Beginning the celebration this week

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Blast from the past!!! I really have been teaching a long time, this is recorded at the studio of my heart, Wild Grace Arts!

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"This week marks the beginning of my 16th year teaching yoga.  I am taking a different tact in my usual posts and sharing with you my yoga journey.  I hope that I will share with you why yoga has meant so much to me and the reason that I have stayed "in love" with the practice for so many years.

I was taught to honor my teachers and my yoga lineage, and that is where I will start.

I was first introduced to yoga at community college through a wonderful teacher named Judith. I walked into her class, at a weight much heavier than I have been since. I would love to say I was drawn to yoga but truthfully I just needed one credit in physical education.  My first few sessions were awful, 8 sun salutations in a row to warm up.  I cried every session.  Judith was so amazing, she told me that "awful" was how I thought of myself and to let my body move through the sessions.   When I surrendered to yoga, my body began to release it's chronic spasms and I felt beautiful for the first time in a long time.  A few years later, when I contracted a virus that almost killed me, I was left frustrated that my body would no longer let me do what I could before.  She was the only one I wanted to talk with and when I was crying to her, she calmly looked at me and said a phrase that has influenced my teaching every day since.  " Congratulations, you have a new body, you get to learn how to use it". Never since that moment have I allowed my body to rule my yoga nor do I ignore it. I have learned that my body and I are on the same team.

I continued yoga by myself, teaching my massage clients in my practice poses as a part of supporting their bodywork. 

I became employed at the local hospital as a nursing assistant that had different responsibilities that the position is allowed now.  I worked in several areas of the hospital, mostly oncology/hospice and psychiatry.  Once there was a patient that hadn't slept in many, many days and was violent to staff.  We were all weary from needing to keep the person safe as well as ourselves.   On the next shift was this amazing nurse  named Joanna .  She listened to the history and  said " let me try".  I was super interested in what she was going to do.  I listened as she lead this tortured soul through a meditation, and the patient slept for the first time in days, finally getting the rest that the soul needed.  I was so impressed, I knew I had to learn from her.

Yeah....she was a yoga teacher!! Joanna was not scared of my size, my trauma, or really any other excuse I tried to use about not being worthy.  Joanna taught me more about being than just poses. How to learn to be comfortable in myself.  How to challenge my beliefs.  The humbleness that is required to be a yoga teacher and the importance of service over ego.  She honored her lineage of yoga teachers and taught us to do the same. ( to this day, I simply adore her and if she taught a higher level course, I would be there in a heart beat!)  Joanna is still teaching, still dancing, still imparting her wisdom to those whose souls need the healing.  While Joanna does make money from yoga, I have never had the sense that she does it for the money, but all from her heart. ( here is a link to her school if you want more information!)

While I spent the most time with Joanna as a teacher, I feel that I must also share my other teachers.  Anna Guest Jelley was my first body positive teacher with Curvy Yoga.  While I had been a yoga teacher for a while, instead of starting " my own" body positive coursework, I have made the decision to join other teachers.  (I want the yoga industry to be strong and a close knit community.  The way I see to do that is to work together.) Anna gave me grace and support when I was beginning to question whether a body positive teacher was every going to get acceptance and fill classes! ( here is Anna's Website with my picture ! LOL)

My next certification was much the same reason as the first, Y12SR.  I had at this point been both a chemical dependency counselor as well as a yoga teacher. I choose to join the Nikki Myers Y12SR to increase the understanding of recovery yoga and assist in building the recovery community. Nikki taught me to be comfortable in the truth of others while protecting my own spirit in the process. ( here is Nikki's website)
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the next leading came from Dianna Bondy and Amber Carnes, Body Positive Yoga /Yoga for All.   They brought me a new understanding of my biases ( and  I had more than I realized).  To date, I continue to challenge my biases as they arise. ( by the way, they explained power and privilege so well that my heart cried, healed and I continue to watch for my bias!) ( I love these ladies! Here is their website!)

I am the only yoga teacher in Olympia to have all three of these certifications. This is my path, to help people to heal from the beauty as they are, right where they are.  As I was lifted by Judith and Joanna, I want to do that for others.

I look forward to continuing to grow as a teacher and yogi. 

Right now I am reading a book by Richard Hittleman ( a yogi extraordinaire) who speaks so amazingly clear about the foundations of yoga.  ( not the pop culture of yoga that is popular now).  Additionally I am learning from Brant Passalacqua at Breathing Deeply Yoga for my Yoga Therapist certification. It is my hope to be able to offer individual classes for students with PTSD, body image and trauma. 

My best teachers however, the most important lessons have come from the years of experience that I have been graced with by my students. All the times I got it right and people's lives were impacted.  All the times that I got it wrong and my heart was ( and still is ) haunted. 

Thank you for this time, these years. I am encouraged to continue looking at my yoga, not as a job but as a continuing adventure with my teachers and students leading me further to discover and share.

You have birthed a grateful yogi.

​Namaste.

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It has been a pleasure to create products that support the beliefs that I have in yoga and I hope you will enjoy!

My newest project, handmade soaps with essential oils! www.thehousethatsoapbuilt.com