Jim began his studies in Yoga, Tantra and Ayurveda in 1997. He was experiencing hip pain and decided to see a friend who was a physical therapist. The therapist told him that tight hamstrings were the cause of his hip pain and Jim decided to take an introductory yoga course. Not only did this solve the hamstring trouble, but he learned that Yoga was concerned with much more than the physical.

For the next three years, Jim bounced around from one yoga studio to the next, until he met Paul Weitz, a teacher at Moksha Yoga Center in Chicago. Two classes a week turned into five classes a week as well as weekend workshops with top teachers from across the U.S. who stopped in at Moksha.

Jim then completed Moksha’s teacher training with Daren Friesen, traveled to Ukraine for a two-month intensive training with master teacher Andrey Lappa and assisted Gabriel Halpern in his therapeutic classes at The Yoga Circle.

In 2002, Jim met his teacher, Rod Stryker. Rod was in Chicago to conduct a 21-day intensive training. Rod’s teaching included everything Jim feels Yoga to be: asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha, kriya, mantra, meditation and elements of Ayurveda. He attended the morning practices and met with Rod one-on-one.

Since then, he completed and now assists in several teacher trainings in Rod’s Para Yoga lineage. Jim is also a popular presenter at conferences, workshops and retreats in the U.S. and abroad and is a co-owner of Tejas Yoga in Chicago.

Website: Tejas Yoga