What’s your favorite part of your work?
Teaching and sharing what I love. Sharing tools that help people connect to their deeper selves. I love the art of teaching, of connecting with students and getting out of the way so that the information can come through me.
What’s your least favorite part of your work?
Marketing and promotion. I do it because I know people need to see what I am doing, however it is something that really feels like ‘work’… everything else I do does not, it is pure joy!
What still excites you and keeps you engaged with teaching yoga?
Two main things.. 1) My own practice: This is where I receive inspiration and experience the power of the teachings in my own body/energy/mind. I have found the most effective transmissions come from our own personal experience. 2) Seeing the ‘light bulbs’ go on in students as they move through blocks and deepen their understanding of themselves and expand their awareness of what is possible for them in this life. So often we are ‘settling’ for an idea of who we are and what is possible. Through the practice of kriya, pranayama and meditation we start to experience our power and potential at a deeper level.
If you didn’t teach yoga, what else would you do?
I have a fantasy parallel life where I am a professional singer – in the Indian Raga tradition. This kind of singing is for me the highest – as soon as I hear it, I am transported to the Divine realms. It feels like the language of the Gods. Not words, but sounds transmitted through expertly through exquisitely trained voices – wow!
What are you excited about learning next?
I just started to delve more deeply into Sat Nam Rasayan, a healing modality within the Kundalini Yoga Tradition as shared by Yogi Bhajan. I am really excited by the simplicity of the practice, and all the subtleties I am discovering about the way healing energy works.
What’s your finest advice for a newer teacher?
Teach as much as you can. We learn through repetition. You learn the cues so they can effortlessly be spoken, you learn to get out of your own way and let inspiration flow through. You learn how to connect with different students and how to keep people engaged in their practice and inner quest. Practice Practice Practice.