I started doing yoga in 1980. Someone recommended a yoga class to help me relax. So, I signed up.
I don't know if I had a choice back then, but I landed in an Iyengar class with a fabulous teacher by the name of Connie Fernandez. (She moved to New Mexico in the mid-1980s, and I lost touch with her. If anyone knows of her whereabouts, I would love to let her know how much she inspired me!) She used to read us stories while we were in headstand to help pass the time. My favorite story was "The Face of Jesus on a Tortilla." That was probably a 10-minute headstand!
My only interest in yoga back then was purely physical. It did help me to relax, but it also helped me stay in shape between seasons of whatever sport I was into: biking, snow boarding, running, hiking, surfing and windsurfing.
After Connie moved, I floated around to find another yoga teacher. Soon, I discovered that Joan White, one of the top Iyengar teachers in the US, lived very close to me. I started taking classes at her house. It was great! If there were other styles of yoga making their presence known, I was unaware of them. I loved the precision and alignment of Iyengar Yoga.
When I turned 40, I hit my midlife crisis. I quit my job teaching Woodshop at Germantown Friends School after 18 wonderful years there. I moved out of the house that I was literally born in and where I lived my entire life, and my husband and I adopted a sweet little boy from Korea! Suddenly, I was a stay-at-home mom in Bucks County, and I didn't quite know what to do with myself. Fortunately, I knew enough yoga to have a home practice, but I needed a teacher and some adult contact for myself. I found Vidyaa Yoga Studio, a local studio with childcare! Who cared that it was Power Yoga (vinyasa style with heat). I was happy to have found a place to practice and a community of friends. At Vidyaa, I also uncovered my desire to become a yoga teacher. That was back in 1999. In 2000, I became certified to teach Power Yoga under Cassandra Kish and have been teaching ever since.
Surprisingly, after all of my Iyengar classes, I loved Power Yoga. I loved the challenge and the flow, but I noticed that some areas of my flexibility weren't improving. I knew quite a bit about alignment from my previous practice, but that was from the point of view of a student. As a teacher, I needed to know more. So, I took an Iyengar teacher training course with Theresa Rowland from Studio Yoga in Madison, NJ. That helped answer my questions of "why?" and "how?" As my knowledge grew, so did my awareness of other styles of yoga. I studied Ashtanga yoga with Shari Simon of Sun Dog (even before there was a Sun Dog Studio), and when she sponsored David Swenson to come to town, I studied with him.
As we know, the only constant in the universe is change. So, from Vidyaa, I moved with my friends Melinda Drellich and Susan John to Flip Dog. I continued to teach and study and grow. When Anusara yoga came into the area, I studied that, too. I did teacher trainings and Immersions with Sue Elkind and Naime Jezzeny of Dig, and with Michelle Synnestdvedt of Prasad, not to mention studying with John Friend. In time, I became an Anusara-Inspired teacher. I loved the heart-opening qualities of the practice and the interweaving of the spiritual concepts into the physical practice.
Another change occurred when Flip Dog closed and I moved to the Solebury Club and to Yogaphoria. And here I am, 30 years later, still studying, practicing and teaching. Along the way I have studied a lot of different styles with a lot of different teachers, some local and some nationally known. I have learned a lot from each one and I am indebted to each and every one of them. I have learned that there are a lot of ways to do poses; each way has its benefits and trade-offs. That gives me a lot of tools in my tool kit.
Another benefit of 30 years of practice, besides a lengthy bio, is that I have worked through my share of injuries and good and bad times with my own practice. I've torn my hamstring three times, and I broke my foot and was on crutches for 12 weeks (but still practiced and taught, which is just one of the reasons why I ask my student teachers to learn to teach a class without practicing along with your students, because one day you might be forced to, and if you don't already know how then you're sunk). I also have some personal experience with scoliosis and arthritis and menopause ;-). There were times when I felt that I was a fraud as a teacher because of my personal setbacks and my own physical limitations and felt that I should quit. Over the course of my practice I have both loved and hated different poses at different times. I remember when my hamstrings were tight and I thought I'd never be able to touch the floor. Then I tore my hamstring and gave up caring and humbly started over. I can't tell you when I finally was able to touch the floor, but I know that I can now do it anytime and it so doesn't matter. One of my favorite Ramanand Patel quotes is "I've been to the floor and back, so I can tell you, God is not in the floor!" I still can't do a handstand in the middle of the room, but I am getting closer because I keep working on it. Some day I will be able to do it (or I won't and it, too, won't matter). Over the years I have also become more and more interested in the philosophical and spiritual aspects of my practice, as anyone who comes to my classes can attest. Still, I would have to say that my strengths as a teacher lie in my ability to read the body and see what is going on physically.
A word in Sanskrit that has a lot of meaning for me is "Abhyasa." The word Abhyasa means a serious practice, continued over a long period of time without interruption. I've kept at this practice for 30 years. If there is a period of time when I can't or don't practice, I feel it, and when I do return to my practice, I feel as if I'm coming home. That has sustained me, over time, more than anything else.
