Senior Yoga Teacher and Education and Trainings Director at Samahita Retreat

Elonne Stockton started practicing yoga at age 14. As a student at Choate Rosemary Hall preparatory school, she found that practicing 2-3 days a week helped her cope with the stresses of competitive academics and athletics, as well as with the endless challenges of adolescence.

Elonne ran with her high school cross country and track teams, and she continued to run during her first two years of college. Her running coach at Choate, a Buddhist, taught religion and philosophy, and introduced her to meditation and Eastern thought. Even before she meditated regularly, Elonne caught a glimpse of the concentrated mind through the distance running.

At the time, there were no studios or teachers where she lived, so she practiced yoga on her own with books and video tapes. After transferring from Bowdoin College to Columbia University, Elonne began studying at the various studios open around New York at that time – Jivamukti, Integral, Sivananda, etc.

Once she graduated from college in 2001, Elonne concentrated on going deeper into her practice, and she went to the Sivananda Yoga Retreat in the Bahamas on vacation in Fall 2002. While she was at the Bahamas retreat, she decided to take a break from the field of journalism and returned to Sivananda to attend their 200-hour teacher training course, which she completed in January of 2003. She started teaching the morning after she finished the course and has been teaching full-time ever since.

After 2 years of teaching and doing Karma Yoga in the Bahamas, Canada, and India, Elonne spent a year teaching in the United States before moving to Taipei in 2006.

Elonne taught in Taipei for three years, and it was during this time that she met her teachers, Paul Dallghan, O.P. Tiwariji, Richard Freeman, and Mary Taylor. Since then, she has earned the Centered Yoga 1100 hour certificate and has logged in over 5000 contact hours with Paul Dallaghan and O.P. Tiwari combined. She has also attended Richard Freeman’s and Mary Taylor’s month-long teaching intensive in Boulder, Colorado and has attended their advanced intensives, in Thailand, each year since 2007.  The support and guidance of all four teachers enable Elonne to continue to strengthen and develop her connection to the practice.

Elonne has taught asana, pranayama, and meditation in retreats, resorts, ashrams, studios, orphanages, hospitals, and clinics around the world. She especially loves studying Sanskrit, chanting and philosophy. Ever learning and developing, Elonne is excited to help others and share at Samahita Retreat as she continues to further her own studies.