us? Just go—become a superhero and live by example. He will see how amazing you are and possibly catch the yoga vibe. Everyone who does yoga comes to it at their own perfect time. And some people just fall in love with people who do yoga. Both are good.

Naked yoga: inspirational, or icky? You know what? There’s a style of yoga out there for everyone and I’m so happy that there is. You can dress it or undress it any way you want. Sometimes risking being a little icky can be very inspirational.

Sandra Sammartino

Yoga teacher, teacher trainer, and founder of Yoga Outreach sandrasammartinoyoga.com

At 66, Sandra has been teaching yoga for more than 35 years. Through Yoga Outreach, a volunteer organization, she’s also brought yoga to the disenfranchised, including women in prison and the mentally ill. “Sandra’s work is both timeless and visionary,” says one of her students. “She brings in the truth that has always been there, in a way that is simply understood in our modern times.”

Tell us, Sandra, what’s your favourite position? My favourite yoga position is the Shoulderstand. I just love the way it makes me feel. If I’m tired or out-of-sorts, the Shoulderstand brings me back into my body so I feel calm and ready to go. Along with the Shoulderstand go the Fish and the Plough; after that sequence, I’m in heaven.

What first brought you to the mat? In 1971, at the age of 29, my marriage ended and I was a nervous wreck. The doctors recommended Valium, and my mother suggested yoga. After my very first yoga class, I was hooked. I loved the way it made me feel. It took the fear, grief, anger, and disappointment out of my body.

How many Sun Salutations before we reach enlightenment? We can go to the garbage man and get wisdom and we can go the vicar and get garbage; therefore, the ability to stay present in everyday actions is more a matter of where your heart is while practicing Sun Salutations, [rather] than how many you actually do.

Can yoga save the world? Yes, because yoga helps us to be more open and sensitive, and to lead a life that contributes to the health and nourishment of others and the planet on which we all live.

Stacey Toews - Co-founder, Level Ground Trading

levelground.com

Questioning the norm is the norm for Stacey Toews, co-owner of Level Ground Trading, a fair-trade company that imports organically grown coffee beans, naturally dried tropical fruit, and cane sugar.

It was his modus operandi when volunteering with street kids on a remote island in the Philippines, and his credo as an entrepreneur working with farmers in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. It even informed his and his wife’s ideas around creating a family: three of their four children are from Haiti.

“Plan A for us was to adopt,” Stacey explains. “The biggest surprise when I volunteered in Asia was to learn that not all orphans are without family. Their families just couldn’t feed them. Imagine having to let go of your child just because you were born in the wrong place and you were poor.”

For consumers, Stacey encourages us to educate ourselves about green and fair-trade products before we buy. “Consumers need to ask who’s defining ‘fair.’ To us it means face-to-face communication with producers, sustainable farming techniques, awareness about the social impact on communities, and creating a quality product. In the end, people still want a great-tasting cup of coffee.”

Intent on spreading the word, Stacey facilitates dozens of presentations each year on fair-trade practices at schools and community events as Level Ground’s official community ambassador. “Everybody shops,” he reasons. “Our choices matter.”

As father to Ezra, 12, Matthias, 8, Saryn, 5, and nine-month-old Josiah, Stacey hopes his love of pushing boundaries will rub off on his children. “I want my kids to be curious, to take risks, and to never pass up the opportunity to make a difference when they can.”

—Gayle Mavor

Marc Stoiber - Founder, Change

changebiz.com

At the height of an award-winning career as a creative director in advertising, Marc Stoiber just up and left for greener pastures.

“We moved back to Vancouver from Toronto, and we had a baby boy. When you have a child, you start to reassess what you’ve been doing,” Marc says. “I just thought, I’m selling the same old stuff I’ve always sold, and I haven’t bothered to ask the hard question: ‘Why?’” Asking that question motivated Stoiber to make a change. Literally. In 2005, he launched Change, an agency that brands businesses embracing sustainability.

At Change, Marc dresses sustainability up and makes it sexy. “When it started out… sustainability was so hopelessly frumpy and proletariat. I said, ‘Somebody has gotta figure out that what draws people is a beautiful package.’ Because if it ain’t pretty, nobody cares if it’s green.”

These days, sustainability is hot, Change is creating buzz, and Marc has some big ideas for the future. “I plan to make a ton of money, sell to a huge corporation, and then just get a huge speedboat with three turbodiesel engines,” he deadpans.

But seriously, folks: “Actually, we want to stay a boutique brand and play more of an influential role with corporations as they’re moving towards green, moving towards innovation,” he says.

What really gets Marc excited, though, is his son Dexter, 5—and Dexter’s view of the world.
“He reminds me that life can be really fun without getting terribly complicated. He doesn’t give a crap about money or success or anything. He just wants to go play.”

—Jennifer Croll

Dr. Brian Martin, ND - Founder and Owner, EnerChanges

enerchanges.com

With a long list of achievements and degrees, Dr. Brian Martin’s certificates and thank-you notes line his office like wallpaper. But it’s not just the letters after his name that brand him as a pioneer in the fields of integrative and preventative medicine that brand this naturopathic doctor as a pioneer. He also attributes many of his medical revelations to his daughter, Aleah, 13.

“I learned about happiness and love from my daughter. Whenever I think of a concept, I ask her opinion, and she always tells me the truth,” Brian says.

As founder and owner of EnerChanges, North America’s first medically supervised anti-aging, weight-loss, and fitness clinic, Brian is a rarity in the medical world: he combines conventional medicine with naturopathic and anti-aging treatments to enhance health, and prevent and reverse chronic disease.

Brian’s fierce commitment to his patients’ well-being began with his realization that the body and mind are connected—the idea at the forefront of his practice. His catch-cry is: “The body is connected to a head, and the head is connected to a body.”

Father and daughter share a deep connection, too. In fact, Brian often uses Aleah as a yardstick to measure how his patients are doing. “She is the happiest person I know,” he boasts. “[She’s] never worried about the past or the future. She sparkles and radiates love.”

Brian believes that everyone has the power to be happy and healthy if given the right tools—and his is Aleah. “Aleah’s taught me that what I’m doing has meaning, purpose, and impact—for not only my own life, but also for those I care for. I am a better father, husband, doctor, and person because of my daughter.”

—Tara Thorne

Gregor Robertson - MLA, Vancouver-Fairview

gregorbc.ca

When Gregor Robertson looks into the eyes of his children, he doesn’t just see the next generation gazing back, but that of seven generations beyond. It’s a guiding principle from the Iroquois that informs and inspires the father of Johanna and Jinagh, both seventeen, Satchel, 15, and Terra, 13, on decisions both personal and political.

Speaking from the Legislature in Victoria, where he sits as NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview, Gregor reflects on how fatherhood is core to his identity: “Ever since my kids were born, I’ve felt an immense responsibility beyond just providing for them. My responsibility became to steward everything within my reach, and to extend my reach as far as I could, to make the most difference for their future.”

Gregor recently announced his bid for the Vision nomination for mayoral candidate in Vancouver’s upcoming civic election. So what makes him different from the other hopefuls? He’s proven his political chops in Victoria, but has also demonstrated his business acumen as founder of the immensely successful Happy Planet juice company. Gregor attributes the company’s success to adhering to a triple-bottom-line approach— financial, social, and environmental responsibility—a model that Gregor feels can also be applied to politics.

For many people, sustainability is synonymous with the environment; for Gregor, it also incorporates social justice and compassion, including the eradication of homelessness. His vision for Vancouver is to make it the “greenest city in the world,” something he knows that will impact not only his children’s future, but the future of generations to come.

Now that’s a vision worth focusing on.

—Paulina Nelega

Jem Terra

Founder and Owner, inBed Organics

Many mothers worry about their newborns dying from crib death, but most feel they can’t do much to prevent it. Not so for one Vancouver mom. When Jem Terra arrived home six years ago with her first child, she asked herself, “What are we sleeping on?”

“We needed to find a product that would provide a healthy sleep without allergy-causing mould, dust mites, and chemicals such as flame retardants, and that would not support mildew or bacteria,” she recalls.

Now the mother of two healthy, rambunctious boys, Jem is also the “mother” of inBed Organics, a company that provides latex mattresses, pillows made of untreated wool, and 100-per-cent certified organic cotton bedding.

“Our mattresses will last for 20 to 30 years, after which they are entirely biodegradable and can be composted,” she says.

Besides bringing healthy Zs to Lower Mainlanders, Jem had another reason for launching her own company: she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom for Soren (shown upside down) and Pierce , who turn seven and five, respectively, this month. In the beginning, she took them to all her business appointments, and since then, they’ve been with her every step of the journey.

“They are the reason I do this,” she confirms. “They are our future. I really want to teach them about the consequences of our choices.”

The boys are already getting their feet wet—so to speak—in doing good works: both are involved in the Water Project (queenvictoriawaterproject.org) at Soren’s school to raise money to build a well in Tanzania. Meanwhile, inBed Organics donates a portion of its sales to the organization.

“I wanted to set the pace for them in making a difference by respecting our precious water, soil, and living creatures,” Jem says.

—Jeanne Ainslie

Martha Bowen

EO, Latin Organics

Growing up, Martha Bowen had a dream: she wanted to live the traditional life of a married woman that her grandmother had enjoyed in her hometown of Valledupar, Colombia. “I wanted to be like a matrona who, through my social help to people and to society, would set a goal for other women and other people,” Martha says.

But things didn’t turn out the way she planned. After Martha and her husband were kidnapped by guerrillas (and subsequently released), the couple decided to leave Colombia and immigrate to Canada. Ten years later, Martha is now living her dream of being a matrona in Vancouver. In 2005, she created Latin Organics, a fair trade, organic coffee company that sells specialty coffee beans purchased directly from the Arhuaco Indians, who live near her Colombian hometown, and who once traded with her grandfather.

A mother of three (Manuela, 13, Tomas, 10, and Sara, 2), Martha does not separate business and family. “We are a tribe, the five of us; we are working on this together,” she says. The kids accompany Mom to meet clients, carry orders, place labels on the coffee bags, and give their feedback on the bags’ designs.

As a tribute to their involvement, Martha called Latin Organics’ latest blend “Tomasa,” a word she created using the first two letters of each child’s first name. A believer in leading by example, Martha explains that her business allows her to act as a role model for her kids while teaching them a strong work ethic.

“I am setting that example for my children, and with that, they will be able to climb mountains and cross oceans. There will be no limits.”

—Isabelle Groc