Yoga goes beyond a physical practice, exploring the connection between our minds, our bodies, and the world around us. Yoga is inspiring, challenging, and humbling. It is all of us and everything. Every body is a yoga body.
My Mission
I help students connect and nurture the mind and body by providing a safe and welcoming space to practice yoga. Fostering acceptance, empathy, and kindness, yoga helps create a strong, healthy sense of self that allows us to be more present and active in our daily lives. By encouraging students to explore mental and physical boundaries all while having fun, I believe that every body is a yoga body.
My Yoga Path
I began practicing yoga on a whim really, as a way to challenge myself to do something outside of my comfort zone. I was driving by Prana Yoga Studio in Denville, New Jersey, and saw a couple walking in with their rolled up mats tucked under their arms. The looked like they really had it together. (I felt like I did not.) So, I went home and ordered a mat online and booked a “True Beginner” class. Considering I had never so much as done a child’s pose, that seemed more than appropriate. But still, despite the classes’ name, I arrived scared to death. I knew no one in the class and I knew nothing about yoga. I wanted to cry, pack up my mat, and go home. But I didn’t. And that made all the difference.
Back then, I hoped yoga would be something I did, and if I was lucky, would help me quell some of the chatter and doubt in my head, and maybe even build a few muscles. I had now idea how it would weave itself into my life, my person, and take hold. Yoga is sticky that way.
Seven years later, I recently completed my Y200 Yoga Teacher Training through that very same studio. I certainly didn’t go to that initial yoga class thinking I wanted to one day teach others yoga. Quite frankly, I didn’t go into teacher training wanting to be a teacher. I was a “corporate Sally,” having worked in the business world, albeit in healthcare, for 20 years. Initially, I was looking to learn more and deepen my own practice. So, I was more surprised than anyone when I realized how much I loved teaching.
Yoga changed me, and continues to do so daily. It cracked open the tough, prickly outer shell I’d built around me and helped me come to love an appreciate my body. It helped me quell the anxiety that had run rampant in my life, controlling my thoughts. And most importantly, it helped me connect my mind and body. I’m stronger mentally and physically because of yoga
Why I Practice
Yoga inspires me, challenges me, and humbles me. It makes me stronger and kinder. It helps me find stillness and ease yet pushes me to find my fire. What I love most is that yoga meets you where you are. As my teacher, the lovely Christy Linson, so often says, being able to do one version of a pose vs. another doesn’t make you a better person. It’s not a mark on your character. Yoga acknowledges who you are, it sees you. And then it smiles and says it’s going to be okay. And some days, when you need it, it says, I’m going to push you today. You can do this. And if it’s messy, or not perfect, that’s okay. It’s all okay. In fact, it’s all just as it should be. That, to me, is yoga at its core.
A Bit More About Me
When I’m not on my mat, I enjoy reading, swimming, crocheting, and cooking (usually with our cat Noodles nearby hoping for a crumb to drop). I’m curious by nature and can go down rabbit holes with the best of them, always wanting to know more. I’m a staunch believer in the Oxford comma and that raisins ruin everything. (Seriously, stop putting them in things.)
I received my Y200 and Y300 certification through Aligned Flow and am grateful to have Christy Linson as my teacher. I approach my practice and my teaching with a beginner’s mind, focusing on proper alignment, building a solid foundation, and challenging students to push their boundaries safely.
