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Nikolji, Nikol Giri, Nicole Jaquis, relativelyLocal, queer yoga teacher, non-binary sadhana guide,

Who is Nikolji? Who is Nikol Giri? Who is Nicole Jaquis? Who is relativelyLocal?

Known on social media as relativelyLocal, known in rural Himalayas as Nikolji, and known among the Juna Akhara as Nikol Giri, American born videshi, Nicole Jaquis is a bilingual (Hindi/English), non-binary, queer, sadhana guide / hatha yoga & meditation teacher, holistic education teacher trainer, curriculum developer and multimedia creatrix living in the Kumaoni Indian Himalayas.

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Documentary Film-making and photography brought Nicole Jaquis to India in December 2000;

where eventually as the search for good characters became the search for good gurus, the lessons got deeper and deeper, and the filmmaker / photographer / writer (myself) got so engrossed in being (present) in the moment, soaking up all the wisdom I could digest, that actually doing sadhana began to take precedence over documenting it.

I’m a recovering media maker / educator, who broke up with America in 2010

to move to India and get my sadhana training as close to source as possible. Basically I’ve been living the life of a renunciate sadhu (yogi) in the Himalayas, who occasionally steps back into the world to check out what everyone else is doing. I prefer to be considered an immigrant rather than an ex-pat. Ex-pat feels loaded with colonial white supremacy undertones, while indicating one moves to a so called third world country (global south) while still only mingling with other white people – which has not been my journey in India (since I left NYC in January 2010).

I have extensive training in Ayurveda, Classical Hatha Yoga, Therapeutic Yoga, Yin Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Classical Kundalini, Trauma Informed Yoga, Sūkṣma Vyāyām, as well as in various philosophies, conducting Vedic fire ceremonies, and mantra japa.

Aside from several Vipassana courses in India and Nepal, most of my real training has been living among traditional yogis, sanyasi within the Śri Panch Daśnām Juna Akhara (the oldest and largest organization of ascetic renunciate yogis) and other Nāth Yogis, where guru / disciple relationships have nothing to do with earning certificates. And thus despite completing over 1000 hours of certificate trainings, I have many issues with the spiritual industrial complex, Yoga Alliance, and how capitalism’s infiltration in an ancient tradition has completely ruined it in the West / Western influenced communities (even here in India).

I take decolonizing yoga very seriously and am trying not to be a snob about it.

My training in mindfulness comes from spending nearly three years living in two different intentional-collaborative-mindful communities in the Himalayas of Uttarakhand (North India), where we not only sat for two hours twice a day, but also maintained a steady practice of breath awareness and self introspection, all the while running a holistic school.

Nicole Jaquis - padmasana - lotus - race brook lodge barn - relativelyLocal relativelyLocal - nicole jaquis - Himalayan Sadhana School - yoga in the modern world - holistic wellness consulting, sadhana guidance, my sadhana story, my yoga journey

How I show up in the world…

  • Sadhak / Sevak / Behind the scenes: Guest Liaison / Curriculum & Web Developer / Teacher at YogAnga Retreat at Sri Santosh Puri Ashram (since 2014).
  • Lead Consultant at relativelyLocal, working within the intersections of wellness, holistic education, spiritual tourism and media production (since 2010).
  • Occasionally I do web and social media for a few ashrams, yoga teachers, holistic learning centers and schools.
  • More recently I began giving holistic education teacher trainings and providing curriculum development support at local primary schools in my area of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand.
  • Once in a while I work as a fixer and translator for international video productions shooting on location in India.
  • I also guide other foreigners through their first journeys in India.
  • Currently I’m in the beginning stages of developing “Himalayan Sadhana School” to conduct transformational retreats in Uttarakhand; combining sadhana guidance, opportunities to do samajh seva within the communities where the retreats will be held, pilgrimage treks to nearby glaciers, indigenous Ayurvedic medicinal plant identification and energetic healing sessions.
  • Otherwise when I’m in my own cottage in a remote Himalayan village, I mostly just do my sadhana, swadhaya and community seva.
  • I hold an informal after school English Study Group for children ages 5-18 at this cottage, which also often includes gardening, asana, meditation and music (Harmonium, Dholak, Guitar and electronic music production in Ableton Live).
  • I also volunteer at a local primary school in my area, as well as at a Residential Holistic Learning Center in the Kedarnath Valley of the Himalayas (Space for Nurturing Creativity).

Focusing on sadhana curriculum development

over the years, while teaching āsana, prāṇāyāma, and śatkarmas, I have produced course guide books for Hatha Yoga Teacher Trainings, Beginner’s Sanskrit, and Ayurveda Intensive courses at YogAnga Retreat at Śri Santosh Puri Ashram in Haridwar, Uttarakhand.

I have also guided Akhand Yoga London’s 200 hour Teacher Training India Immersion Experience at Anand Prakash Ashram in Rishikesh, giving feedback on practicums, hosting Q/As and satsangs, sharing insights regarding authentic yoga lifestyles within ashrams.

Occasionally I work in media production

as a field producer, fixer, Hindi/English translator, or video / sound editor. I have worked on projects for international clients such as Google, Al Jazeera, Screen Media (Norway), etc.

During the Pandemic Lockdown I worked as the virtual assistant

for a globally traveling yoga teacher & transformational retreat facilitator Cat Kabira, handling copy writing for web, social & course books, print & web design, as well as (of course) migrating Cat’s programs to online / virtual.

I mostly exist within the Karma Yoga Economy,

volunteering my time, making my skills and expertise available and put to use among all the communities I connect with. While sometimes I do have opportunities to accept donations, this alternative to capitalistic exchange has supported a very simple sadhu lifestyle in the Himalayas, very much living on the fringe of the so called “world”.

When ever I need grounding, I head to the Himalayas,

to stay in a small cottage (Uma Giri Kutir at Taptkund Mahadev Mandir) in Bageshwar District in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand (40km below Pindari Glacier). Living mostly in solitude, I focus on my own practice, studies and sadhana curriculum development. I also occasionally teach local children and teens: yoga, meditation, English, music and art.

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Social Location of Nikolji, Nikol Giri, Nicole Jaquis

Third Generation American, female bodied, non-binary atma, queer, masculine leaning lesbian, able-bodied, bi-lingual (Hindi – English), white blonde blue eyed twin, born in working class Buffalo, New York, to a Jewish Mother (who raised me) and Catholic Vietnam Vet Father (who went MIA – due to drugs and alcohol – for 11 years of my young life). Raised by single mom on foodstamps and welfare, I started officially working at 15, supporting my self through college and a bit of grad school (before I quit to go to India the first time). I have lived in the slums of wealthy South Florida Suburbs, college dorms in the North Shore wealthy suburbs of Chicago, in shared housing around the campus of Harvard, and 9 years in a few artist community lofts in pre-gentrified neighbourhoods in Brooklyn, NYC. I paid off my student loan by hustling as a bartender, multimedia freelancer and running a community multimedia education centre.
I straddle white / foreign privilege and discrimination. I get away with doing or talking about things most rural Indian women don’t dare to. While I have also had to deal with sexual harassment / misbehaviour from Indian men who carry assumptions and expectations about white women.
Like most white people indoctrinated into American Culture, I grew up with biases I’ve been actively trying to unravel in my adult life (especially after moving to NYC in 2001). A lot of my cultural conditioning has been shed living in India the past 12 years, however I can recognise lingering residue on occasion. Cultivating the witness is integral to my sadhana… the undoing, uncovering, to find the true Self.

I may be the foreigner around here, but I’m not as foreign as most…

Nicole Jaquis, often called Nikolji or Nikol Giri over the years, is relativelyLocal and was feeling like a spiritualAlien dealing with reverse culture shock, when they first returned to the United States in September 2016, after 80 consistent months in India.

Writing about these experiences to a mostly Western audience, their predicament is similar to where they often finds their self in India. Being Bi-lingual (Hindi/English) they instantly become the bridge, as their Indian friends continue to send them to “foreign-explain” all the nuanced etiquettes, when they see a newbie doing something culturally uncool. Because others imagine it may come across softer coming from someone who’s already made that mistake. Let Nikolji save you the trouble.

www.relativelylocal.com - Nikolji, Nikol Giri, Nicole Jaquis trekking in Jhuni 2022

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