Inside the circular confines of Caffè Artigiano, windows offer a clear view of heavy rain testing the limits of storm water drains at the new shopping mall on Sea Island.
Still, sparkling sidewalks are nearly void of shoppers on this dark morning. Anila Lacroix isn’t among those clamouring for Coach clutches, but the Burkeville resident agrees to meet here for chai and politely obliges when pressed on pronunciation.
“It’s Aw-nee-la. But getting people in English to say it that way, it’s almost arrogant,” she says over a recurring roar of bean machines.
Anila is an Indian name, given to her by her yoga teacher Baba Hari Dass a decade ago.
“He gave me Anila. I liked it because it gave me new purpose. I like that in a lot of different cultures. Once you become a better version of who you’re going to be, you get to rename yourself.”
Lacroix, 42, teaches yoga and mentors and trains others at YYoga, Salt Spring Centre of Yoga and Perfect Hearts Yoga in Steveston. She’s also a Lululemon ambassador and known to locals who attend her classes as someone who is authentic. She insists her goal isn’t to be the most popular teacher, but one who has integrity.
“I really enjoy being a service to people,” she said. “Along with my thirst for learning, I want to share, so that I can help other people because my teachers did that for me.”
At her Terra Nova YYoga classes, for example, Lacroix sometimes invites discussion that result in some memorable conversations.
“Everyone gets lifted because we see the curiosity or the willingness to open up a little bit.”
Born in London, England, Lacroix moved to Canada with her family as a young girl. She grew up in North Vancouver in a home where she learned mindfulness and shared in discussions on important life questions. After high school, she travelled — and her experiences were eye-opening.
In Australia for a year, she cycled the scenic Great Ocean Road and opened her senses to all that surrounded her, unlike the people on tour buses unaware of the beauty around them.
“That is a perfect picture of what we all do all the time if we’re not careful. I thought I need to make sure, as much as I can, that I’m always trying to see the abundance,” said the mother of two. “Stop and enjoy whatever it is that you can enjoy.”
Lacroix trained as a yoga teacher under Baba Hari Dass, a now 92-year-old monk from India, who has practised continual silence since 1952. Her first training session at Salt Spring Centre of Yoga was terrifying, but it piqued her curiosity.
“There were people of all different ages at the centre asking really hard-hitting deep questions in a graceful way. They were willingly exposing themselves and being vulnerable in an effort to better themselves.”
Lacroix’s teaching schedule of 20 classes a week and yoga retreats was derailed three years ago when she suffered serious injuries in a vehicle collision. Today, she walks with a cane and continues to seek treatment. She stays active, on advice of doctors, teaching nine classes each week.
Some would-be yogis — as the beginning of a new year produces — are only starting to get active. Lacroix is quick to advise beginners to think beyond the weight of their body, and consider the weight of their mind.
“Physical yoga is what gets everyone into yoga these days, but the deeper yoga is worrying less about losing the physical weight, and paying a lot more attention to losing psychological weight.”
Becoming physically fit is a much more achievable goal for the long term if it’s set by the individual, Lacroix added.
“If it’s something we do because society tells us we have to look like a certain size, it’s going to be really hard to maintain,” she said. “But if it’s from you, you want to feel better in your body, you want to feel better in your mind, you want to breathe better, then it has far more chance of sustaining.”
