I’ve been practicing yoga for over 35 years and began to teach 20 years ago, first in the Kundalini Yoga tradition and later returning to my roots in the Hatha Yoga practice. Both my teaching and my practice began to really bloom after meeting and studying with yoga master and papa bear of yoga, Erich Schiffmann. Under his guidance, I learned to find my own yoga and to make meditation a larger part of my practice. These days, I am enjoying the work of Integrative Anatomy teacher Gil Hedley, who has taught me to hold my models of practice lightly (we all miss some bits and pieces of the puzzle) and to continue to be in awe of this amazing body I call home. I'm also playing with the work of biomechanical scientist, Katy Bowman who makes me laugh while teaching me to, literally, stand on my own two feet! In addition, I spend four days every year immersed in yoga and love at the Ojai Yoga Crib...created and curated by the lovely Kira Ryder. There I reconnect with friends and fellow yogis, soak up the teachings of a variety of teachers and renew myself for the coming year.
The deepest well I drink from is my own personal practice and the interactions with the wonderful people who show up in my classes each week to play.
My teaching encourages self-awareness and compassion. We use the yoga postures as an opportunity for discovery and play rather than goals to be achieved. Working in this way we can begin to rediscover our bodies and understand yoga as the amazing tool for self-awareness, health and healing that it is. I begin all my classes with a short meditation. This allows us to check in with ourselves. What we notice will inform our practice. When we start from this place, the whole class is a mindfulness meditation.
We prime ourselves to notice the moments of ease, of peace, and...to paraphrase poet and philosopher John O’Donahue...to take refuge in our senses, opening up to the small miracles of daily life we usually rush through. I have become a practitioner of what I like to call “slow yoga”.
The deepest well I drink from is my own personal practice and the interactions with the wonderful people who show up in my classes each week to play.
My teaching encourages self-awareness and compassion. We use the yoga postures as an opportunity for discovery and play rather than goals to be achieved. Working in this way we can begin to rediscover our bodies and understand yoga as the amazing tool for self-awareness, health and healing that it is. I begin all my classes with a short meditation. This allows us to check in with ourselves. What we notice will inform our practice. When we start from this place, the whole class is a mindfulness meditation.
We prime ourselves to notice the moments of ease, of peace, and...to paraphrase poet and philosopher John O’Donahue...to take refuge in our senses, opening up to the small miracles of daily life we usually rush through. I have become a practitioner of what I like to call “slow yoga”.
"The only reason for doing it is that you might have the joy of discovery on a day-to-day level.
The only reason for doing it is really that you love doing it."
- Meredith Monk
