from yoga to deep listening

I started practicing yoga and meditation when I was nine years old, but it wasn’t until the early 90s that I began a passionate, personal study of yoga. 

I first became certified to teach yoga in 1994 from the ISHTA yoga lineage with Alan Finger. From there, I spent a decade studying with some the greatest yoga and meditation virtuosos of our time, from Jon Kabat-Zinn and Jack Kornfield to Ram Dass, Tara Brach, and Sharon Salzberg. Erich Schiffmann  became my primary yoga influence in 1997; and in 1998, I met my primary meditation teacher, Pema Chödrön, when the Omega Institute invited me to teach at her annual retreat. As a certified yoga therapist and teacher trainer, I was introduced to the cutting-edge work of world-renowned healers, doctors, and neurologists in mind-body medicine, including Herbert Benson, Daniel Siegel, Richard Davidson, Sara Lazar, and Rick Hanson. All together, these teachers and traditions have informed my integrated approach to sharing yoga and mindfulness practices that are infused with compassion and ease, and meant to attune the body, mind, and spirit to nature, and inspire an integrative, holistic healing experience. 

But it wasn’t until 2000, six years into teaching yoga and a decade into my corporate marketing career, that my yoga became Deep Listening: the healing practice it is for me today. I loved the heat, power, and athleticism of my yoga practice, which in a way made me feel solid and secure in a family full of boys. After a series of life crises, I realized that style of yoga was not the type of practice I needed to become a more active participant in my own well-being. I needed to stop doing and start being—to strive less and relax more.

First, there was chronic fatigue and other health challenges that came from my high-pressure job in publishing. As if overnight, the lifestyle I thrived in plummeted me—and all I had the energy to do was lie down on the ground. I had no choice but to turn to restorative yoga, which healed me in ways I didn’t even know I needed. It revealed a web of tension under my tightness that was keeping me from partnering with the earth and breath to promote my well-being. So, I left my director position at St. Martin's Press to transform part-time yoga teaching into my full-time vocation.

But restorative yoga didn’t just heal me once. After losing a dear family member and managing the health issues of my child for years, I found myself so depleted that I developed epilepsy—or so we thought. My body started shaking in a way that looked like that disease, but in reality I had been so fundamentally shaken I lost the ability to control my body’s movements. Dedicating myself to my yoga practice was necessary to give myself the care I needed to rebuild again—and again, and again; and learn to release and expand into my nature—which has enough space to hold my restlessness and my relaxation at the same time.

These three challenges helped me restore my health and well-being in a way I’m so grateful for. I’ve made it my vocation—in my personal practice and my teaching—to share the work of Deep Listening: to cultivate the ability to pause and grow grounded, present, and open. To compassionately care for ourselves with whatever is going on inside or outside. When we practice in this way we are developing a relationship with ourselves that provides exactly the type of strength and security we need most to navigate life from a place of mindfulness, wisdom, compassion, and authenticity.

Today, I am a certified Yoga Therapist, recognized by the International Association of Yoga Therapy. I have also been a featured teacher at respected holistic learning centers internationally, including the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, Omega Institute, 1440 Multiversity, Mohonk Mountain House, and Blue Spirit Retreat Center. My Calm Body, Clear Mind DVD and RelaxMore CD have been spotlighted and highly recommended by Dr. Mehmet Oz, Yoga Journal, and several others. I loved offering a TEDx Talk on Metta Meditation, and contribute as a featured Yoga Expert to Prevention, Mindful, Yoga Journal, Yoga International, and more.

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