Yoga

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MY YOGA JOURNEY

At the age of 19, while in college in Athens, Ga, I survived a near death car accident that left me physically in need of repair. I suffered from a broken pelvis, a ruptured spleen, fluid loss in two of my cervical vertebrae, among other things. I was in a lot of pain, especially in my neck and left shoulder.

A friend of mine had recently returned from India and was teaching Therapeutic Hatha Yoga in her herbal shop in Athens and I began practicing a few times a week. At this time I was studying Religion and Philosophy at The University of Georgia and my focus was leaning more towards Eastern Traditions. That year I enrolled in Indian Philosophy, this became my major. The next two years I would study in depth the ancient texts including the Vedas, Upanishads, Yoga Sutras and the Gita, Taoism, and Buddhism. Unfortunately during this time, I was also in a lot of physical pain. I had scheduled an MRI to look at my neck. The prognosis was that I had lost cerebral fluid in two of my cervical vertebrae and that I would most likely experience pain for the rest of my life.

The following year another friend of mine had moved out to Santa Cruz, CA. She was practicing Bikram Yoga. She shared that she had witnessed incredible healing happening to people in the classes and that there was one person in particular that had been in a car accident who was receiving many benefits from this series of yoga. I got online and bought the tape ( yes the tape, I am dating myself!). I started practicing alone and sometimes friends would join. We would practice with a seriously strong old wall heater in our old home.

So as it goes the asana and the philosophy arrived in my life at the same time, it was serendipitous to say the least. I attribute the near death car accident to bringing me to all things yoga. I experience yoga as a healing art and a science, a practice, that will be part of my entire life.

After graduating from University in Indian Philosophy, I moved to Maui. There was a little Bikram Yoga studio on the beach. I started to practice 4 days a week in the mornings. I was doing chakra studies on the off days. My neck was healing. When I moved off the Island, I started to combine doing Bikram’s 26 and 2 with taking Bhakti style Vinyasa with Rusty Wells in San Francisco. I was healing, my neck was feeling so much better and my shoulder was too! A year later I went to teacher training in LA and began teaching the Bikram Method.

A few months after being certified to teach the Bikram Method I began a journey into all realms of Hatha yoga. It would take a novel to explain all of this, so for timing purposes the flow when something like this. The Gosh or Bikram Method along with Bhakti Vinyasa lead me into studying the Ashtanga series which I was devoted to for the next two years. I became more aquatinted with Dharma Mitra, Jiva Mukti, and Vinyasa. I continued to teach the Bikram method and also began teaching non-traditional hot yoga at a more hybrid type studio. Next I would start teaching Vinyasa classes as off shoots of the Ashtanga Primary and Secondary Series.

The Yoga studies inspired me to begin studying Reflexology and under the tutelage of Roz Zollinger, I was given a plethora of information relative to the anatomical process of yoga and the meridian points that are accessed through the asana. I practiced yoga during both my pregnancies and have experience teaching prenatal and postnatal yoga.

I was certified in Vinyasa, Yin and Restorative Yoga at the Asheville Yoga Center. I have completed multiple workshops in Kundalini Yoga, and Pranayama and know my way around Qi Gong, Yoga Nidra, Mantra and Various Meditational Methods. My yoga studies have found me most presently diving into the devotions of various Tantra Sutras and their exquisite divine beauty.

I have studied yoga with numerous accomplished national and international teachers from various traditions. I have taught various styles of yoga in studios and privately for 20 years. My teaching style most certainly is imprinted by other course experience in Woman and Human Studies, Art History, Medical Intuition with Carolyn Myss and Dr. Norm Shealy, Medical Aromatherapy, Evolutionary, Humanistic and Embodied Astrology as well as Art and Poetry.

Through incredible teachers and ongoing self study, the practice continues daily to teach me. Yoga found me at 19, and she adopted me and was adopted by me. With just shy of 25 years of practice, I believe in yoga because I have lived it and continue to live it.