As a teen-aged distance runner I tried to teach myself yoga from a book. Stretching improved my times, but without a teacher there was much I did not understand.
Nor did I integrate yoga into my life. I continued running, swimming, bicycling and working with weight machines, staying in shape enough to keep up with my kids and to work physically hard building and planting around our property.
I renewed my pursuit of yoga in the mid-1990s, when I was seeking to quiet my mind. I sought out a teacher at my old college, and began learning from her basic postures, breathwork and meditative chants. I took classes locally and attended workshops at Kripalu, that gift of a yoga center in the Berkshire Mountains.
It was there I met Francois Raoult, a teacher in the Iyengar tradition, and it was with him I realized that, besides increasing flexibility, yoga could build a strength my traditional fitness regimen hadn't provided. Yoga's balanced approach offered a rich integration of body, mind and spirit. But to really benefit from it I needed to dive in.
I began studying weekly with Raoult in Rochester, attending workshops, and in 2005 I became a certified teacher in the Iyengar tradition. I have been practicing and teaching steadily since, classes in Skaneateles, and in a corporate setting to employees of Wegmans.
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My teaching practice is boosted by yearly workshops I take with master teachers in yoga, anatomy and sound vibration, among them: Arthur Kilmurray, Judith Lasater, Baird Hersey, Joan White, Tom Myers, and Franćois Raoult..
As injuries and stresses from my own years of abusive fitness practices began to show up with aches and stiffness, I’ve become even more diligent practicing my yoga-based fitness regime.
Yoga incorporates cardiovascular, flexibility, breath and strength training, and it is wonderfully beneficial for middle-aged and older students, men and women. My goal is to help students reawaken to the joy of a balanced body, and provide them with yogic tools for living.