I’ve been avoiding this post for what, three months? Â Totally avoiding it, because how do you condense a twenty year journey into a single blog post? Â How do you describe an advetnure that has a story in it every day?
I came to Yoga in 1996, in my freshman year of college.  Prior to this first yoga for credit class…let’s just say I was a graceful as a three legged fawn.  I was a focused musician prior to beginning this class and had zero positive body image.  I was taught from a very early age to be ashamed of what I looked like and never to dress to “accentuate” certain body parts.  I wore baggy clothes to hide myself and was embarrassed of what I looked like.  I never played sports and didn’t have an overall positive self image.  Yoga was the first physical activity I was successful at. I loved that I developed my strength, flexibility, balance while reducing stress.  I LOVED that it was not competitive, that I finally didn’t have to prove myself to anybody.  From there, I lost myself in yogic scripture study, because it was a philosophy that I could get behind that wasn’t soaked in religious dogma.
For the next several years I explored every yoga style that I could find, discerning the differences between Kirpalau, Anusara, Bikram, Ashtanga, Kundalini, Yin, and Hatha. Â I think it was 2003, when my new year resolution was to learn a new type of yoga every month. Â It was probably one of the only new year resolutions, I stood fast by, and that was a fun year!
All along I knew I wanted to teach.  I loved this lifestyle and wanted to share it with others.  But for me, I also wanted to teach from a place of true knowledge and understanding.  I wanted to be wise in the yoga tradition and philosophy, so I allowed myself TIME to grow and explore Yoga.  So ten years after beginning this Yoga journey I completed a year long yoga teacher program at the Yoga Life Institute in Malvern PA.  This was an amazing program and experience.  It was a year long focus on yogic lifestyle and philosophy that completely prepared me to be the yoga teacher I wanted to be.  The Institute focuses on yoga for householders, and how to make the yoga traditions a part of your everyday life.  How to use the traditions to alleviate the stressors of our current society.  It teaches what I feel is the traditional yoga, not the acrobatic yoga that has been evolving in the popular yoga scene in the past decade.
After completing this and my undergraduate degree, I headed out west. Â I taught yoga in Denver, while working on Physical Therapy school. Â Denver has a lot of yoga studios and I had fun exploring them along with the Buddhist centers. Â After moving to Salt Lake City I took a few year break from teaching, to focus on my PT career, though I had fun exploring the studios there too, and practicing in the mountains.
After starting my family, I realized it was time to return to sharing my love of yoga with others.  I missed being in the classroom and leading studying in relaxation and asana practice. Now I teach two weekly classes at the Sand Dunes Pool in Hooper, CO.  I teach a traditional haha yoga class in the grass in the Greenhouse and an Aqua Yoga class in the zero entry pool in the Greenhouse.  It’s such grounding experience, practicing in the grass in the middle of winter, and I’m thankful for the students that take time to focus on health and stress reduction on a Saturday morning.
What I love MOST about Yoga is that it really spans the lifespan.  When I was still a teenager, it helped me get in touch with my body.  When I was in my twenties and a heat junkie, I loved practicing next to the heater, and sweating my ass off, to develop strength and manage weight.  While pregnant with both of my babies, Yoga offered me the opportunity to stay in shape and manage stress while carrying those little ones, and also after delivery.  Now teaching two classes a week, it is my ME time.  Even though we’re living in the country, aiming for a simpler life, the days continue to be pleasantly abundant.  I work as a full time orthopedic physical therapist and manage my own business while trying to be a good parent and wife.  My Saturday morning teaching allows me the opportunity to get a great complete workout and a few hours  of peace, while sharing something I love!! I love what yoga has given me over the past two decades, and I’m looking forward to see how the next several decades will unfold, on and off my mat.
Namaste.
I LOVE the New Year celebration. I have amazing New Year memories of being single and living it up from New York City to Florida ,when Phish brought in the new century at Big Cypress on the Seminole Indian Reservation.. All. Night. Long. Those of you who were there, know what I’m talking about. Now that I’m married and a mother of two young kiddos, I’ve barely made it to 10pm the past few years. But I still love the tradition of setting New Year goals.