"Feel the fear, do it anyway." 

This is my motto.  I was introduced to gymnastics at age 2.  Not long after I discovered tap, jazz & ballet.  My free time after school was consumed by one practice or another.  I loved playing on the swingset with friends on weekends, hanging upside down and choreographing dances to present to family and friends, anybody who was willing to watch really.  When I got to high school I found cheerleading and partner stunts, a perfect compliment to my diverse dance and gymnastic background.  When I got to college I continued cheerleading and goofing around.  We used to get in trouble during practice when the guys on the squad used to play "catch" with me as the ball that they tossed back and forth in the gym.  Yoga was always a mystery to me, something that was too Zen for my simple acrobatic and dancing tastes☺

It wasn't really until I graduated college, put away my Kaepa sneakers and began a fast paced job as a buyer in the fashion industry that I finally gave yoga a try.  I was at my desk at 5:30am daily and by the time I finally left the office at night I was tired and stiff from sitting in meetings all day.  As luck (or divine intervention) would have it, I was living in Manhattan and my building began offering free yoga three evenings a week.  One night a friend invited me to go with her and I was hooked.  I practiced on and off for years until 2005.  In that year my whole life was turned upside down when my 58 year old mother was diagnosed with a metastatic brain tumor.  As I watched her mind, body and spirit slowly deteriorate yoga became my saving grace.  After long days and nights spent at her bedside, yoga was my only source of comfort and where I found the strength to continue on.  After losing my mother at such a young age, the old adage "life is too short," took on a new meaning for me.  I gave up my job in fashion, went back to school to pursue my dream of teaching Spanish and simultaneously began studying yoga seriously.  A natural fit for me was Kids Yoga.  I felt like a big kid myself☺  After my first yoga teacher training thru Karma Kids Yoga in NYC I never looked back.  Since 2005 I have taken numerous teacher trainings, taught every population from special needs children to the adult teachers at the middle school where I teach Spanish during the day.  I've taught the elderly, the anti-yogis, my own family and stiff white guys like my new husband.

Yoga is my dharma.  It feeds my soul.  After recently completing my CYTT, I feel in my heart and in my soul that I am ready to make yoga my full time career.  I am just waiting for the right moment to take the leap.  Stay tuned for more in 2009…