1. What style of yoga do you teach? And, where are you located?
I teach Hatha, Vinyasa, and Yin yoga, in which I incorporate techniques, postures, transitions, and the like from a variety of schools/styles that I study, love, and appreciate such as: Katonah, Forrest, Rocket/Ashtanga, Dharma, 26&2.
And, I'm located in Brooklyn, NY.
2. What is your intention behind teaching?
My intention behind teaching is to share something I love with others and provide an opportunity for folks to delve into their Mind-Body-Spirit. To hold space for others in whatever way is needed in the given moment and to cultivate a space of mindful presence. Facilitating and guiding, movement, breath, and meditation is incredibly fulfilling, and my sincere wish is that students receive benefits spanning their physical, mental, and spiritual selves. Offering a practice that can give people a sense of contentment, efficacy, tranquility, and release is a gift. I'm infinitely grateful to be a part of teaching this practice.
3. Who are your mentors in yoga?
My mentors in yoga are Rose Erin Vaughan and Jared Mcann.
4. What have they taught you?
Since stepping onto this path, they're teaching, knowledge, dedication, and compassion has impacted me in such a beautiful and powerful way. Their lighthearted reverence and commitment to passionately sharing what they believe in is for the betterment of the whole and themselves is something I strongly admire.
Their approaches resonate with me on many levels, and from the moment I met them both I knew they were the teachers I wanted to mainly study and practice with. They're openhearted individuals who put their work and the knowledge at the forefront and take on big responsibilities for the sake of the continuation of the Yoga practice/Holistic Wellness. In short, they live the practice.
They strive to help and progress, and they've developed quite a knack for connecting and effectively communicating a combination of lineages. They are genuine and fun individuals.
5. Please mention a book that you have read about yoga that has had a positive impact on you?
Light on Life, BKS Iyengar is one of those yoga books that's had a positive impact, for sure. It eloquently weaves the profound aspects of Yoga. It demonstrates an authentic perspective from a lifetime of being a student and teacher. I feel a blend of elder wisdom and a child's curiosity and wonderment within this book, which describes the inward journey. The path begins with inquiry, and this book has an easygoing approach in which the tangibility of the information shared is experienced. Reading it is a palpable experience.
One other book I feel compelled to share, because I'm a nerd for reading is, Eastern Body, Western Mind, Anodea Judith. I find this one really helps in uncovering what lies underneath the surface of our development through an erudite lens of intertwining the Chakra System & Psychology. It is illuminating and fascinating. It wonderfully expresses on an individual and interconnected level, Spiritual Sage Wisdom and Modern Academia.
6. What lesson are you currently learning in your Asana practice?
Great question. It's many simultaneously. But what is currently most apparent is, Acceptance and Forgiveness. That we are always in process. To fully immerse oneself in the process while observing it all unfold is a micro reflection of the macro. And with the patience that inevitably comes with spending time in the Asana practice, breathing and holding postures, embracing challenge on the mat to show up as best we can in life, lends itself to embodying more compassion.
I'm optimistic, I think even just the physical practice changes or expands one's perception on a profound level, even if they don't go into it with that intention. It lovingly pushes you in a beneficial direction and then there's an a-ha moment, that's really cool, because you become aware of what's happening to you while it's happening--something, a force, within you, that's also bigger than you, is at work.
The interconnectedness of all things is illuminated to me through Asana because our bodies are a metaphor. The more I practice the more in touch I get with myself, which in turn helps me to see and understand more everyone's connection to the whole as we're all in our own process, making an effort to figure things out. Meeting someone where they're at is a way to create harmony and potential. You can't really force anything, just like in the physical practice, if you try to make your body do something it's not ready to do you'll get hurt.
If you accept where you are in the process and build on it from there, then there is progress, growth, and change. It's the same interpersonally. We're all in this together, but at different paces or places, yet there is no finish line, no inferior/superior place to be, so accepting and forgiving is in service to yourself and others. Our diversity is what makes us helpful to one another--to enhance collective awareness. As Ram Dass said, "We're all just walking each other home."
7. How often do you practice?
How often I practice ranges based on intuitive listening/feeling. But on average, 5 days a week.
8. How do you implement the other 7 limbs of yoga into your life other than Asana?
I try my best to implement the other 7 limbs of yoga in my daily actions and interactions. Essentially, as a lifestyle or system to adhere to. I like the expressions, "How we do anything is how we do everything." In one training I did, one of our assignments over the course of a few months was to keep a daily journal.
One of the components of the journal was to write down examples of ways we did and didn't adhere to the Yamas and Niyamas. It was a cool and interesting experiment. It elicited some good self-reflection and introspection. Of course, it is inherent to a practice like this not to beat yourself up over mistakes, because that would defeat the purpose! ha-ha.
9. Why is being present so important to you?
Being present is so important to me because it's in being present that we access clarity and truth. In being present we are setting ourselves up for continued success and sustainability. If you do what serves you and the collective in the moment, those actions or ways of being perpetuate themselves. It is also calming and how we enter the Flow state.
When we're present we're vibrating on a more objective or untainted frequency and elevating our consciousness. When present, we're Waking Up--to what's actually in front of us, beyond the ordinary or the projections, excess narrations/analysis of the Monkey Mind. We get to simply, yet profoundly, just be.
10. How can we keep up with you on social media? What is your IG handle and/ FB name?
@living_journey_yoga
