WHEN DID YOU BEGIN CULTIVATING YOUR PRACTICE?

My very first exposure to yoga was when I was training to be a ballerina at Cleveland Ballet. One of my teachers would occasionally guide us through a yoga nidra practice at the end of class, and I was amazed by how simultaneously calm and energized I felt! I was exposed to some yoga breathing practices during college, but got hooked by yoga in 2004 when I began taking vinyasa classes as a young mother of three children. Wow, how it helped me to be a better parent! I loved how yoga helped me to feel calmer and more centered. I wanted to figure out how to feel that way more often throughout the day!

WHEN DID YOU BEGIN HELPING OTHERS CULTIVATE THEIR PRACTICE?

 I started my first yoga teacher training in 2009 out of a desire to better understand how to recreate this healing, growth, and transformation I was experiencing, and to teach others how to do this as well. I have been on this journey of learning, growing, and teaching ever since.

HOW DO YOU ENVISION CULTIVATE YOGA SERVING OUR COMMUNITY?

Because of how much I value the benefits I have received from this practice, I love the mission of Cultivate to make yoga accessible to everyone. I envision Cultivate Yoga serving the community by supporting people to be the best versions of themselves…for themselves, in their relationships, and in their world. Cultivate Yoga creates more love, more peace, more blessings, and more unity.

WHAT HAS YOGA HELPED TO CULTIVATE WITHIN YOU?

Yoga has helped to cultivate so much within me! I’m still a work in progress but I see improvement in how I’m able to experience self-love, less reactivity, more awareness, a broader perspective, compassion, and in recognizing that we are all connected, no one is better than or less than, and we are all doing the best we can.

BESIDES YOGA, WHAT IS ONE THING THAT CULTIVATES JOY IN YOUR LIFE?

Spending time in nature and spending time with my family (especially my husband, Mike, my three young adult children, and their significant others) are ways I cultivate joy in my life, besides yoga. A newfound love is pickleball; I’m not very good, but it makes me laugh!