Submitted by Yoga Northwest
Ingela Abbott, owner of Yoga Northwest in Bellingham celebrated 35 years of teaching yoga around Bellingham this week.
Before Abbott opened her first studio in the Fairhaven neighborhood, she offered 12 classes weekly at locations ranging from WWU and NW Physical Therapy to Lairmont Manor and the county jail. The original Yoga Northwest, opened in 1987 at the intersection of Harris and 10th Street, was originally a Yugoslavian dance hall and drew around 75 yoga students a week in the early days. The current Yoga Northwest studio, opened in 2008 in the McKenzie Square Building overlooking the Padden Creek greenbelt, attracts about 400 students a week.
Abbott says, “Since I started teaching yoga in 1980, close to 10,000 people have learned to do the dog pose, stand up straight, and breathe deeply. Every class is a fun adventure, seeing how I can take my students on a journey of discovery into their own hidden abilities and full potential. I love helping them be the best they can be and open up to life mindfully, joyfully and soulfully.
A native of Sweden, Abbott found her way to Bellingham after traveling extensively, including a trip through the Sahara desert, a train ride across Russia on the Trans Siberian Railway, and several years in Japan, where she taught English and studied Japanese pottery. Abbott also went to Pune, India, to study with B.K.S. Iyengar, whose style of yoga she and the 10 other instructors at Yoga Northwest teach.
Of that first trip to India, Abbott recalls, “I studied at the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune for two months, taking classes and practicing privately together with Mr. Iyengar for six hours a day. I feel very grateful that I had the opportunity to study with a master back in the ‘70s, when the classes were small and intimate and before he was world famous. It was a transforming experience and sparked in me a desire to embrace the practice of yoga for life and to share the gift of yoga with others.” Since that initial visit, Abbott has been back to India six times. In 2005 she passed the 6th level of Iyengar Yoga certification, a teaching credential held by only two teachers in the Northwest.
One of Abbott’s first students in Bellingham, Constance Drake, is now a teacher at Yoga Northwest. Drake, other teachers, and long-time students will be present to celebrate Abbott’s successful milestone.
On May 24 Ingela will celebrate her 65 birthday by participating in her 25th Ski to Sea race with yogic power. This year due to no snow she will do the alpine run instead of cross country skiing.
Yoga Northwest has been voted Best Yoga in Bellingham for eight years in a row. As the popularity of yoga has increased and new yoga centers have opened in town, Yoga Northwest continues to draw enthusiastic students with its quality instruction and the most highly trained and certified yoga teachers in the state.
