I create yoga classes with people across and between cultures, colours, creeds,
genders and sexualities, sizes, life stages, (dis)abilities, and health situations in mind and in respect.
 I hold practice with justice and equity intent ​and with a commitment to continually learn.

DO NOT ATTEND if you are symptomatic with any communicable disease.
MASKING IS TOTALLY WELCOME but not required. If I change this policy, I will update here.
COVID-19 vaccination not currently required. If this changes, I will update here.

DROP IN CLASSES
North Cowichan Aquatic Centre

Yoga For Humans 
Tuesdays & Thursdays 9 - 10 am
Community-minded hatha yoga, anchored in opening and closing breath work and meditation.
Dynamically tailored to the needs of those who come to practice. 
All levels including beginners welcome.

Joint Wellness
Tuesdays & Thursdays 10:30 - 11:30 am
A mostly seated class enjoyed by people whose bodies have seen a lot of wear and tear through injuries, illness, or just living life.
Changing adventures in movements to build strength, healthy range of motion, balance, fun, and relaxation.
We use chairs, bodyweight, bands and light weights for seated work and optional standing work.

Noon Yoga
Thursdays noon - 1 pm
Yoga with a hybrid twist, challenging whole-body strength, coordination, balance, and good range of motion.
We’ll use weights and resistance bands as well as our bodyweight.


REGISTERED CLASSES
North Cowichan Aquatic Centre

Restorative Yoga
Tuesdays & Thursdays 1:15 - 2:15 pm
Sign up for Tuesdays, for Thursdays, or for both.
Register online:  https://www.reccowichan.ca/
Register by phone: 250.746.7665

Yoga here, now  ::  values and priorities

Yoga in the global north is a complicated and mixed phenomenon.
Its history and contemporary practice carry unresolved problems as well as potential.
I teach from a perspective of commitment to all people's mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual strength.

The challenge of now   ::   let us be truthful
2020's pandemic breakout plus pre-existing and resulting crises have produced an explosion in mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health issues for everyone from children to elders. Many are suffering because of:

- climate emergency and ecological devastation
- systemic, escalating skin pigment-based racism and hate crimes
- ongoing aggressive colonialism and imperialism
- renewed hate-infected nationalisms and fascist resurgences
- reignited organized violent oppression of LGBTQIA2S+ people
- skyrocketing violence against women and girls and organized attacks on their rights
- disregard for those living with disability, illness, and addiction
- commonplace, overt abuse and oppression of those who are fat
 - classism and increasingly punishing income inequality, precarity, poverty, and want
- housing security crisis
- healthcare access crisis
- unaffordable education​ crisis

All signs point to the fact that the pandemic has functioned as the straw that broke the camel’s back, for the sustainability and basic feasibility of a large number of people’s daily work, school, family, and personal lives.

Embodiment and fitness programs have supported and empowered many over the years in some ways, but have also hurt many people. Exercise, lifestyle, and industries have often marginalized, underserved, and undermined BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+ people, women and girls, people with disabilities, fat people, older people, people with illnesses, and people with lower incomes. Current wellness and “spiritual” economies, including yoga and embodied movement, have used a number of assumptions and habits that are destructive, often employing practices that keep out and harm the same people. 

​
The chance we have now   ::   acknowledge, adjust
Some within these industries have stopped to listen and learn in the presence of spikes in harm. Some within these spaces are working to take on board the lessons, and reflect on and address common patterns of injury, oppression, and negligence. I’m one of those people. My aim is to provide healthy activity, social connection, and culture building  to contribute to expanding the usefulness of embodiment work to everyone in our communities.
​

My yoga pathway
In 1999 I was a sleep-deprived mother providing child care to a herd of wild toddlers. I missed simply being in my own skin. I needed to spend uninterrupted time within myself in order to be sane, decent, and productive with others. I had the good fortune to wander into a conscientiously-taught yoga class. I had no idea that a skillfully and humbly-offered yoga practice could bring such palpable change. The focus, purposefulness, and soft but continuous awareness of that class were revolutionary for me. The experience of being fully absorbed and single-minded was helpful. I began teaching much later, in 2012. 

I prioritize the ways that basic yoga practices can support our capacity to show up in non-harming, honest and flexible ways. I pay an outsider's cross-cultural tribute to yoga and the civilization it emerged from on the Indian subcontinent. The culture and philosophy are not part of my own white-bodied anglo settler heritage.  Their adaptation and exploitation by my society has brought misunderstanding and damage as well as benefit. I hold practice with respect for all, and hold spaces with justice and equity intent.

I prioritize students' mental, emotional, and physical well being, so meditation and breathing practice are vital to every class. I am informed every time we meet by the changing needs of the group and individuals within it; the tones of our nervous systems and our capacities to self-sense are my guides.  While my classes often create a super-slow “flow” where we keep moving, as a group, from one position to another, I weave in explanation, modifications and options, pauses, and personal attention.

I teach in a community centre setting, often in drop-in classes.  In this space, everyone is welcome and classes contains a vast range among students: the young (babies and up) to elders, the strong, injured and ill, the tight and the rubber-bandy, the experienced and the brand-new to yoga.  With many divergent needs, we find good ways to practice together.