I was never an athlete, never a dancer. I developed a consistent yoga practice in my late 20s, midway through my career as a high school English teacher as a way to stave off burnout. After relocating to Boston from Chicago in 2015, I began teaching yoga full time and feel incredibly lucky to be able to be doing what I love. Here’s a little about what you can expect from my classes:
I believe yoga is more about being able to regulate your nervous system than about contorting your body into any particular shape. In my class, you’ll get longer warm ups and longer savasanas. My focus on pranayama and visualization will give you tools to up or down regulate your energy and circulate your prana smoothly to find a more balanced, peaceful state.
You won’t find ‘peak’ poses that promote the misconception that yoga is only about fitness and flexibility. In my own asana practice, I work to counter my hyper-mobility with strengthening and stabilizing exercises; I teach what I practice and practice what I teach.
You also won’t find traditional sun salutations or chaturanga-heavy transitions. My classes are a well-rounded flow that moves all the joints in all of their ranges of motion in different orientations to gravity. I like to move relatively slowly and focus on breaking down transitions between poses. My class will increase your sense of interoception, making you more connected to yourself and the subtle ways your body communicates, and proprioception, helping you to move through life with more grace and ease.
Though I do give ‘alignment’ cues, it is not so that you do the pose “correctly” and achieve an arbitrary aesthetic ideal but in the spirit of inquiry —a joyful exploration of embodiment. I also enjoy using figurative language, corny jokes, and bad puns.
My playlists are carefully curated to match the energetic arc of the class and skew toward downtempo electronica, indie, and soul. Musical tastes are highly personal; you may or may not like mine.
I do not offer hands-on assists in public classes. It is not my interest to “correct” you or push you deeper. If you would like to receive energetic touch (i.e. reiki) and/or work on building your mind and body’s strength, stability, balance, and resiliency, please book a private session with me.
Because I continue to evolve in my teaching, I reserve the right to “do better once I know better” and change any of the above principles at any time.
