Meet Mary Johnston-Coursey | Yoga & Meditation Instructor, Dancer/Choreographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mary Johnston-Coursey and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mary, what do you attribute your success to?
I would say that I have a hunger to learn and to grow. This has led me to challenge myself personally, and to continually seek out greater learning. This commitment to growth within myself has created its own momentum in growing my community of students and clients.

I feel it is crucial to have a dual approach to learning. First, by studying with people who are beyond me in their knowledge and experience, I can aspire to that higher level of experience. Second, by putting what I learn to the test of practice, I embody the knowledge, which then becomes wisdom. Only after embodying it can I effectively turn around and share that wisdom with my students and clients. I think this is huge. Facts are just facts. Intellectual learning is knowledge only, but the application of knowledge is where the juice is. Then people see that you have something to offer beyond what can be found in a book.

Let me offer some examples.

Early in my career as a choreographer, I noticed that it was easy to fall into repetitive and self-indulgent habits – I felt stuck in my own body. So I determined that at the start of each new dance piece, I would begin by giving myself a problem to solve that I had never worked with before. In one instance, I created a dance based on the idea of light, and I collaborated with a lighting designer to elicit his understanding of light, to help me generate the concepts behind the movements. A whole new and exciting vocabulary of movement emerged from that collaboration. It was tremendously freeing, and became a turning point for me in my own artistic process.

Years later as I was completing my dance career and settling into the teaching of yoga, I again found myself settled into a static situation. I had became very content with my small weekly yoga classes, and told myself that was enough. I was retiring from dance after all, and my kids were heading into grade school, so it must be time to slow down. Little did I know!

During that time I periodically took a yoga workshop, and at one of those workshops Rod Stryker was talking about how unhappy we all were. I was quite provoked by what he had said. I didn’t get it. I felt myself to be very happy and fulfilled. But the practice he had offered that day led me to experience some things within my meditation that I did not know were possible. I was intrigued. Eventually I realized I just had to study with him, and once I started, I could not get enough. This was a period of intense study personally, and exciting growth professionally.

I realized then that my contentment had been holding me back – contentment had become an excuse to avoid the challenge! So I pushed myself in training after training into new territory. As my own personal practice grew, so did my community of students. There were times when I hesitated to take the next training due to the financial burden, but I found that the more I learned, the more I had to offer my students. Ultimately, the trainings paid for themselves.

What I have learned is that my own thriving becomes a magnet that draws others to me and my work. So my commitment is first and foremost to myself – keep learning, keep growing – then I can share that wealth with my community.

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.
From a very early age I’ve found my joy in creativity. I sang every day. I played The Dying Swan ballet over and over on the record and made up dances in the living room. In high school I studied ballet and sketched faces, and in college I discovered modern dance and learned to throw pottery. Whenever I was absorbed in a creative process, I felt fully alive, and yet the final moment was fleeting. I eventually realized that what drew me in was the creative process itself, built around infinite and surprising moments of formation, rather than a final product. Living in the twists and turns of purposeful change – like watching a flower unfold – that was where the joy lived.

I was bursting to grow in a hundred directions and explore the unknown. At the same time, I found myself facing fear and self-doubt that threatened to hold me back. Then something in me clicked. The fear is pointing the way! By the time I was a young adult, I began to actively seek out my fears, using them as a guide to where I should head next – doorways to the unknown. So as soon as I recognized my fear of becoming a professional dancer, I applied to graduate school in dance.

Four years and an MFA later, I quit a lucrative job teaching dance at a University and told my husband I thought we should move to Chicago because ‘a voice in my head told me so’. The first miracle was that I so clearly heard that voice. The second miracle was that my husband said yes – giving up his wonderful job with no discussion at all. The third miracle was the next three years; I blossomed in Chicago in a thousand ways. My mantra had become “Go into the heart of your fear. That is where the juice of life is. That is where you will find your joy.” I was not wrong. Ever since then, it has been a wild and joyful ride!

In Chicago I perfected my daily practice of tuning in to an inner guide. Instead of looking around me and trying to mimic what I saw artistically, frantically living out someone else’s dream, I spent time every day getting quiet. I separated myself from my own stresses, mental chatter, and the distractions of the world. Turning inward, I invited a flow of guidance. Later in the day, images would arise in my mind during rehearsal that clearly were coming not from me but through me – wild images that seemed just too risky and ‘out there’ to take seriously. But once I received an image, I always took it seriously. I trusted and took the leap, and those craziest of images always led to the most profound moments and breakthroughs. This is called ‘being in the flow’.

Now years later, I have further developed and refined that daily practice in my work as a yoga and meditation teacher and dharma coach. I’ve learned that in order to hear guidance we have to dissolve our attachment to our own identity; we literally must lose ourselves if we are to access the creative flow that rises out of a larger truth. As we let go of our ego attachments and surrender to this current of guidance, we tap into a larger consciousness. Along the way we grow in fearlessness, and learn to trust that our life has a purpose beyond the personal – one that serves the greater community. We become a part of creating something bigger than ourselves, and our very life becomes a work of art. Ta da!

Dance had been for me an outward expression of the life force flowing through me, proclaiming my joy in being alive. Now meditation offers me an inward expression of that same very life force – equally beautiful, more subtle, more profound. Teaching and guiding people on their path has become my palette. I empty myself every morning so I can be free of my self-interest and available as a channel – this is my preparation and my commitment. Then I lead a yoga or meditation class, a workshop, or a private session, and if magic happens, I know I’ve succeeded in getting out of my own way!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Day 1 Hiking up city creek canyon along the river or on a trail above the road, lunch at Cucina’s deli in the Avenues (great place to pick up picnic food for longer day up in the mountains), check out the Temple Square and the Mormon Tabernacle, shopping at Utah Artist’s Hands – local artists, evening gallery stroll (Fridays) walking between various art galleries downtown, dinner at Oasis cafe – try their creme brûlée, browse in the golden braid bookstore adjacent to the restaurant.

Day 2 Natural History Museum (dinosaurs, plus amazing architecture) and/or Red Butte Gardens Arboretum – you can spend all day with a picnic, take a tour, or just wander through gorgeous gardens with a picnic, then Tulie cafe on 15th and 15th for lunch or afternoon coffee/tea (best bakery in town), then browsing across the street at King’s English bookstore, dinner at Skewered Thai cafe on 7th East

Day 3 yoga at Lila Studio in Sugarhouse, lunch at Aubergine or any of numerous options, then shopping options, at Home Again thrift, the village vintage interiors, Patagonia outlet, Sundance catalogue outlet. Afternoon coffee/tea at Tea Zaanti or Sugarhouse Coffee, then walk along the creek – bird sanctuary off 15th east and 10th-11th south, dinner at the new Italian place on 15th and 15th, I heard it’s wonderful but can’t find the name.

Day 4 drive up Millcreek Canyon to picnic at Church fork picnic area, with multiple hiking options, OR for an all-day hike drive up big cottonwood canyon to red pine trail head for a 5-6 hour hike to alpine lakes, or in between drive to the top of Millcreek road and hike to dog lake – 3 hours round trip. Dinner at Laziz middle eastern food

Day 5 Saturday am farmer’s market for goodies, local artist’s ware, music, lunch at the market, head indoors to a movie or planetarium at the gateway shopping center downtown, dinner at Kathmandu’s Indian and Nepali food on 700 east.

Day 6 drive up to Snowbird ski resort – take the tram or hike up the mountain, then hike down – gorgeous great views, bring a picnic, restaurants available for dinner, summertime music and other events

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d like to recognize my dear friend and collaborator Ann Boyd – theater director, drama teacher, dancer, artist. We have played and grown together through the creative process for many years. She is my muse and my soul mate.

Website: maryjohnstoncoursey.com

Instagram: maryjohnstoncoursey

Facebook: MaryJohnstonCourseyYoga

Image Credits
Rosalind Newmark