My Yoga Journey
I discovered Yoga in college at a time when I really needed a healthy way to deal with the changes inherent in that time of life. When I began practicing regularly, I discovered for the first time ever that my body was strong and resilient and graceful. I began to feel more balanced, more positive, more confident.
Shortly after moving to Wichita, I began training to teach Yoga. I received my 200-hour certification through the Yoga School of Therapeutics in Johnson County, KS and have been teaching since 2007. I trained under Mary Jane Keith, E-RYT-500, who has a passion for Anatomy and taught it at the University level for many years. This greatly informed my practice and my teaching as I developed a strong interest in anatomy and alignment and a desire to help students learn how to challenge themselves while staying safe in their practice. I also have a passion for using yoga as therapy. It's so life-giving to have a tool to offer people when they are in physical or emotional pain and to be able to empower them to use that tool in their own lives to ease their pain.
In August of 2015, I received my 500-hour certification through the Yoga School of Therapeutics in Johnson County, KS, becoming an RYT-500.
Some of my other favorite teachers over the years have been Tiffany Cruikshank, Aadil Palkhivala, & Judith Lasater, each of whom has taught me very different aspects of yoga to bring into my life and my teaching.
Teaching yoga is one of the great joys of my life. It is truly a gift to be able to share something with others that has given me such joy and freedom. One result of my yoga practice has been a confidence in what the body can do – we believe it to be limited in so many ways that it truly is not. Yoga has helped me to trust and have compassion for my body even in the midst of the struggles, remembering that my body is my ally, not my enemy, and that it is strong and capable. I love to see my students develop that same confidence as they realize, sometimes for the first time ever, the grace and strength and beauty of their bodies as they move through the poses.
Yoga brings balance physically, emotionally, and mentally, and I’ve absolutely seen that to be true in my own life. Through the ups and downs of life, I find that if I can just get on my mat, inevitably freedom and light and joy follow. It is amazing to feel it happening! It is so easy to get caught up in the daily grind – the long list of to do's that never ends, and to completely forget about the deeper, more important part of life. Yoga connects me with my heart so that I can live grounded in that deeper place of joy and love and compassion and grace. I love that through teaching I can be a part of this same transformation for others.
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
- Rumi
When I Teach
I hope that people learn that their bodies are strong, powerful and graceful. That their body is their ally, not their enemy. I hope they learn to be at home in their bodies, and to discover that they are powerful - the kind of power that equips them to do the hard things in life with love and kindness - power that is filled with hope. I want them to feel their feet on the earth, grounded down, and their heart opening up, up, up. I hope their hearts open more to love, to this messy life, to joy. And I hope they remember who they are at their core - the physical asanas are a pathway to help them to remember. And then, when they discover this authentic self, they will see that the yoga has equipped them to really live from that place, to show it to the world regardless of what the world might think. I believe that when we all choose to live authentically, when we choose to be exactly who we were made to be and choose to love from that place, we can change the world. I also hope that they find yoga to be a tool they can use when they are in pain, when they are lonely, when they are afraid or sad, when they are stressed or tired. I hope they find that it is a tool that can and will bring them back to themselves every single time.
I want my teaching to help connect people with their bodies, help them feel more present in this moment, more fully alive, more in touch with who they are. Because this moment is really all we have. So let us live it fully.
REad More
Click below to read an article that I wrote for Gaiam TV in 2015 entitled Yoga for a Broken Heart.
“We show up, burn brightly in the moment
Live passionately, hold nothing back
And when that moment is over, And our work is done,
We step back, and let go.”