Angela Slomke embraces a nomadic life—the Thunder Bay resident has worked across Canada and travelled to six continents and 29 countries—including India, Nepal, Ecuador, Peru, Bali, and Mexico.
Growing up, she was an outdoorsy kid who loved to go hunting with her dad and who had a passion for plants. This affinity for nature led her to study forestry at Lakehead before switching to biology and earning an Honours Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Biology. After graduating in 1994, Angela spent two years as a technician at the Centre for Northern Forest Ecosystem Research in Thunder Bay.
"It was my favourite job," Angela says. "I studied mosses and liverworts at an experimental lakes area near Atikokan."
Angela next worked as a forest and silviculture technician in Kapuskasing, Ontario, supervising tree planting and tree-thinning projects for Abitibi Forest Products before her sense of adventure spurred her to become a construction inspector with TransCanada Pipelines. In this role, she worked to lessen the impact of pipeline construction on birds, fish, plants, and agricultural land.
"I was one of only four female inspectors compared to 200 men," Angela says.
She eventually left TransCanada to become a fisheries biologist in Edmonton—and then Calgary—with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. For 11 years, Angela did environmental assessments of proposed construction projects such as bridges, culverts, and roads.
It was in Edmonton that Angela took her first yoga class.
"I started with an intense Ashtanga yoga practice that's the polar opposite of what I teach now," she says. "My aim is to guide people towards a connection with self and away from the often Western idea of yoga that revolves around comparison to others."
Angela (HBSc'92/MSc'94) teaches Tantra, Yin, and restorative yoga. In addition, she's begun teaching trauma-informed yoga. "There's been a lot of emotional dysregulation, anxiety, and depression since COVID," Angela says, "and it's not uncommon for people to cry in my classes. They feel embarrassed, but I say, "That's great, we've been able to release something.'" Angela also learned to make ceremonial medicinal cacao in Ecuador and Mexico, and now offers raw chocolate-making workshops. "I teach people to create healthy chocolate and to use herbs and high-nutrition foods like blueberries and mushrooms."
Things were ticking along smoothly for Angela when she developed a chronic health condition and had to be medically retired from Fisheries and Oceans.
"It was like what do I do now?" Angela says.
She gravitated to restorative yoga to alleviate her health problems and then, 10 years ago, made the decision to return to Thunder Bay where she began taking yoga classes at the Bodymind Centre. One day, Erin, the owner of Bodymind, asked Angela if she'd fill in as the instructor for a Yin yoga class—a more meditative type of yoga in which postures are held for 3-5 minutes to target the connective tissue.
"I said, 'You know I'm not a yoga teacher,' and Erin said, 'I know, but you will be.'"
The experience led Angela to sign up for a 50 -hour Yin yoga training in Vancouver.
"Once I started training, it became a bit of an addiction. I went to India for a 500-hour yoga training in Rishikesh, India, in the foothills of the Himalayas. It has this deep spirituality and stillness, but on the surface, it's chaos—there's rickshaws, monkeys, and cows everywhere."
Now, Angela spends two to four months every winter at yoga retreats and trainings around the world.
"Aside from yoga being physically good for us, it really brings us to that place of deep connection within our ourselves. My favourite class is the Yin and meditation one I teach every Friday. Magic happens in that class. We create a collective peace."
Enjoy this Tantra yoga class with Angela to bring some peace and focus to your day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfFUUNxZ6WY