about my yoga path:
I first started learning about yoga in 2007. I attended some yoga classes with my mom while on break from college, and then continued taking classes through the REC center on campus. I had an opportunity to study abroad in India for my final term, and it is there where I began to understand yoga as a practice, and more than just 'something to do.'
Back in the US, I continued to explore different ways of practicing yoga and meditation, and continued dabbling in classes, reading books, and understanding more about what yoga means to me. In 2010 I graduated from my first Yoga Teacher Training, though I felt I was just at the beginning of what yoga has to teach me. I moved back to my hometown in 2011 and began teaching in our little studio, with a great community and really supportive group of teachers. I continued to learn more and more with every class I taught. I learned from the wide range of students you might encounter in any given class. I learned about bodies that didn't move the same as my lithe 20 something frame. I learned there are certain ways and words that could help students gain insights from their own experience, from a full awareness grounded in their body. I continue to enjoy teaching different styles of yoga. My classes are often informed by those that come to them. We will address sore spots you've been carrying around, strengthen what may need some more reinforcement and always take time to nourish and restore body and mind. I believe mindfulness is something we carry with us throughout the days and weeks, but when I'm not "doing" yoga, I enjoy all sorts of ways of being outside. I enjoy spending time with my family and pets in the garden, hiking with friends, or finding beach glass on the shore by myself. |
about my thai practice
Thai Yoga came to me at first as another way to incorporate yoga into my work-life. As I continued to learn the practice of thai yoga, it became much more embodied than that. My understanding of facilitating yoga with others grew into something more dimensional.
Any yoga practice is about connecting and letting go. What do we connect to in awareness, in body, in breath? What do we let go of in tension, and patterns, and thoughts that don't serve us? Thai yoga allows your practice to be guided, not just by instruction, but by physical assistance, which is an incredible way to both connect to your body, but also let go of it. I studied thai yoga with Tanya Boigenzahn at Devanadi Yoga in Minneapolis. Studying there, I was taught in a way that integrates a sequence of body movements in combination with clearing energetic channels and ayurvedic principles. My own Thai Yoga practice is still evolving. I enjoy leading sessions that maintain elements you might find in any yoga practice, whether you do yoga at home or in a class. This means bringing awareness to breath and movement, coordinating postures that help release tensions from the body, and guiding an individual into a meditative and relaxed state of being. Just as in my asana based yoga teaching, I am informed by who is in front of me, and I continue to learn from the experiences shared with me. I know thai yoga is not very common in our area, nearly unheard of. I would love for this practice to become part of a wellness routine, much like yoga. We see the benefits accumulate after several sessions, and decide it is something we'd like to keep as part of our lives. |
the yoga co-op
My most recent lesson in yoga came through developing what is now the Sheboygan County Yoga Co-op. After 6 years of running a yoga studio, I was finally starting to feel like I had a handle on things, attendance was steady or growing, income was stable, or growing, and I was dedicating most of my work-life to enhancing a yoga training curriculum I began leading with another teacher.
Then the pandemic started, and everything changed (of course). Then the pandemic continued, and everything was frayed and scattered and unknown. I no longer felt I could sustainably operate our little town's yoga studio, but I couldn't envision being another studio to close its doors permanently.
Enter, the Yoga Cooperative! My sister and my fellow yogi began studying any and everything about cooperatives, and there is so much to learn! We were helped by the UW Center for Cooperatives, which is such an incredible resource in our state.
The cooperative model embodies so much about how I understand yoga, and how I see the success of yoga moving forward. The yoga industry in the US is fairly convoluted with plenty of energy and money poured into businesses or brands that don't necessarily promote yogic philosophy. On the other side of the spectrum is the yoga "side project," which is likely what we see in most small-town local studios. Often, but not always, these businesses are supported by income from other sources, or someone with enough financial freedom to go out on a limb. The heart is always there, but not always the sustainability.
The co-op, brings collaboration among it's members and its patrons. It encourages success to every wholesome part of itself. Each member is a real person, each person has a vote in the operations. Decisions are influenced and deliberated by the mission and good of the co-op, not investors or any one individual's whims.
Our co-op is dedicated to keeping yoga in our community, for our community. We are striving to keep yoga accessible to those who want to participate. We are also working to improve our teaching community, and promote growth and success in our teacher members.
The co-operative reflects precisely how I understand yoga, which is that each of us has our own experience, our own practice, our own lives to live, but we are connected, and interconnected to each other, and when we collaborate with one another we enhance each other's experience. We can learn and grow exponentially when we work together.
I'm so honored to be a part of this operation, this cooperation. Please check out: Sheboygan County Yoga Co-op
Then the pandemic started, and everything changed (of course). Then the pandemic continued, and everything was frayed and scattered and unknown. I no longer felt I could sustainably operate our little town's yoga studio, but I couldn't envision being another studio to close its doors permanently.
Enter, the Yoga Cooperative! My sister and my fellow yogi began studying any and everything about cooperatives, and there is so much to learn! We were helped by the UW Center for Cooperatives, which is such an incredible resource in our state.
The cooperative model embodies so much about how I understand yoga, and how I see the success of yoga moving forward. The yoga industry in the US is fairly convoluted with plenty of energy and money poured into businesses or brands that don't necessarily promote yogic philosophy. On the other side of the spectrum is the yoga "side project," which is likely what we see in most small-town local studios. Often, but not always, these businesses are supported by income from other sources, or someone with enough financial freedom to go out on a limb. The heart is always there, but not always the sustainability.
The co-op, brings collaboration among it's members and its patrons. It encourages success to every wholesome part of itself. Each member is a real person, each person has a vote in the operations. Decisions are influenced and deliberated by the mission and good of the co-op, not investors or any one individual's whims.
Our co-op is dedicated to keeping yoga in our community, for our community. We are striving to keep yoga accessible to those who want to participate. We are also working to improve our teaching community, and promote growth and success in our teacher members.
The co-operative reflects precisely how I understand yoga, which is that each of us has our own experience, our own practice, our own lives to live, but we are connected, and interconnected to each other, and when we collaborate with one another we enhance each other's experience. We can learn and grow exponentially when we work together.
I'm so honored to be a part of this operation, this cooperation. Please check out: Sheboygan County Yoga Co-op