Yoga has been a practice now for half of my life. What a blessing it has been to discover this amazing way of being. My practice started in solitude while living in the Rocky Mountains in Canada during my early twenties. I had been given a book seven years prior as a gift, and though I had never really used it, I had kept it and moved it around with me over 5 different places. Finally it pulled me in and I found myself studying asanas almost daily with the Iyengar method through an entire winter. I knew I had found something within me that would change me forever. From there I wanted to share all I could to awaken that same remembrance in others.

In 2003 I travelled to Mexico to do a month long immersion to receive 200 hours of certified training. That experience was transforming in many more ways than I saw in the moment. It was magical. I honor my teachers from that experience who opened my awareness and gave me the opportunities to find courage in being a leader. It was shortly after though that I met Father Joe Perreira from India, while he was offering a weekend workshop in Saskatoon. At that time Sri B.K.S. Iyengar was still living and Father Joe was a direct student of his for 25 years already. He had also been in service for 13 years with Mother Teresa in Calcutta up until her death. I had found my teacher. I dedicated myself from that point on to learning from Father Joe, and have spent the last 14 years doing that. Other very notable teachers include Aadhil Palkivala, Patricia Dewar, and Camilla Krochak. My gratitude is deep.

I am also very interested in pranayama and have completed 100 hours of training and am almost done my second 100 hour training. I study this with a wonderfully traditional teacher named Brenda Feurstein. Learning about the subtle body is continuing to advance my practice and turn it inward toward the center. I absolutely love bringing this deeper element of practice to my classes. I am passionate about the authentic practices of yoga and this is a much needed technique for us all to heal our minds and nervous systems.

I have now accumulated over 14 years of teaching yoga before, during, and after having two children and putting yoga to a whole new task. Leading a family has a lot of opportunities for living yoga off the mat, none less virtuous than the most astute yogi quality. Motherhood can be much more challenging than any version of urdhva mukha svanasana that you want to throw at me! The effect, however, matches the deep opening of the heart and the compassion within it. I am grateful to my children for the reminder to live yoga every day.

The final piece to my journey involves the aspect and practice of bhakti yoga, the yoga of the heart and of service to the divine. In my experience this has been done through karma yoga, kirtan, reading sacred texts, and the chanting of mantras. I have explored and developed my practice with chant by spending time in workshops with Deva Premal and David Newman over the years. A favorite place of mine to retreat for this is the Sivananda Yoga Center in the Bahamas, where you participate in ashram living with opportunities for two lengthy daily practices of chanting mantras. Mantras have the power to take the mind straight into the heart, where we have the opportunity to find our true Self. My greatest teacher on my bhakti path, though I never had the honor to meet him, has been Ram Dass. He reminds me that all parts of life are love. Even the darkest shadows have light within them. His teachings are touchstones for me almost every day.

“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” - Ram Dass

I offer yoga practices that honor traditional and authentic teachings that root in the Iyengar method. They include meditation and pranayama to expand the awareness around more than just the physical body, merging all aspects of one’s being into Oneness . It is an honor which I humbly accept in service to those on a journey to finding themselves. I hope that in some way my actions and service to others will bring joy and light to this planet and it's beings. LOKAH SAMASTA SUKHINO BHAVANTU. May all beings everywhere be happy and free. Namaste.