Your personal journey towards conscious living.
I have been a practitioner of yoga for over 35 years and have been teaching for almost 20 years. I teach around the fundamental idea in yoga that there is a place in each of us that endures and is unchanging. Our lives are full of ups and downs, of pleasure and pain, of joy and despair. Yoga science is the methodology that empowers us to access that unchanging place of wholeness in the midst of all the change in our lives. My personal journey through yoga has been one of radical self acceptance and self understanding. As someone who dealt with anxiety and self-doubt through much of my teens and 20’s, I have a deep appreciation of just how powerful this practice can be in transforming how we see ourselves and the world around us.
My early experiences with yoga gave me my first experience of true stillness in my body and my mind; of being in a place where my value wasn’t dependent on anything external. The postures and deep breathing were doorways into a feeling of ease that I’d simply never felt before. I will admit that it took quite a while after my first yoga experiences to make the practice a part of my daily life. I tended to go to yoga only when life had become overwhelming and I desperately needed that stillness and ease. When I first began teaching, my self confidence was built around how “hard” my students thought my class was. It wasn’t until I met my teacher, Yogarupa Rod Stryker, when I was 49 that I learned that yoga is more powerful when viewed as medicine rather than just exercise. As I learned to incorporate these teachings into my own voice, I found my students benefited so much more. I am truly humbled to be a vehicle for these teachings that have transformed my own life and those of my students.
As I deepened my own understanding I found that the practices became less like exercise and more like medicine. And this is the true nature of practice. The medicine that yoga delivers is an uncovering of that eternal, unchanging part of us. The part that is unconditioned by the pleasure and pain of life. The part that is pure awareness. The part that only knows effortless joy. We don’t “create” this or “visualize” it. We remember that it simply IS.
In my class we use the postures to challenge the physical body in a way that also trains the nervous system to respond to stress and the challenges of our lives. While practices that purely focus on a physical experience have their own appeal, it’s the practices that give us deeper access to our inner self that are truly powerful. These practices reveal the power of breath and intention to access a field of energy in the body that is always present. Again, it’s an uncovering of the vast universe that lives in each of us. That vast universe is alive in you right at this moment. It is, in fact, you. The ancient practices of tantric yoga employ the methodical use of asana (posture), pranayama (breathwork), mantras and meditation to achieve specific effects. I bring these elements into my classes in a way that is accessible and non-threatening to students of all levels of experience. My classes are challenging in a different way than some typical vinyasa flow classes. But- they are intended to be doorways to the Self. Not an exercise class. The body may be working, but our attention is drawn ever inwards, seeking that deep reserve of stillness, strength and spacious ease. Students will find the format similar to other flow practices, with more of an emphasis on the strength and stability found through holding poses for longer periods of time.
I likewise use my training as an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist to share how our practices balance and enliven the physical and energetic bodies. Drawing on the basic principles of Ayurveda is a way to deepen our connection to the physical world and to our own unique individuality.
I teach with love and respect for the practice and for the lineage of my teacher, Yogarupa Rod Stryker who teaches from an unbroken lineage of Sri Vidya from the Himalayan masters of India. I received my initial teacher certification from YogaFit International and also hold certifications as a Para Yoga Nidra teacher, a Yoga4Cancer teacher, a Holistic Health Coach and Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist.
Discover a practice that makes you
STRONGER CALMER LIGHTER
BALANCED FOCUSED PATIENT
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