my yoga story and 10 lessons for you

I discovered yoga in my early 20s. Amid a busy career as a marketing executive in New York City, I found it hard to hit the "off button" amid my 24/7 lifestyle. I sought help from a licensed psychotherapist.

Ongoing therapy sessions were cathartic and gave mental clarity. Over time, emotionally I felt stronger, yet I still had these chronic racing thoughts, which were both exhausting and relentless. This is when my therapist told me to try yoga.

In the 1990s, yoga was considered a hippy-dippy, New Age phenomenon, and I was not. When I started yoga classes, I felt out of place and inadequate compared to the other students, who could twist and turn in ways I could not. I am not a former gymnast, dancer, or athlete.

Guess what? No-one cared. (LESSON #1)

The beauty is that yoga is practiced with effort and ease. (LESSON #2)

Teachers were not expecting an over-striving attitude. In fact, it was encouraged in every class to take a child's pose (curled up on your mat) at any time.

Child's pose is a a real yoga pose. (LESSON #3)

Over time, in the stillness of a pose, I found that I could view my thoughts as separate from myself. I began to learn how to watch the thoughts instead of participating in mental chatter. (LESSON #4)

Yoga Poses became less about what they looked like and more about what they felt like. This is where one builds trust and intution. (LESSON #5)

I learned about the concept of the monkey mind and how to allow sensations to come and go. (LESSON #6)

By listening to the mindfulness techniques offered amidst the movement, my habit of comparing dropped away. (LESSON #7)

I developed a resilience for discomfort as I remained still for many breaths in a single pose. (LESSON #8)

This mental strength served me in yoga and soon after, in many other areas outside of class.

As with so much in life, progress happens if you allow it, and showing up over time is 90% of the work. (LESSON #9)

Today, I help others learn what to take from this practice. As a former corporate executive, wife, mother of two boys, wife, breast cancer survivor, daughter, and friend living in New York City, I understand life's busy, competitive nature. I know first hand how yoga can can work for the not flexible, the not spiritual and the not hippy-dippy.

Today yoga is for everyday people, and it can be done anywhere and anytime. (LESSON #10)

Education and Yoga Credentials

Yoga Credentials

  • 200 HR Yoga Alliance Teacher with Five Pillars Yoga, NY

  • 25 Hour Creative & Intentional Sequencing

  • 50 Hour Yoga Therapeutic Essentials

  • 50 Hour Restorative & Yin Yoga Training

  • Pranayama Intensive with Judith Lasater

  • Yogi Beans Kids Yoga

Education

  • MBA: New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business

  • BA in Psychology: New York University