Submitted by Sylvia Boss
Janet Cochrane has always danced.
Like her mother — who was with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet — she relishes the quietude and cultivation of inner and outer strength which dance offered her — although, she chuckles, she may have particularly needed them, as the first-born daughter after four energetic boys.
However, when injuries began to accumulate in her mid-20s, and especially after the birth of her children, Cochrane was searching for new ways to heal, strengthen and maintain her physical body while continuing to use mind and movement strategies to connect with that precious sense of source energy, or self.
Living in Victoria, she was drawn to the teachings of an influential and well-regarded modern yoga master. Sri B.K.S. Iyengar is associated with the importance of laying a strong foundation in the basic elements of hatha yoga. Where some people just want to come in and do downdog, Cochrane notes, there is something more subtle that enters the room when we devote our attention to how we are standing or where our breath comes from.
While some may consider the basics 'easy,' Cochrane knows — like her grandmother who lived to 106 and whom she did everything to emulate — that some things never go out of style.
“I think most people see yoga as a youth endeavour,” she says. “It’s challenging...the youth-worship in this realm. But when people start to see people as beyond age, and that they're still vital and thriving and energetic, then it becomes a bonus, and a beneficial quality. Then youthfulness becomes wisdom and all the other life experience that comes along with it, that people value. That they begin to value.”
As to the decision to open Purusa Mind + Movement on Cumberland’s main drag in mid-October, it happened organically. Although it had been a dream for a while, Cochrane kept saying, “We’re not ready for this.”
But when the space in the heritage building that they own became available, her husband Alberto Pozzolo, persisted.
The studio boasts an impressive roster of new and familiar local faces teaching a variety of complementary yoga styles. The renovated facility has plenty of natural light and high ceilings. It benefited from a sacred ceremony with a native elder to dedicate the space to its new purpose of helping others attain harmony and health.
Purusa Mind + Movement is located at 2703 Dunsmuir, next to Tarbell’s Deli.
Cochrane regularly updates the studio’s Facebook page, and posts to the Cumberland Yoga Collective.
For more information call (250) 650-4722 or visit www.purusamovement.com.