Meet Jeenal Mehta: The Woman Behind Wise Living Yoga Academy

Ask anyone who has trained at Wise Living Yoga Academy what they remember most, and the answer is rarely a pose. It’s a person, Jeenal Mehta, the founder and lead teacher who has spent nearly two decades teaching yoga the way it was taught to her: as a way of life, not a workout.

Jeenal is the reason Wise Living Yoga Academy’s 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Chiang Mai looks the way it does, residential, traditional, and personally taught rather than outsourced to rotating staff. To understand the training, it helps to understand her.

Yoga Before It Had a Name

Jeenal didn’t discover yoga in a studio. She grew up with it. Born into a traditional Indian family rooted in Bhakti Yoga, she watched yoga woven into the ordinary rhythm of daily life long before she ever stepped onto a mat with intention. For her, yoga was never a separate hour carved out of the day; it was simply how the day was lived, alongside family, food, and faith.

Much of that grounding came from her own family. Her mother, her father, and the elders of her community passed on devotional practice the way it had always been passed down, by example rather than instruction. Pilgrimages and temple visits were simply part of growing up, and gave her a feel for yoga and ritual long before she ever set foot in a classroom.

That early exposure planted something that formal training would later sharpen into a life’s work. By the time she was old enough to choose a path for herself, yoga wasn’t really a choice at all, it was closer to a continuation.

Learning From the Source

In her early twenties, Jeenal studied at The Yoga Institute in Mumbai, widely regarded as the world’s oldest organized yoga institution. Her teachers there included Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra, a Sanskrit and yoga philosophy scholar who held a postgraduate degree in Sankhya and Yoga from the University of Mumbai and later led the Institute as its president for six decades. Under him, she worked through the Yoga Sutras and the deeper philosophical texts in their original Sanskrit rather than in translation. She also trained with Dr. Hansaji Yogendra, Director of the Institute since 1997 and a widely published yoga author and orator, who grounded her in yoga therapy: pairing classical technique with a working knowledge of anatomy and medicine so that postures and breathwork could be prescribed, not just performed.

The Institute itself carries the legacy of its founder, Shri Yogendra, who established it in 1918. He spent his life adapting yoga out of renunciate tradition and into something a working householder could practice without leaving ordinary life behind, the same householder-yoga philosophy Jeenal would later build her own teaching around.

She went on to study under a number of other monks and masters across India, training in three major schools of Indian philosophy: Sankhya, which maps the duality of matter and consciousness, and Advaita Vedanta, which points toward their non-dual unity. She also completed a diploma in Buddhist philosophy and Vipassana Meditation from Mumbai University and the Vipassana Centre, studying under the world-renowned teacher S.N. Goenka. Few yoga teacher trainers outside India get the chance to build a foundation like that. Later, she trained as a Psychotherapist too, studying Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) under practicing doctors alongside coursework in neuroscience, training that now shows up in how she teaches breath and the nervous system, not just posture.

What makes her approach distinctive is as much how she thinks as where she studied. Her academic background spans science and sociology alongside deep Sanskrit knowledge, and she describes her own role as a bridge between the two, translating ideas that often resist translation into something a modern student can actually use without flattening them beyond recognition.

That grounding in original-language scripture is why Wise Living Yoga’s own curriculum makes room for real textual study of the Yoga Sutras, worked through sutra by sutra instead of recited and moved past. Students notice. Read more about what a typical day of training looks like to see how that philosophy plays out hour by hour.

Beyond the Mat: Yoga as Therapy

Jeenal holds Yoga Alliance E-RYT 500 certification, the highest tier of individual teaching credential the organization offers, and trained further as both a Yoga Therapist and a Psychotherapist. That combination shows directly in her teaching. She works with therapeutic yoga for conditions like addiction, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, treating the physical practice and the psychology behind it as inseparable, not as two separate practices run side by side.

It’s also why her classes at Wise Living Yoga lean into neuroscience and emotional intelligence alongside classical asana. For her this isn’t a wellness buzzword; she sees the nervous system and the spirit as part of the same conversation. Students who arrive expecting only physical postures are often surprised by how much of the curriculum deals with the mind: why certain breathing patterns calm the nervous system, why certain postures are used therapeutically, and when a student needs something other than another stretch.

That same therapeutic lens extends to the table. Jeenal is also a vegan educator, and nutrition, plant-based eating, and Ayurveda form a working part of her approach to healing, not separate dietary advice, but another lever for a student’s wellbeing alongside asana and breathwork. See her Google Business Profile

This therapeutic grounding is one of the clearest threads connecting Jeenal’s own training to the school’s reputation today as a serious, Yoga Alliance-certified yoga teacher training in Chiang Mai, not a casual retreat with a certificate attached.

“Not Stunt Moves on a Rubber Mat”

Ask Jeenal what’s gone wrong with modern yoga, and she doesn’t mince words. In her own writing, she’s put it plainly: yoga, she argues, has too often become “just a matter of performing some ‘stunt moves’ on a rubber mat,” postures treated as an end in themselves, stripped of the framework that once made them meaningful.

Her counter to that is the eight-fold path in full: ethical conduct (Yamas and Niyamas), posture (Asana), breath control (Pranayama), sense withdrawal (Pratyahara), concentration (Dharana), meditation (Dhyana), and ultimately absorption (Samadhi). A good teacher training, in her view, has to hold all eight, not cherry-pick the physical layer and call it complete.

That’s the thinking behind why Wise Living Yoga’s own 200-Hour program runs residential, pairs practice with real textual study of the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita, and treats lifestyle, including a plant-based diet, as part of the curriculum, not an afterthought. It’s a big part of why the school describes its own approach as traditional yoga rather than a fitness-studio adaptation of it: the emphasis stays on breath, philosophy, and pacing largely unchanged from how it’s historically been taught, making it what many students call authentic yoga in the fullest sense.

Building Wise Living Yoga, One Country at a Time

Jeenal co-founded Wise Living Yoga Academy around 2010 together with her late husband, Daniel Fonseca, who came to the project from Brazil. In the years that followed, the two of them didn’t simply open one school and stay put. They ran programs across India, Thailand, Bali, and Brazil. The USA, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, and Switzerland followed, carrying the same traditional yoga to students on nearly every continent before they eventually chose to settle permanently in Chiang Mai.

That well-travelled history left Wise Living Yoga with something else: a genuinely global community of former students, spread across those same countries, many of whom stay in touch with Jeenal and each other long after their training ends.

That global chapter matters for a reason beyond biography: it’s part of why the training doesn’t feel like a regional curriculum adapted for tourists. It was tested, refined, and taught across wildly different cultures and student bases long before it found its permanent home.

Daniel passed away at 45. Jeenal has continued leading the academy on her own since, and it shows in how personally she still runs it: she lives at the academy’s Chiang Mai headquarters, teaches the core sessions herself rather than handing them off to rotating staff, and keeps batches small enough that she actually knows where each student is struggling. If you’ve read about the place itself, the gated community, the lake, the villa accommodation, it’s worth knowing Jeenal lives there too, not just teaches there. It’s her home first, and a training ground second.

A Teacher Who Also Feeds You

Jeenal’s interests have never stayed confined to the yogashala. She’s long run Indian vegetarian cooking workshops alongside her yoga teaching, taking dishes like aloo gobi, baingan bharta, and channa masala to students in Brazil, Thailand, and beyond, and eventually wrote it all down in a vegan cookbook, Spices & Love. At Wise Living Yoga, that same instinct shows up in the academy’s plant-based kitchen, which she treats as inseparable from the training itself rather than a side amenity.

It’s a detail that connects directly back to her Yoga Therapist training: diet, for Jeenal, isn’t separate from the physical or philosophical sides of yoga. It’s one more lever for a student’s transformation, alongside asana, pranayama, and meditation.

Over the better part of two decades, she estimates having personally trained well over a thousand students through more than a hundred teacher training courses worldwide. Ask her, though, and she’ll tell you the number that matters isn’t the count, it’s whether each of those students left actually understanding what they were teaching, not just able to perform it.

Why Students Travel Across the World to Train With Her

Charlotte Skogsberg, a long-term student from Sweden, put it simply: Jeenal was “taught directly from the original teachings,” a quality Charlotte singled out as increasingly rare in an era of commercialized yoga. It’s a sentiment echoed by many who train at Wise Living Yoga: that Jeenal isn’t teaching a packaged curriculum; she’s passing on something she herself received, largely unchanged. See more student experiences and testimonials here.

What students consistently describe isn’t a single standout class or technique. It’s the accumulation of small things over 28 days: a teacher who corrects your Sanskrit pronunciation by name, who notices when you’re struggling with a pose for emotional reasons rather than physical ones, and who is simply present, every single day, rather than parachuting in for a keynote session and leaving the rest to assistants.

Why Chiang Mai, Specifically

It’s worth asking why, after running programs on four continents, Jeenal chose to settle permanently in Chiang Mai rather than anywhere else. Part of the answer is practical: Northern Thailand’s Buddhist heritage and Lanna culture align naturally with the philosophical side of the curriculum, and the pace of life there supports the kind of slow, immersive training Jeenal believes in rather than fighting against it. We’ve written separately about why Chiang Mai itself is one of the best places in Thailand to train, but the short version is that it gave Jeenal a place to finally stop touring and start building something permanent.

Training With Jeenal

Today, Jeenal leads the 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training & Retreats in Chiang Mai personally, every single cohort, at the same home in Chiang Mai that doubles as the academy’s headquarters. For students, that means the person whose name is on the certificate is also the person teaching the 6:30 AM practice, leading the philosophy discussion, and correcting your alignment by name, not a brand, a person.

If you’re still deciding whether this particular 200-hour yoga teacher training is right for you, this step-by-step guide to getting certified walks through what to expect before you commit, and a day-in-the-life look at training shows exactly what a weekday under Jeenal’s teaching actually looks like, hour by hour.

Ready to train with someone who was taught directly from the source, rather than a franchised curriculum? Explore the full 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training in Chiang Mai.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Jeenal Mehta?
Jeenal Mehta is the founder and lead teacher of Wise Living Yoga Academy in Chiang Mai, Thailand. She has nearly two decades of teaching experience and holds Yoga Alliance E-RYT 500 certification.

Where did Jeenal train?
She studied at The Yoga Institute in Mumbai, the world’s oldest organized yoga institution, under Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra and Dr. Hansaji Yogendra, and holds additional training in Buddhist philosophy and Vipassana meditation.

Does Jeenal personally teach every training?
Yes. Jeenal leads the core sessions of every 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training cohort herself, rather than rotating instructors in and out, and lives at the academy’s Chiang Mai headquarters year-round.

Is Jeenal only a yoga teacher, or does she teach other things too?
Alongside yoga, she’s a certified Yoga Therapist and Psychotherapist, a vegan educator with a focus on plant-based nutrition and Ayurveda, and she also runs Indian vegetarian cooking workshops and authored a vegan cookbook, Spices & Love.

What makes her teaching style different?
Jeenal teaches the full eight-fold path of classical yoga rather than postures alone, blending traditional philosophy and Sanskrit study with modern understanding of psychology and neuroscience, an approach students often describe as both traditional yoga and genuinely authentic yoga, rather than a fitness-first adaptation of it.

Why did Jeenal settle in Chiang Mai after teaching across so many countries?
After running programs in India, Thailand, Bali, Brazil, the USA, Austria, and Germany, she chose Chiang Mai for its Buddhist heritage, Lanna culture, and pace of life, all of which support the slow, immersive style of training she teaches.

200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Fees & Upcoming Dates

Ready to take the next step? Wise Living Yoga Academy offers upcoming 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training programs in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with all-inclusive options and special early-bird discounts.

Upcoming training dates include:

• October 4 – October 31, 2026
• November 22 – December 19, 2026
• January 3 – January 31, 2027
• February 7 – March 6, 2027
• June 13 – July 12, 2027

Course fees, room options, early-bird discounts, inclusions, and availability may vary by training date.

View Fees, Dates & Course Details

Limited spaces are available, so we recommend checking the latest course details and reserving your place early.