For more information on Mia's yoga world, including CHICAGO MEDMOB, please visit her yoga specific website MiaParkYoga.com.

 

About Mia: Yoga Bio

     

    

 

 

Mia Park is the only certified ParaYoga® Level I instructor in Chicago. She is passionate about sharing the transformative power of yoga and draws on the ParaYoga® lineage to weave together chanting, pranayama (breathing exercises) , asana (poses) and meditation to illuminate the best in each student. ParaYoga® is an authentic lineage of yoga that is as much a spiritual practice as it is physical.

Mia found yoga while teaching cardio kick boxing in 2002 and brings a warm, fun attitude to this ancient science of self evolution. She emphasizes the awareness of breath in yoga. With breath awareness, prana (energy) follows. Mia teaches with a multi-level approach and believes that yoga practices should be catered to the individual with an emphasis on the function of the pose, rather than perfecting its form. Balance is a key element in Mia’s class, whether she’s teaching vigorous, pre-natal or restorative yoga. 

Always athletic, Mia was a competing gymnast and studied kung fu, taekyun and tae kwon do for almost twenty years. Yoga offered her the perfect blend of physical well being with internal peace that Mia needed to balance her active life style of playing in rock bands and professionally acting.  She met her teacher, Yogarupa Rod Stryker, in 2005 and now assists him at teacher trainings.

Mia is a 200 hour Registered Yoga Teacher as well as a 200 hour Certified Yoga Teacher and has completed over 500 hours of yoga teacher training. She is the recipient of the Usha Yoga Foundation Scholarship and is currently training to become nationally certified to teach children's yoga in order to serve families in need through yoga. 

Mia trains extensively and broadly in yoga. She regularly studies in the tantric lineage of Sri Vidya with her main teacher, Rod Stryker, and his teacher, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D. Mia also learns techniques from the Desikchar tradition with Gary Kraftsow and Chase Bossart. In the Iyengar/alignment tradition, Mia studied with Aadil Palkhivala, Gabrielle Halpern and Barbara Benagh. Mia has learned Anusara practices from Geri Bleier and Mitchell Bleier and learns Ayurveda from James Tennant, Dr. Ed Danaher and has studied with the great Dr. Robert Svoboda. Nicholai Bachman is another Ayureda teacher she studies with and learns sanskrit from. She's learned when to apply appropriate force in yoga from Ana Forrest, when to soften and think from Swami Shankardev, when to be strong and laugh from Dharma Mittra and Mark Whitwell, and when to trust herself from her number one teacher, her highest self.

Mia currently teaches in Chicago yoga studios and athletic clubs. She teaches to private clients and volunteer instructs at a domestic violence shelter for women and in a women's prison. She loved teaching in Chicago Public Schools and taught workshops in New York City and Melbourne, Australia. Mia is also a brand ambassador for Manduka and Three Minute Egg yoga products. 

To read about Mia's acting, MC, and music careers, please see MiaPark.com. Sign up for Mia's Bright and Beautiful Newsletter to receive monthly updates on her yoga workshops and classes.

 

I am on the cover of the January/February issue of YogaChicago Magazine as featured teacher and my interview with my teacher, Rod Stryker is also in this issue. I'm so grateful for this. It's a lot of fun!