Styles of Classes: YHot
Training Certifications: 500 hour hatha training from Vancouver Island 2003, Thai Massage Certificate from Thailand 2008, 80 hour Y hot training 2010, and over 10 years of practicing hot yoga, average 2000 hot classes from Bikram's, Moksha, to Y hot
What can students expect from your class? Expect a challenging class with a lot of specific physical alignment cues and hard work, from a place of compassion and respect for each person's personal journey and limitations. Each class, however many times we meet our mat, is different and unique, even in a similar sequence of postures such as Y hot. I value persistence and patience, courage and playfulness, reaching for limits and honoring the body's subtle messages of when to back off or play at a different edge than what is visually "the full extent". Your yoga is yours and yoga is for your body, never against it, and so understanding these awesome balances has been an important part of my journey, and healing injuries, which I hope to share through the hot experience. A sense of community is also very important to me.
Why Yoga? I started Iyengar yoga when I was sixteen and loved how de-stressed and relaxed it made me feel. I found hot yoga a couple of years later and was immediately hooked! I love the detox, the challenge, the physiological benefits, the internal process, the deliberate sequence of particular standing postures to spinal strengthening and floor sequence and the absolute dissolving of unwanted toxins, whether spiritual, emotional or physical, from the body, through your breath, your asana practice and of course, your sweat!! The intimate and beautiful relationship that yoga helps you cultivate with yourself is so immeasurable and strong, I believe it's only really understandable through experience. But there are many types of yoga outside of physical practice, it's just that physical asana is sometimes said to be the most direct route, the most accessible. All types of yoga relate to and compliment each other and it's so amazing!! If you just breathe, you feel so much better...
Inspirations: Everything inspires me: falling down to get back up, a loving friend, my students' amazing discipline and encouragement, yin music, yang music, reaching new limits, climbing to the top of a mountain and seeing how beautiful it all is from there, seeing other people reach their potential, watching snow fall, jnana through reading and attaining knowledge, wanting to be healthy and give to others through my work, many of the teachers whom I've had along my way through school, yoga, music... I look forward to more yoga teacher trainings, retreats, teaching people from all walks of life, especially youth, and sharing one of the most amazing, transformational practices in the world!!!
Affiliated Centers: Richmond
