Jillian Pransky’s voice alone is welcoming and kind enough to relax your spirit and set your mind at ease. Just imagine what it must be like to attend one of her yoga class!
Pransky was first exposed to yoga at a young age, when her mother brought her along to an adult yoga class. She was in her early 20’s, however, when Pransky truly began to incorporate yoga in her life.
“I had always been an athlete and a fitness instructor and because I was exposed to meditation and did a lot of journaling and self-reflection, when I came to my first yoga class when I was about 23, it really felt like a coming together ,” said Pransky.
Besides being a fitness teacher, Pranksy was also a collegiate soccer player. Later she had a career in publishing and was busy in the corporate world for 10 years, before she began teaching yoga full time.
“There came a day when I was juggling all of those things…teaching yoga, teaching fitness, having a career, having a social life, and the long story short is I tipped the scales in a really big way,” said Pransky.
Around the same time Pransky was devoted to so many different facets of her life, her family suffered the tragic loss of her 30-year-old sister-in-law, who passed away from asbestos-related mesothelioma.
“Since she and I were very young, and I was in that really questioning time of life, going through that really inspired me and brought an urgency to my need to dedicate my work, my life and my time to something that was really meaningful to me,” said Pransky.
This was a huge turning point for Pransky, and became the beginning of her full-time career as a yoga instructor. Her decision to embrace her vocation and passion was a decision that she did not even really have to think about in the end. It was a moment where all parts of Pransky’s life fell into place, and finally made sense.
“It was like I was really doing what I was meant to do. I’ve lived that magic of when you truly are doing exactly as you should be…and doing it with your whole heart. Things really line up to make it more and more possible.”
Pransky’s incredible journey has led her to becoming an international presenter, the director of Restorative Therapeutic Yoga teacher training for YogaWorks and a founding Director of Bright Spirit Yoga Trainings.
Learn more about her teachings by visiting her website and “Yogalicious” blog, and even practice a bit of yoga yourself by viewing Pransky’s “8 Minute Morning Movement Video.”
Jillian Pransky’s talk for the 2014 TEDxNavesink conference, “Training your mind to play with your heart,” will explore the ways in which Metta mediation can be combined with yoga practices in order to cultivate a transformative quality of friendliness towards ourselves and others