Yoga led me to
meditation in 2011,
and to a meditation
teacher training I did
in 2017. Meditation
changed my yoga
practice and my life.
Q What’s been your journey with yoga?
Q You left a job as an Executive
Producer to run these retreats, and
travel through India. Can you tell us
about that?
A I left the kind of job that no one
leaves. Except me I guess. But I know
my value and I know I can work in
media again if I decide that I want to do
that. What I didn’t know then was what I
could learn and how I could be of
service if I wasn’t dedicated to an office
10-12 hours a day.
My top intention for traveling was to
learn. I had been to India once before,
but only for two weeks. In my mind, if
there was one place to go for an
immersion of learning, it was India. I
went in early 2017 thinking I’d be there
for one month to do one more yoga
teacher training in Kerala. I ended up
staying three months, traveling around
Asia, eventually returning for three
more months in India. I absolutely love
India, its people and the warmth of
Hindu culture. While I did two teacher
trainings and many other short
immersions in India, I learned the most
from the people I connected with. I
learned about love.
A I began my yoga practice 16 years
ago with Ashtanga. I was never athletic
and always a little bit chubby as a child
which added to my awkwardness
around anything physical. I was also
naturally somewhat flexible so yoga
came a little easier for me. I was
encouraged by this and was relieved that
the practice ended with resting - what a
concept!
A year after I started learning, I was
diagnosed with a chronic illness that, in
my flare up, stopped me in my tracks. I
found yoga as one practice I could enjoy
- it brought me peace and happiness.
When I moved to New York City after
college, I lived a pretty stressed lifestyle,
but whenever I got to a yoga class, I
knew that everything would be ok.
I did my first teacher training in New York
City at YogaWorks in 2008. I immersed
myself in trainings including restoratives
and yin, I took workshops and explored
the world of retreats. I made a lot of
friends who also loved yoga.
When I worked as a producer, I would
travel often. There was nothing that
grounded me more than finding a local
studio to drop into practice and
community. Even today as I travel and
transition through my life, I come home
to myself through my yoga.
My favorite yoga practices are bhakti,
hatha and yin. In Los Angeles, I teach
restorative yin, slow flow and workshops
and classes for empowerment, to
support feeling good in the body and in
journeying to a meditative state. I love
sharing pranayama with my students.
There are so many powerful
components to yoga, but breath is wow.
Life begins with an inhale and ends on
the exhale. It’s so simple and profound. It
is a universal truth. Yoga is a practice that
unites us with this breath, with the
precious life within each of us, that
fluctuates and dances a new dance from
moment to moment.
Yoga led me to meditation in 2011, and
to a meditation teacher training I did in
2017. Meditation changed my yoga
practice and my life.
Recently I studied with sound healers
from Mexico and in Nepal too. Using
sound and vibrational healing with yoga
has been game-changing. My journey
with yoga evolves on the daily. At one
point in time I said yoga was something I
did. Today I strive to live my yoga. It
doesn’t mean I’m flowing for 60 minutes
a day, though I have a regular personal
and teaching practice of asana. For me,
living my yoga is how I relate with the
world around me on a moment-to-
moment basis.
March 2019 www.yogicherald.com
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