Meet Koren Paalman | Senior Iyengar Yoga Teacher, Yoga Therapist & Conscious Grieving® Founder

We had the good fortune of connecting with Koren Paalman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Koren, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I started my yoga practice in India in 1991 and have taught yoga since 1995. For most of that time I have worked for other companies to do so. From 1998 until 2008 I taught two yoga classes a day for Los Angeles Unified School District. While I was there I also taught AP Psychology and Health.

My career goal was to teach yoga full time so in 2008 I was able to leave the school district knowing that I had enough studio classes to eek out a living. From 2008 until 2020 I taught fifteen classes a week at six different yoga studios driving from Venice, where I live, all the way down to the South Bay and across town to Larchmont and as far north as Tarzana, as well as everything in between. It was thrilling and exhausting and I was not very well compensated for my vast experience and knowledge of yoga. But I did it because I knew yoga teaching was my calling. More accurately yoga is who I am and how I live my life.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020 both studios I worked for, Yoga Works and The Iyengar Yoga Institute of Los Angeles, closed their physical locations. They moved their classes to Zoom and at this moment I saw an opportunity to start my own business. I immediately put five of my own classes on Zoom., And taught another three for Yoga Works and two more for IYILA. My own classes were accessible through my website www.korenyoga.com and I decided to offer my classes on a sliding scale of $10-$20 a class. I had no idea that I would still be teaching yoga on Zoom three years later, but I saw an opportunity to finally have my own business, and created Koren Yoga.

Now three years later I have seven weekly Koren Yoga classes, ten to fifteen privates a week, most in person but some on Zoom and offer two retreats a year, one in Hawaii and another two hours outside of Los Angeles.

My decision to start Koren Yoga has transformed my life for the better. I don’t have to drive to teach yoga and no longer have to deal with studio infrastructures and changing management. I have more free time and earn more money even while offering a sliding scale. Starting Koren Yoga was the best decision I could have made. And like all business decisions there was an element of luck involved. If it weren’t; for pandemic I wouldn’t have had this opportunity. However, if I hadn’t worked so hard before the pandemic I wouldn’t have had the client base to run the successful business that I have now. Thank you, BKS Iyengar for teaching me so much about the art and science of Iyengar yoga. If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be telling my story here.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
There are two major life events that changed the course of my professional life. The first was that in 2002 BKS Iyengar agreed to work with me in his medical classes, I was born with a DSV and as a result have six wire clamps in my sternum plate. To put it mildly my wired sternum plate was getting in the way of my progress on the path of asana! I was invited back to work with him every other year for a month or two over the course of ten years. His brilliance was not only life changing, for example he increased my breathing capacity by a third in two months, but also inspiring. I learned so much from him about yoga and yoga therapy while my body, breath and mind was being gently and systematically healed and aligned,. It was because of the deep transformation I underwent that I decided to become a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, eventually reaching the Senior level.

The second life event that informed where I am professionally was the devastating and sudden death of my life partner in 2007. . It was due of this experience that I founded Conscious Grieving®, a grief support service that combines yoga with other healing modalities. Conscious Grieving® encourages intense growth and remarkable personal transformation while honoring the loss of a loved one. I offer private consultations and two workshops a year, Spring Forward While Letting Go and Using Yoga to Get Through the Holidays.

Both the path of yoga and the journey of healing from a loss are processes of letting go, My professional callings are aligned beautifully together and I am grateful for what both experiences have brought to me personally and professionally.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I would start by taking them to Venice Beach, first the boardwalk but then right down to the ocean just to sit and talk. We would find a spot to eat either on Abbot Kinney, Venice or Main St, Santa Monica,

One day would be spent at Disneyland people watching, going on rides and admiring the gorgeousness of the park.

We would spend the weekend out in Palm Springs looking a the mid century modern architecture and checking out the vintage and thrift stores out there. One afternoon would be spent soaking in a natural hot springs in Desert Hot Springs close by and another afternoon would be spent hiking in Joshua Tree National Park.

If the moon was full we would drive out the the desert and camp under the full moon.

If there is snow we would go to Mammoth Mountain skiing,

We would also check out some LA museums and catch some live music at the Hollywood Bowl.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I dedicate my story and success to BKS Iyengar and his family as well as to The Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States and Patricia Walden,

Website: www.korenyoga.com

Instagram: @korenpaalman

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