I found Yoga when I was 16 Years Old and was quickly hooked in. My “gateway” into Yoga was via Bikram, which is a fixed series of 26 postures, done in a heated room. It was intense and exhilarating. The heat allowed me to push myself and go into poses more deeply. I was young and my body was able. At the time, Yoga (or asana) was not as popular and when I went to college, I travelled far and wide to take whatever yoga classes were available.

I dabbled around in many other styles in my twenties and eventually found my way to Yoga Vida, which is where I did my first 200 hour Yoga training. They biggest influence in the Yoga Vida style of Yoga is drawn from Vinyasa. Vinyasa yoga stems from Ashtanga Yoga. The Sanskrit term "vinyasa" comes from "Nyasa" which means "to place" and "vi" which means "in a special way." In other words, yoga postures (Asanas) during vinyasa yoga class "are placed in a special way", or special order to suit a variety of students needs and, more importantly, are connected to breath. So, vinyasa means a "breath-synchronized movement".  Vinyasa style classes are choreographed to smoothly transition from one asana to the next, linking each one to the cycle of a student's breath (inhale-exhale makes one breath cycle). With each movement being linked to the power of inhalation and exhalation, this style of yoga is more dynamic, invigorating, demanding, and challenging than most styles. Vinyasa flow physically brings the body strength, flexibility and vitality as an entry point to a calm, steady, and undisturbed mind.

My next influence, draws from my mentors and teachers at Yoga Shanti. The Yoga Shanti method honors traditional systems and methods of Yoga, included Iyengar and Ashtanga, but has evolved to suit modern western bodies. Through Yoga Shanti I learned how to sequence innovatively, to think for myself, and to creatively sequence. Asana, itself is a fairly new concept, and Yogic postures hasn’t been around for as long as we think - approximately 150 years, meaning that it’s still in its infancy and there is so much room to evolve. That being said the Yoga Shanti method is intelligently sequence as well as safe for all. The Yoga Shanti is an alignment based method. The deep understanding of the body has given way to special rules that teachers from Yoga Shanti adhere to so that not only are students flowing, but also flowing for a live, giving them a practice that they can do until students late age. It’s a practice of longevity, not short-term results. For example, a class will most likely be sequenced for a peak pose, meaning that every pose prior to the peak has a purpose and it is building up the body to have a greater likelihood of entering and truly understanding the peak pose. Each pose has a certain health benefits, energetic qualities and breath implications. For example, backbends are energizing and emphasize the inhale and by it’s very nature forward bends are the opposite, calming, grounding and emphasize the exhale. At Yoga Shanti if we are sequencing for a backbend class and their is a performance of numerous backbends prior to the peak pose, a teacher will not take you into forward bends right after. Why? This is not balance and not healthy from spine. It’s rather extreme. It’s like taking something from the freezer and putting it into the oven. We are taught to neutralize in between, bring the spine to neutral, so that the discs can slide back into the vertebral column and not get jammed prior to countering in the forward direction. Additionally, at Yoga Shanti, we are very conscious of overloading the joints, especially the hip joint. That can happen when one does a series of standing Yogic postures on one side, holding those poses, without releasing the hip (ie: Warrior I, to Warrior II, to Warrior III on one leg). This will definitely make you feel like you are working and you might feel the burn, but the friction of loading the femoral bone (the ball) within the acetabulum (hip socket) overtime will start to create wear and tear on the cartilage in between those bones, and could lead to dangerous consequences like a hip replacement. These above examples are just some of the sequencing principals that I live and teach by and I am so grateful to have learned something that seems so basic, but in fact requires such depth, understanding and creative, on in which, many new teachers, and even seasoned practitioners, do not understand, until it’s too late.

Through Yoga Shanti, I’ve also taken numerous Iyengar based trainings and workshops and I am very interested in alignment, anatomy, energy and the genius of the Iyengar method.

I have combined all these modalities - Bikram, Vinyasa, Hatha, Iyengar and the Yoga Shanti method when I sequence for my classes. Thank you for learning more about my Yoga history and styles. Feel free to reach out and ask me whatever questions you may have. Looking forward to meeting you the mat.