Practice What You Teach, Teach What You Practice
Read on to learn more about the different styles of yoga that shape my practice and my teaching.
Rocket Vinyasa Yoga
Rocket is the backbone of my practice. It’s how I built a sustainable daily practice and what inspired me to start teaching yoga.
An all levels, asana-focused class that invites you to challenge yourself and play. The Rocket is a series of postures based on modifications of the traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Primary and Intermediate series. It destroys the hierarchy of postures – putting the practitioner in control – while still honoring the core values and teachings of the lineage. The sequences are designed to invigorate and strengthen students with advanced postures while still staying accessible to all through modifications and practicing acceptance of the body’s present abilities.
The Rocket was created in San Francisco, California, in the 1980s by Pattabhi Jois’s long-time student, Larry Schultz. It has grown into an international family connected by the vision of his long time student and friend, David Kyle, and is taught by Certified Teachers who have completed teacher training through the Progressive Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga School or The Rocket Collective. The Rocket Yoga Collective is an organized group of teachers who have taken our teachers' blessings to teach the love we feel from our practice and protect the integrity of all yoga teachings that are Rocket.
Dharma Yoga
Dharma Yoga is the heart of my practice. It’s how I began to try to truly live yoga – to do well, eat well, be well, and to be compassionate towards myself and others.
A modern interpretation of classical Eight-limbed or Hatha-Raja Yoga, Dharma Yoga is a complete traditional yoga practice. Class includes pranayama (breathing), asana, deep relaxation, and meditation and is appropriate for practitioners of all levels who are looking to move and be moved by the practice. Dharma Yoga emphasizes developing compassion in your practice and your life. Postures are approached as a moving meditation, a way to experience your own interconnectedness of mind, body, and heart, to develop concentration and contentment and gain strength and flexibility.
Dharma Yoga was created by Sri Dharma Mittra in 1975 and is taught by Registered Teachers who graduated from the world-renowned Life of a Yogi teacher training programs at the Dharma Yoga Center in New York, and who have been trained by and remain students of Sri Dharma Mittra.
Yin Yoga
Yin allows me to embrace my introspective nature, turn inward and nurture a calm, quiet center. It’s how I learned to slow down, tune in to myself and practice patience and non-reactivity.
Yin evolved from the Taoist philosophy of Yin/Yang, or the balance of opposing forces. A mindful and stilling practice that cultivates a deep sense of awareness through the release of mind and body stresses. In a modern world of constant stimulation, Yin Yoga can help bring balance to the yang of everyday life. Yin focuses on releasing the connective tissue of the body (tendons, ligaments and fascia). Poses are held for long periods, allowing the student to relax as they exercise patience and quiet, much like time spent in meditation. Yin is suitable for anyone looking to balance a more energetic exercise routine, increase flexibility, keep joints healthy and mobile, improve posture, reduce stress, or release emotions stored in the body.
Developed in the late 1970s by martial arts expert and Taoist yoga teacher Paulie Zink, Yin is not intended as a complete practice in itself, but as a complement to more active forms of yoga and exercise.
