I was born and raised in Hyde Park, a community where mind
dominates body. My husband and I have raised three children here. I
have been a freelance writer over the past 30 years and a yoga
student for the past fifteen. I completed yoga teacher training at
the Temple of Kriya in June, 2010. I discovered yoga, as so many
do, after suffering an injury. It was the subtle parts of the
practice that captivated me—“inhale, lift the sternum; exhale,
soften the back.” The grosser parts—“inhale, lift the legs; exhale,
place the feet on the floor over the head”—tended to repel me, and
that has increased over the years because I’m aging at a faster
pace than I am mastering yoga poses. The happiest yoga for me is
slow and subtle, so that’s the yoga I teach. Slowing down the
practice gives the body time to teach the mind. Usually we listen
to our bodies only when they’re complaining, but when we do a
little yoga, our bodies show us equipment we didn’t even know we
had. Whether we are old, young, brittle, or callow we have
treasures inside that, if we can activate them, will make us feel
freer. Yoga activates our insides to give us a little breathing
room. The teachers who have illuminated this principle for me are
UnSoo Kim, Sue Rexford, Cynthia Latimer, and Mary Samano.
Believing, as I do, that yoga is for everyone, I teach yoga from
the bottom up, one pose at a time, often one piece of a pose at a
time. In class we set up the foundation for a pose first, then we
align the joints and stack the bones, and finally, we move into the
pose. We hold the pose until our form or breath becomes
compromised. Depending on the student, the poses can be held for
one breath or ten or more breaths. This means we don't move quickly
from one pose to another. While we hold the pose we explore what's
going on inside the body, for instance, how the placement of the
feet can release tension in the lower back or how the grounding of
the shoulders frees the neck. The complexity of the body and the
poses are a continuing source of information for all students. My
goal for students is to enjoy the class while they're there; to be
able to use what they have (body, mind, and breath); to ground and
decompress through movement, breath, and rest. If a student should
become more flexible, or stronger, after a few classes, that's
icing on the cake.