In 1999, I was a sleep-deprived first-time mother, providing child care to a wild herd of toddlers, and I needed to simply be in my own skin. I had the good fortune to wander into a class run by the Iyengar Yoga society in Victoria, B.C. at the local Y; this was before they had their own Iyengar Yoga Centre. I knew I needed to spend uninterrupted time within myself in order to be sane and decent with others around me. I had no idea that a conscientiously-taught, faithfully and humbly-offered yoga practice would bring such change and goodness to me right away. The focus, purposefulness, and soft but continuous awareness of that class were revolutionary for me. The experience of being fully present and absorbed - in one place, at one time, with nowhere else to go and nothing else to do - was transformative. Yoga has been in my life ever since. I became an RYT 200 registered hatha teacher in 2012. My classes are respectful to all people, mindful and care-ful.
I am open about the deeper purposes of hatha yoga - to cultivate a non-harming, honest, flexible, beneficial presence.
I am open about the deeper purposes of hatha yoga - to cultivate a non-harming, honest, flexible, beneficial presence.
My very simple approach to practicing yoga with others comes directly from the relief it has given me over the years. I seek to pass it on with a minimum of fuss.
I pay cross-cultural tribute to the tradition of yoga, the civilization it emerged from on the Indian subcontinent, and the complex ways it's travelled the globe.
This culture and philosophy are not part of my own heritage. In my instruction I share yogic teachings that are appropriate for me to bring forward. I prioritize students' mental, emotional, and physical well being, so meditation and breathing practice are as vital to every class as the shapes and movements we make with our bodies. 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” of moments where we keep moving, as a group, from one pose to another, I weave in substantial instruction, explanation, modifications and options, pauses, and personal attention.
Classes I love to offer:
Gifts from yoga that I work to share:
I enjoy learning as a teacher and a permanent student. Yoga has given me a taste for the liberating, and potentially expansive, experience of knowing that I just don’t know. Know what I mean? When we’re in a position of being soberly aware that we don't have a grip on certainty, we’re in a very truthful place. For me, yoga can be that. As yoga practice absorbs my body and my mind, it releases me from fixed ideas, expectation, and dead-ends... because I don’t know what’s coming next, and I don’t know how it will be. I get to find out.
I teach in community-centre settings, often in drop-in classes. In this kind of space, everyone is welcome in a relaxed, everyday way, and each class contains a broad range of students: the young (babies and up) to elders, the super-strong and the injured, the tight-sinewed and the rubber-bandy, the currently well and the currently ill, the experienced and the brand-new to yoga. With all these divergent and convergent needs every class, we find wonderful ways to practice yoga together.
I pay cross-cultural tribute to the tradition of yoga, the civilization it emerged from on the Indian subcontinent, and the complex ways it's travelled the globe.
This culture and philosophy are not part of my own heritage. In my instruction I share yogic teachings that are appropriate for me to bring forward. I prioritize students' mental, emotional, and physical well being, so meditation and breathing practice are as vital to every class as the shapes and movements we make with our bodies. 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” of moments where we keep moving, as a group, from one pose to another, I weave in substantial instruction, explanation, modifications and options, pauses, and personal attention.
Classes I love to offer:
- yoga & meditation (integrated meditation pauses within the process of poses)
- restorative yoga
- therapeutic yoga for those with injury/illness/trauma history (which is almost all of us at any one moment, and is definitely all of us at some moments)
- yoga for children and youth
- yoga for parents with babes-in-arms
Gifts from yoga that I work to share:
- the healing balm of calm, meditative presence and one-pointed focus. The experience of being at one in attention, body, breath and surroundings offers me an experience of awareness and ease.
- compassion, encouragement and physical and spiritual strengthening to live life in a human body with injuries, limitations, and painful histories
- ways to connect, relax, and play with others in the communities that grow through practicing together
- bodily healing and easing of physical pain
- sudden insights that bring new awarenesses about my life and relationships, right in the middle of the muddle on the mat
- gratitude and humility that come while participating yoga during challenging times. Moving through yoga exercises with others can feel like entering the eye of the storm. One I doesn't forget one's life or dissociate from what’s real, but we can still be offered a gentle, quiet way to be with it all - from a place of concentration, meditation, and kindness.
I enjoy learning as a teacher and a permanent student. Yoga has given me a taste for the liberating, and potentially expansive, experience of knowing that I just don’t know. Know what I mean? When we’re in a position of being soberly aware that we don't have a grip on certainty, we’re in a very truthful place. For me, yoga can be that. As yoga practice absorbs my body and my mind, it releases me from fixed ideas, expectation, and dead-ends... because I don’t know what’s coming next, and I don’t know how it will be. I get to find out.
I teach in community-centre settings, often in drop-in classes. In this kind of space, everyone is welcome in a relaxed, everyday way, and each class contains a broad range of students: the young (babies and up) to elders, the super-strong and the injured, the tight-sinewed and the rubber-bandy, the currently well and the currently ill, the experienced and the brand-new to yoga. With all these divergent and convergent needs every class, we find wonderful ways to practice yoga together.