Adam Whiting

When it comes down to it, I am a storyteller. These stories have taken their forms through many mediums throughout the years, but they all have one thing in common; a desire to share, celebrate and investigate the beauty inherently present in this human experience. 

My first love was music. I remember listening to my mother’s albums as a kid while imagining that I was the one crafting those songs and translating raw emotion into sound that could bypass the rational mind and land somewhere just behind the heart. I started playing the guitar at the age of twelve and studied for seven years at University of North Carolina School of the Arts where I received my Bachelor of Music degree in guitar performance.  

I brought my guitar with me when I moved to New York City and joined the army of artists fighting to be heard over the roar of the city and each other. I wrote poetry on the stoop of my apartment in Queens. I made music with some of the best musicians I have ever known. I got lost down the side streets following the sounds of bands pouring out of bars and the tags of graffiti artists who threw their portraits upon the walls. I also got lost working in insurance agencies and unloading trucks trying to make my rent. I got lost in a storm of panic attacks and sea of depression that left me paralysed for months. And after searching through doctor’s offices, meditation halls, philosophy books and medicine cabinets, I found myself on a yoga mat. 

Yoga was the scalpel that helped me peel away the seemingly endless layers of anxiety, panic and sadness that had wrapped themselves around my chest. Yoga taught me that underneath those layers was a place that I could access that was quiet, spacious, peaceful and forgiving. It showed me that through movement modalities, stillness practices and self-inquiry work that we are all capable of cultivating a life that is driven by purpose and connection.

I began studying with teachers that I found in local yoga studios, and then I tracked down their teachers and began to walk along the path of yoga that I am still journeying on today. I have been lucky enough to sit with and learn from many of the great contemporary minds of this practice, including Rod Stryker, Maty Ezraty, Annie Carpenter, Jason Crandell, Tiffany Cruikshank, and Dice Iida-Klein. I have studied anatomy with Tom Myers, philosophy and history with Carlos Pomeda, and meditation with Jonni Pollard. I have been sharing what these teachers have transmitted for well over a decade now, teaching throughout the United States, Asia and Australia.