Ella Isakov, Yoga Editor: Jill Miller, one of my teachers, is the creator of Yoga Tune Up®, a method that prioritizes educating students on what is happening in their body, cultivating intelligence and inquiry into each student’s practice. Her devotion is producing yoga teachers who are knowledgeable in anatomy and biomechanics to help keep students pain-free and mobile in their everyday life. Enjoy the interview, and check out their site for a class near you!
Parvati Magazine: You have been practicing yoga for over 30 years. How has your yoga journey played a part in your evolution, on and off the mat?
Jill Miller: I started practicing yoga at age 11. Yoga gave me a place to self-soothe, introspect and get to know my mind and body. It provides a laboratory for exploration of my motions and emotions.
PMAG: How is Yoga Tune Up® empowering students to be their own healers?
JM: Yoga Tune Up® teaches each person to explore the uniqueness of their body. The modality emphasizes self-study and provides tools that help you to map your anatomy and discover your own body’s blind spots, areas of overuse, underuse or confusion. When students discover their own inner world through movement, self-massage with Roll Model® Balls and emotional connection, they become empowered pioneers of themselves.
PMAG: How is Yoga Tune Up® a transformative practice? How does it help one lead a more active life, with less pain and more vitality?
JM: Yoga Tune Up® encompasses self-care practices of movement and self-massage. Students learn to live better in their body and build the skill of self-treatments for aches and pains. This translates into better movement choices throughout daily life, which ultimately prevents unnecessary injuries from taking root. Your mindset transforms from depending on other people to fix or diagnose you to having the confidence to know how YOU can take care of your own issues.
PMAG: You have taken great risks to listen to your heart and create change within the yoga industry. Some might say “stirring the pot”. What advice do you have for students and teachers to face their fears, take risks and create change for the better in their life or others?
JM: There is no better truth than finding your own. Silencing your instincts and wisdom will create your own internal pain and suffering. Be true to your heart and share it with others. You will find expanded friendships and soul partners. The greatest risk is staying complacent.
Jill Miller is the co-founder of Tune Up Fitness Worldwide, creator of the corrective exercise formats Yoga Tune Up® and The Roll Model® Method. With more than 30 years of study in anatomy and movement, she is a pioneer in forging relevant links between the worlds of fitness, yoga, massage, athletics and pain management. Known as the Teacher’s Teacher, she has trained thousands of movement educators, clinicians, and manual therapists to incorporate her Therapy Ball products into fitness, athletic and medical facility programs internationally. www.yogatuneup.com