My journey to the yoga practice I know today began when a friend brought me to yoga class after recently separating from my (now ex) husband. At the time, I was overwhelmed with sadness and struggling with a then, 3 year-old son, living in the Bronx, far away from my family and small-town-life of Virginia. After just a couple yoga classes, I was immediately entranced by the organic, blissful feeling yoga gave me. It reawakened my fire and empowered me to care when I thought I was completely withdrawn and depleted of emotion. It reignited things I loved from my previous education in ballet, modern dance and somatic studies. Practicing yoga, by contrast, was spatially contained and I found it easier to share with others, fulfilling a human connection for community that I had unknowingly lacked unto that point. 

Regularly attending yoga classes helped me survive those hard times by providing an anchor in my schedule, a placeholder of permissible peace. Through all the struggles I was facing, yoga guided me to have the patience to sit with myself and experience my uncomfortable loneliness gradually shift into a peaceful solitude. As a mother, it took many breakdowns for me to appreciate the importance of self care, convinced of my impressive martyrdom duties to put everyone else first. Yoga helped me listen and trust my own voice when it told me to rest. Once I learned to nurture the connection to that voice, I was able to be more fully present. Yoga gave me a methodical form of self-care which really appealed to me, the dancer, and simultaneously piqued my spiritual curiosities and thirst for more education. 

Yoga taught me that if your mind or your body is reacting to something, observe that reaction, without judgement, and ask yourself where it’s coming from. What is the root cause of this feeling? There is usually something else that comes up with this approach, something deeper. And so much is to be observed of ourselves in learning to remove judgement.

Since completing my initial 200-hour teacher training through YogaWorks in 2014,  I added BarWorks to my wellness toolbox. Most recently, I finished my advanced yoga certification through The Kaivalya Yoga Method (TKYM) to become a 500-hour certified yoga teacher. I have further honed my specialty training in restorative yoga with Jillian Pransky in 2021 and am a certified Reiki Master Teacher.

Born in Virginia, I graduated with a bachelor of fine art’s degree in dance from George Mason University and upon graduation moved to New York City, pursuing a career in arts administration, metaphysical & holistic wellness, and working many other jobs as a young adult.  After seven years in the city, I relocated back to my hometown Winchester, Virginia. After 5 years of work, sacrifice, a divorce, I completed my master’s in business administration degree from Shenandoah University, graduating in the height of the 2020 pandemic. I recently purchased my first home– a townhouse in Inwood, WV and live there with my family; my boyfriend, two incredible sons, and 1 beautiful cat.