Yoga Unraveled...

Yoga to me is simply the practice of mindfulness.

 

Main stream yoga has allowed the practice to spread like wild fire and yet, the depth of the practice has quite often been lost. We do that though in our humanity. So modern yoga is more about what clothes to wear and how to perfectly obtain certain poses or what to say to be a "yogi" and much less about the deeper work in which it really began as thousands of years ago. As we watch the "industry of yoga" shift from the pop and hip to the root of its medicine, we are beginning to see how more people are seeking such wholeness within their lives.

And in essence, that is what the practice was really all about to begin with: wholeness.

 

I myself have been dedicated to mindfulness practices since a very young age. When I was four years old, I walked up to my father who was a pastor and asked him how I could speak to god. He simply told me to find a place that felt good and sit down and start the dialogue. I found a tree upon our Michigan property of five acres and sat down with my legs crossed. I felt the sun on my face and the wind in my ears. I began to check in with the infinite source who at that time I called god. That was the first time I connected with myself in a conscious mindful way. I tapped into the ancient wisdoms of our ancestors and knew that I would always do so for the rest of my life. And I did and then because I am human, I didn't.

 

Later, I went on to explore the awareness modalities in dance, movement, athletics, breath and trained in meditation. I found my love for teaching very young, guiding Sunday school classes, then teaching dance in high school and then education on fine dining, wine and service in my 20's. I found meditation in my early 20's while attending graduate school at Naropa University, which later led me to train extensively with Annie Carpenter, creator and founder of SmartFLOW® Yoga. I knew it was in my path this life to share and guide and to be in community. It was through all the explorations that I began to integrate the many hats I was learning to wear to share the lineage of the mindfulness practices to all.

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Yoga is simply another gateway to access the practices of mindfulness in our life. Yoga is the yoking of our selves to move towards our wholeness - it is a connection. I share classes that weave this work into the practice. We will do asana, yes, but we will explore the breath, we will understand the deeper dimensions of what's happening in the narrative and we will allow space to feel the feels. If you are seeking a fast paced (like life) and aggressive class, you will not find that in my offerings. You will find an intuitively crafted, exploration for your human journey. We move slow to feel and to allow space for embracing. As to whether you do so is of course up to you, as it always has been. Here, in the classroom, I am simply the space holder for your healing process to remember your wholeness.

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