Zoe Ho brings her exuberant personality to the yoga classroom, taking students through compelling practices with joy, humour, attention to alignment and injury prevention. Her specialties are Hatha yoga (Iyengar orientation), and Yin yoga.
Zoe’s first yoga experience was a podcast discovered while working as a creative director/ photo journalist in Canada’s Western Arctic. Practicing yoga postures by a warm fireplace was blissful and a perfect antidote for work stress, bodily pains, and the frozen – 40º C climate outside.
Yoga is a life-long journey for Zoe, and she believes every stage of development is to be savoured, and that like flowers, our hearts and bodies will bloom and open naturally as we practice. She finds it a great joy and privilledge to help students begin and develop their practice. She tailors classes according to her student’s needs and fitness levels.
The Chai Wallah’s Interview:
What is your favourite type of class to teach?I love teaching yin yoga and hatha yoga equally! It’s good to practice both – a lovely balance of yin (releasing) and yang (strength). I began yoga as a robot (I was VERY stiff), so I also enjoy being able to provide ways for beginners to practice more effectively.
What is your favourite pose? Mmm I’ve so many…Savasana? Haha…actually Pincha Mayurasana (Peacock) is a nice one, it’s an inversion (perspective changing) and opens my shoulders while building overall circulation and arm strength.
What is your least favourite pose and why? I used to be deathly afraid of Kapotasana in a chair (backbend) as my shoulders are so tight, and now I look forward to it because it’s a beautiful pain reliever. I am less and less attached to what poses I like/ dislike – it will continue to change as my practice grows – however poses where my belly wobbles like jello (like Boat pose) are pretty funny to demo – but hey nobody’s perfect.
What keeps bringing you back to your yoga mat? The sense of bliss at the end of a practice, the confidence it builds as I face and overcome challenges on the mat and in meditation, the beautiful philosophies that the practice is based on, the knowledge that practicing allows me to help others…
What is the strangest place you have done a yoga practice/pose? Western Arctic, Canada. We were on a road trip and after many hours of bumping up and down on the dirt roads, unrolling our yoga mats beside a river, with the mountains in the background and birds singing, it was such a treat.
What always makes you laugh? My husband, dog and I make for a silly trio – we laugh a lot together. Technically my dog grins instead of laughs, but it’s the same thing.
What is one of your personal quirks/habits/idiosyncrasies? I am all quirk =) maybe because I am creative? I like to do things differently, each and every time.
What is one thing about you that most people don’t know (until now)? I am actually quite shy – it’s just my curiosity and absurd humour that makes me carried away more often then not, resulting in this enthusiastic, loud little thing that you see.
Zoe graduated from the COMO Shambhala 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training Programme (accredited by Yoga Alliance), and Paul Grilley’s Yin Yoga Teacher Training Program. Zoe has studied under internationally acclaimed yoga teachers Vivienne Spanopoulos (Director, Como Shambhala Singapore), Jason Birch, Emil Wendel, Christoph Kummer, Jacqueline Hargreaves, Samantha Lum, Glenn Ceresoli, Paul and Suzee Grilley, as well as Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman, and is grateful for their continuing guidance on her yoga journey.
