Hi and Welcome!
I'm glad you've decided to drop in....
Some background on my yoga teaching journey
In my 20s I was a dancer and dance/movement therapist. During that time I found yoga as a way to support myself and my body. Specifically, Anusara yoga built my physical strength and my self-esteem in a way that no yoga or dance class ever had before.
After a short time at the psychiatric hospital where I worked, the CEO of the hospital decided to add yoga to the curriculum for the patients. I offered to start teaching them and enrolled in a yoga teacher training.
That first training was transformative in that it forced me to have a personal home practice and to look at how I was living my life and how I wanted it to go. I wasn't happy with what I saw when I looked closely. I was exhausted all the time, I didn't have time to connect with my husband or do anything I enjoyed, and I was disconnected from my body and breath. So around the same time the teacher training ended, I also left working at the hospital.
After a few month break and a transformative yoga retreat I began teaching Hatha yoga. Very quickly, I decided if I was going to teach yoga it needed to be Anusara yoga. That was the yoga that spoke to my soul. So I started the process towards Anusara Certification. I took the first two immersions in 2008 but by fall I was way too pregnant to travel to finish part three. In October 2008 I had my daughter (with a GREAT midwife). And I took the next year to adjust to being a mom and only maintain my practice and my teaching. By fall 2009 I was ready to pursue Anusara again. I finished immersion and then enrolled in teacher training with Todd Norian and Ann Greene.
The teacher training took my teaching to the next level and was just what I needed to resume a strong home practice. It was also amazingly transformative on a personal level. Much of the transformation comes through in my approach to teaching, to life, and hopefully in the writings in this blog. In Summer 2010 I finished the teacher training and earned Anusara-Inspired status which is the entry level of Anusara Yoga. And I began dancingyogini.
I thought the story would continue into earning Anusara Certification in 2012. I was on my way there and had a mentor lined up to begin reviewing my classes when scandal surrounding Anusara founder, John Friend, had me seriously re-evaulate my yoga teaching path. In February 2012 I resigned from Anusara and released myself into my own hands as a yoga teacher. Since then I've been moving forward offering Tantric philosophy, alignment, and kind-hearted friendship via my classes and workshops.
photo from the start of dancingyogini
June 2010
