Meet Our Instructors
Tina Helton: is a certified Yoga Instructor, Personal Trainer, and Adjunct Professor of Kinesiology at UCO. She is a graduate of Cornell University, where she studied Eastern and Western Philosophy, Psychology, and Health Sciences. Born and raised in New York City, Tina moved to Oklahoma 1998 to be with her life partner, OU Law Professor Taiawagi Helton. She has been practicing yoga consistently for over ten years and has been instructing yoga for four years.Tina's Style: Tina focuses on anatomical purpose and muscular-skeleton alignment in her teaching style. She is influenced by Ashtanga and Iyengar traditions. She enjoys teaching a strong, slow-moving vinyasa flow in addition to deep-stilling yin yoga, which consists of long-held relaxed floor postures that stretch and stimulate connective tissues in the joints. As a personal trainer, she also incorporates abdominal/core training, weight tools, and isometric strength training through yoga practice. Tina is available for private sessions at your home or at 3rd Street Yoga Studio in addition to her regularly scheduled classes.
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Tina Heton
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Tina Hilbert:
*My qualifications to teach yoga.
Tina Hilbert (Shiva Dasi - a name given to Tina on her spiritual journey) is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 (E-RYT500) with the Yoga Alliance. Tina has studied under Dr. John Charping PhD. and Ms. Betty Larsen (Southern Institute for Yoga Instructors - 1000hours/RYT500: 2004-07), Jaya Devi Sati Bhagavati (Kashi Atlanta – RYT200: Fall 2004), Saul David Ray (White Lotus Foundation; Thai Yoga Certification: Spring 2004), Bikram Choudhury (Bikram’s Yoga College of India : Fall 2000: Recertified 2002/2007), and has attended workshops with Byran Kest, Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, David and Doug Swenson, Beryl Bender Birch, Rodger Cole PhD, Mukunda Stiles, Doug Keller, Eddy Marks, Mary Obendorfer, and Adele Gale. Tina has maintained a full-time teaching schedule for the last 10 years. She teaches group classes, private lessons and on-site classes. She has taught in California, Atlanta, Birmingham, Nashville, and Oklahoma City.
*My journey on the mat.
I began working for Cox Communications when I was 19 years old and moved to Atlanta, GA in 1995 to work at their corporate office. I enjoyed working for Cox, however, as the years went on (10 of them!) I began to wake up and realize that my heart really wasn’t into what I was doing for a living. One day while visiting with a good friend, I expressed to him that I really wanted to do something else with my life but that I just didn’t know what. My friend said, "Well, how about this. What are the two things that you love most in your life?" Wow! Now that was a real good question.
My answer was God and physical fitness. All of my life, the sense of God and a love of physical fitness have been the two things that have gotten me through the good times and the bad. I decided to leave Cox and become a personal trainer and aerobics instructor. I soon learned that was not for me because I felt like I was in the corporate realm again. So I went back to the drawing board and kept searching. I was living in Atlanta and there was a yoga studio very close to my home. It took me several months to get to a yoga class, but I finally got to one! It was in that very first class that I knew exactly what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a yoga teacher. From that point forward I poured myself into the study of yoga.
During my yoga career an old back injury resurfaced. I went to have my back x-rayed and I learned that I had a condition called spondolothesis. Spondolothesis is a common condition of the spine where a vertebra (L4 in my case) slips forward. I thought my career as a yoga teacher was over, however, it was just beginning. I had to learn to slow down and find a new way of teaching. It was during this time of my life that I learned that it was not only okay to ask for help, but that people wanted to help if just asked.
My back muscles became stronger through the practice of Bikram Yoga, yoga classes at Kashi Atlanta, and Vipassana Meditation. Before I knew it, I was practicing like I wasn’t injured! Now I practice yoga to maintain the stability, strength, and flexibility in the muscles supporting my spine and throughout my entire body. I also practice yoga to heal and grow. The human body is made up of physical and mental sheaths that are seen and unseen: my yoga practice helps me to sort through the layers that serve me and peel off the ones that do not. My practice is a day by day opportunity to rediscover myself and my path.
The practice of yoga has deepened my spiritualism and my personal relationship with God. Please do not read religion into that last sentence; yoga is far from being a religion and simply put: yoga is not a religion. I use the word relationship to describe how I feel about the creative sense of unconditional love that I call God. Relationship= association, bond, rapport, connection, or link.
It is through the means of teaching yoga that I am able to be in the company of the two things that I love. I continue to practice and go to workshops because I benefit with all of my being from the yogic path. There is still a great deal for me to learn as a yogi, but I have the rest of my lifetime to peel away the unwanted layers and evolve. I have mended and shed many over the last 10 years and I look forward to the years to come. Yoga has given me such amazing health and well-being that I look forward to the aging process, and now I no longer dread it.
Through my journey, I have been able to travel and meet many gifted wonderful teachers and caring devoted students, and have developed relationships with people that are real and meaningful. Who knows who I’ll meet or where I’ll travel, or the things that will be accomplished or discovered in the future. I only know that I’m looking forward to the ride!
May we all be in fabulous health and happiness, may we find our peace and live it, may we love like we have never been hurt, may kindness be in the words we speak and the steps we take, and may we share our well-being with others!
Namaste and Love to All,
Tina Hilbert
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Kim Ryder:
Kim is a previous yoga studio owner who began work in the fitness industry in 1993. Kim has been teaching yoga since 1997. She holds a Pilates Mat certification. Kim is working on her Physical Therapy degree from Oklahoma University and anticipates receiving her diploma in 2009. Kim says: " my future plans are to work in the physical therapy community. My desire is to educate the therapists on the efficiency and effectiveness of yoga practice. I wish to integrate rehabilitation therapy and yoga and to create courses to educate through continuing education. I am currently coordinating specific yoga programs for specific needs. Yoga is my passion and I am honored to be a part of it's growing popularity. " Kim is also available for private lessons.
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Mary Ann:is a retired college professor who is enjoying her second career as a yoga teacher. She has been practicing Iyengar yoga for many years and teaching since 2004. She believes that yoga is a path that enables us to access our deepest purity, to use our intuition, to trust ourselves implicitly, to be filled with joy and compassion. She is currently working on certification in Samatva Yoga (balance in all aspects of life).
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