How did i get here?
Over the years, I’ve been asked about how I came to be an instructor. I never had an interest or intention to practice yoga and meditation, never mind teach it. I really had begun this journey as an accidental yogi.
As a kid, I remember my dad doing tai chi wherever he could - in a park, on the beach, on our apartment building’s balcony. He was also a vegetarian (which was a rarity back then), and had a daily morning meditation practice, often waking at 3am, sitting on cushions and covering himself in blankets for hours. I’d hear him chanting along to recordings in different languages and recall thinking many times: What a weirdo. I am NEVER doing any of that!
Fast forward a few decades past my troublesome and rebellious high school years; followed by leaving the nest at 18, through marriage and motherhood, to a day that I was at a local gym waiting for a cardio class to start. To my horror, the instructor couldn’t make it and the substitute teacher was going to teach yoga. Panic. Nightmare. I couldn’t get to the door fast enough before the class started. I told myself I was going to hate it. I was convinced that by taking one class, I was becoming my weird father!
I begrudgingly raised my hand when the instructor asked if this was anyone’s first yoga practice. I wanted to explain to everyone that I wasn’t one of them. I wasn’t a yogi and I most certainly didn’t choose to be in that class.
Within the first few minutes of centering, I felt connected to the instructor’s words. I remember being amazed at how at ease I was and how magical it was to surrender and slow down. The more I allowed myself to invite the practice in, the more I realized that this unplanned encounter was supposed to happen. It had been waiting for me patiently all this time. I secretly wiped tears from my face as I felt immense guilt for thinking my dad was strange all these years, and for disregarding what he knew was such a fulfilling practice.
That very night when I got home, I searched the web for articles on yoga and was encouraged when I could not find any reference tying yoga to being an outcast. In my spontaneity, I signed up for my first yoga teacher training that night. I had barely experienced one hour of yoga and just knew I wanted more AND I wanted to teach it. I wanted to learn how to be the tiny sliver in someone’s day when they could just focus on themselves.
That was back in 2012. In 2014 I graduated from a 200-hour program at Sheridan College. Within a year after that, I was well into a 150-hour meditation teacher training. In 2019 I chose to continue on with my yoga and meditation studies and completed an additional 300 hours at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health in Massachusetts. To date, I’ve had intensive studies in Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga, Reiki, Yoga Nidra and have been fortunate to be a part of delivering several teacher training programs. Thank goodness to my dad for planting the seed that I ignored but eventually discovered, and thank the cardio instructor for not being available the night of my first practice!