Irina Novikova (SolarYou Yoga)

During her time working in the corporate world Irina discovered and embraced the transformative benefits of a committed yoga practice. Irina spent countless hours working at a desk and during that time found that yoga helped bring the benefits of movement and health into her life. Because of this she knows what it means not to be able to reach your toes or come up to into wheel pose; She understands what it is like to suffer from low back pain and tight hamstrings. Posture, alignment, and joint safety, along with hea-ling breath are her primary focus. Irina grew up overseas and lived in 4 countries. She always loved dancing but had to follow a different path to help provide for her family. Her passion for movement never diminished, however, and over time she noticed that she was silently repeating yoga teachers’ instructions to herself in class and picturing herself being a teacher. At the age of 33 she left the software industry to become a yoga teacher. Irina loves seeing her students grow! She offers different levels of poses in her classes so everyone has something to work on. She challenges her students to look inward to discover the best parts of their personality and shine them out to the world. Irina has trained extensively with numerous teachers in countless styles of yoga in order to bring the very best quality yoga to her students. She is a Yoga Alliance certified 200E-RYT, 500-RYT, RPYT Instructor with additional Yin, Restorative and Prenatal Teacher certifications taught by leading yoga teachers in the west coast like Ali Valdez, Lisa Black, Jodi Boone, and Colette Crawford. Irina is also a 300hr Certified Baptiste Lead Instructor and she brings additional depth to her classes from Ana Forrest Advanced Teacher Certification. In 2018 Irina completed teacher training with the world-renowned yoga master Andrey Lappa and dedicated her heart to his system of Universal Yoga. At this moment Irina became inspired to offer this practice to the Eastside community. In 2019 just two months prior to giving birth to her son, Irina rented a wonderful space that was built into a yoga studio called SolarYou Yoga. Irina’s yoga practice, both personally and when teaching her classes, is inspired by the Universal Yoga system, which utilizes balance on all levels to help the practitioner to become conscious of and liberated from the constant patterning of the mind. Irina believes that personal evolution is not only about changes within yourself but also necessary to help build and grow our surrounding environment. Now Irina is aiming to share the art of yoga and healthy lifestyle with the Seattle and Eastside communities!