When I turned 30 I felt like my body was broken.  Worn down from years of snowboarding, long boarding, rock climbing, and mountain biking injuries. My initial relationship with yoga was focused solely on mending. This body was not flexible and I felt too self conscious to step into an actual studio but was determined to fix things. Armed with instructional dvds Rodney Yee, Bryan Kest, new age vitriol? Even though my body felt a bit more limber, I resisted…

Vinyasa Power Yoga

When I first started practicing, it was a workout. My mind was all over the place as was my breathing. But unknowingly, with each day, something began to take shape within. After a few years of daily practice, I realized that this had become not just my workout but my daily meditation. Through the physical work, the challenges  I found a deeper settling and began to meditate regularly as well.

I found that even as the body struggles and works hard, the breath and mind can still stay relaxed, steady, responsive, and gentle, rather than reactive and aggressive. This practice connected me to my breath and rooted me to a stillness within myself and within each moment. And this is where from student, I progressed to teacher. I received my RYT 200-Hour Certification and began teaching immediately.

Rocket Yoga

Soon I stumbled upon a local grown ashtanga based practice, born and bred in San Francisco. Rocket Yoga. I found this new perspective invigorating.  Finding balance upside down, right side up, and sideways.

Rocket Yoga is a series of postures based on a modification of the traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Primary, Intermediate, and advanced series. Larry Schultz created the rocket routine for the Grateful Dead in the early 90s. He said “The Rocket is designed to wake up the nervous system… while promoting a spirit of change and freedom in the practice.” Rocket yoga taught me that I could find peace and stillness with my hands on the ground and my feet in the air. Accessible to all levels, the Rocket routines provide modifications to beginners and variations that challenge even the most advanced asana students allowing the benefits to be felt by all. Frequent handstands and arm balances keep the energy levels high and encourage students to connect to their inner power and change their world view. I completed a 50-Hour Rocket Yoga Teacher Training with Asta Yoga.

Teaching

I currently teach at Berkeley Ironworks, Pacific Pipe, and Asta Yoga. I hold space for students to challenge themselves based on what is accessible to them today.

Through practice and a strong foundation we can make the seemingly inaccessible, accessible through our individual practice and dedication. Ultimately, the challenge is to integrate the practice into our lives. I draw my inspiration from the teaching of Larry Schultz and his teacher Pattabhi Jois. Like them, my goal is to quiet the voice of the inner critic and to embolden the voice of the inner teacher already present within each of us.

Once we find the shape in our body, the challenge is to bring the peace there, the breath. The postures, the asanas, are not the goals of our practice. They are the tools. The goal is for each of us to learn to live in our body with broader awareness, skill, and comfort. The goal is to change within then move the change out…

I have led workshops on inversions,  alignment basics, and teacher trainings.  To date I have taught hundreds of classes and thousands of students ranging from classes of 1 to classes of 170. My emphasis is on keeping things simple and focusing on the body breath connection to see where it leads us in our daily life.