I’m so excited to expose this month’s address a yoga instructor in Ponte Vedra Beach, California, design, Mary Lyn Jenkins, and also the champion of Yoga Journal’s 2016 viewer cover competition.

A studio owner with more than 1,000 hours of teaching with Baron Baptiste, Mary Lyn impressed us with her love for and dedication towards the practice—not to say her 
super-lovely temperament at our cover shoot. And she must have fascinated you, also, because 
YJ followers chose her as our winner from among five impressive finalists in an online election. 
Meet Mary Lyn below, and join her for type if you’re previously in her area.

Carin Gorrell: What prompted you to enter our address match?
Mary Lyn Jenkins: I wrapped up YJ’s 21-Day Yoga Challenge and got an email notification regarding the tournament. I didn’t think; I simply entered. A few months later, I was with a few girlfriends at supper, plus they said, “Yoga 
Journal decided you being a topfive customer 
for the address. It’s throughout social networking!” 
I got troubled and excited—and a little sick 
of viewing myself on Facebook.

CG: We had fun with you shooting your cover! What was surprising about the process?
MLJ: I was a set designer in my former life, so being around a camera is my first love—though I usually direct from behind the lens. Still, it felt effortless and was an experience I won’t forget.

CG: You opened Big Fish Power Yoga studio in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, this season, which spring you extended to a minute facility in nearby Nocatee. While you’re hiring educators, what attributes do you search for?
MLJ: I don’t do it alone—this has been my 
lesson with everything! I produced a panel of team instructors to relationship using a solid ethical compass and commitment. Although exemplary teaching is very important, a good work ethic, the capacity to click with others and start to become a team-player, coachability, reliability, humble confidence, and a desire to keep a student are simply as crucial.

CG: You as well as your business execute a large amount of seva work. How come giving back so important?
MLJ: I understand the necessity to take my coaching to populations that can’t ensure it is to classes regularly. My friend Megan Weigel produced oMS Yoga, and we’re in partnership using them to provide free courses to a person with multiple sclerosis. This can be yoga: offering for you or even to people who might have never been achieved.

CG: What can be your favorite present, and just why?
MLJ: I love going upside down! After knowing that I’m going to survive and understanding how to slide with elegance and laughter, receding of Handstand is currently just as much fun as sticking it.

CG: Do you have a concept you reside by?
MLJ: I ask myself each morning: What can I forgive; so what can I accept?