Holiday’s yoga path

Yoga pioneer Holiday Johnson, has been teaching for 45+ years and offers personal instruction for all ages and abilities including weekly classes, monthly Wisdom of Yoga workshops and annual retreats to Hawaii's island of Kauai.

Trained by master teachers from the international yoga community, with a classical Iyengar-style Hatha yoga foundation, Holiday's unique student-based teaching style emphasizes individual need over conforming to systems, and she is known for seeing — and helping her students to see and address-physical and emotional blocks that impair their well-being. Holiday offers insights from her many years of teaching, study, and practicing yoga and meditation, helping to make students more at ease with their lives.

Holiday advocates for her students' success, helping them get the most benefit possible from yoga with the goal of reaching a harmonious balance between spirit, mind, and body. Her fun, energetic approach helps students learn to enjoy all aspects of practice, including the challenges, and encourages a practice that allows each person's inner wisdom to surface so their body may function fully from head to toe.

CENTERING: Meeting Herself through Yoga
At first seeking — as so many of us do — just physical relief, at age thirty Holiday quickly found her whole life so enhanced by yoga practice that she became a passionate advocate, determined to share the gift of yoga with everyone.

EXPANDING: Widening the Path for Others
Through equal parts learning and teaching, Holiday and a small collective of equally committed teachers established a yoga presence in businesses and gyms all around the greater Portland area. Holiday's enthusiasm for sharing yoga led to the expansion of Portland State University's program to hundreds of students, and she boldly initiated classes in private and public community programs, in every new gym in town, and in corporations such as Nike and Mentor Graphics.

When the demand for yoga was too large for the few teachers in Portland, Holiday held the first-ever teacher training in Oregon and helped develop the first standards for yoga certification in Portland. She eventually opened and operated Holiday's Health & Fitness Yoga Center for fifteen years.

EMPOWERING: Reaching Out to Teens
2017 marked the 25th anniversary of Standing on Your Own Two Feet™, the nationally recognized nonprofit program developed by Holiday to serve teens and teachers of teens. Learning to access her own inner wisdom through yoga facilitated powerful healing for Holiday from the challenges of childhood and early motherhood responsibilities while still a teen, and she feels strongly about encouraging and developing the potential of young people — especially adolescent girls — through yoga practice.

The curriculum emphasizes fitness with awareness, personal development, self-esteem, and the importance of life-long health habits. In addition to their own practice, teens learn to teach yoga to peers, so they learn a practical job skill as part of their training.

INTEGRATING: Holiday Practicing at Home & Abroad
Now the busy grandmother of eleven and great grandmother of nine, Holiday has shifted focus from directing an entire yoga center to offering personized yoga training, retreats, and workshops: teaching calsses at Wild Hearts Wellness in NE Portland — all approached with the same vibrant energy and passion today as when she started over 45 years ago.

Says Holiday, "I believe that yoga is an opportunity for us to come together to meet and develop the finest qualities of who we are. I continue to feel blessed to be in the position of sharing the wisdom of yoga with others in my global community."

Honoring the influence and supports of her teachers Larry Hatlett, Angela Farmer, Gisele Fitch, BKS Iyengar and to master teachers from a wide variety of yoga systems.

Testimonials

“As a 70-year old, late-comer to Yoga, I needed some inspiration. Happily, it is Holiday whom I found. She is not only the physical embodiment of the virtues of yoga, but also of its wisdom, and joy. I am grateful for the unexpected gift her classes have become for me.”
—Kelly O.

“As a student of Holiday's for more than 20 years, I can attest to her deep knowledge of the practice, her patient, respectful but challenging instruction style, and her deep respect for the emotional and physical growth of her students.”
—Mark K.