I began practicing Iyengar Yoga about 13 years ago, around the same time I started my teaching career in Boston. I found it to be the perfect antidote to daily stress, while also alleviating back pain from a previous injury. The practice helped me focus on my daily work with the children and calmed my mind in the evening while studying. In 1997, I obtained a masters in Early Childhood Education from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA.

After another year at a Cambridge, MA preschool, I moved to Brooklyn, NY to work in Coney Island. My new first-grade class was a tough environment to teach in, with underfunded classes and children facing a great deal of stress and many challenges in their daily lives. What I noticed first was their lack of focus. There was so much chaos in their lives; it seemed they never felt calm and safe enough to just sit and listen and learn. I also noticed the way the children moved, and how easily and naturally they would take on postures that resembled the yoga I was practicing at home every night. Forces were at work in my mind I didn't even realize.

One afternoon we were reading through one of their workbooks, and we came across some bunny rabbits doing exercises. "It's yoga," I said to them, recognizing the Downward Dog and Tree poses of the silly bunnies.

"What's yoga?" one of the students asked me. And the rest of my life was transformed.

I showed them the yoga I was practicing, and of course, they wanted to play along. I began incorporating a few poses and some active games between lessons, and it was amazing to see the difference it made. They could focus during the lessons and were calmer and happier throughout the day. I quickly realized how powerful and wonderful the yoga practice could be for children, and I haven't stopped playing with them since.

Yoga had become an essential part of my life. And with my love for educating, it was a natural next step to get a yoga teaching certificate. In the summer of 2001, I studied at the Nosara Yoga Institute in Nosara, Costa Rica with Don and Amba Stapleton, an amazing experience that led me to start an informal after-school yoga class once I returned with my certificate. The kids loved it, as did I, so in 2002, I got my children's certifications at Next Generation Yoga in NYC and through the Radiant Child Yoga Program. Finally, with both certificates in hand, my strong background in education and a deep love for all children, I moved across the country to pursue my dreams.

As for my own practice, I have found the heart-opening principles of Anusara Yoga and the flow of Vinyasa classes to be the perfect fit with my life right now. I also recently took the Street Yoga training course and had been volunteering at a homeless shelter in SF. After living in San Francisco for the last 4 years, my husband and I have moved our life to New Haven, CT. I now have other teachers working for FOJY in Bay Area preschools and after-school programs while I get my kids yoga programs started out here. 

Teaching yoga to children is my passion and my career. I'm always looking for another chance to improve the lives and futures of children by practicing yoga with them and playing healthy games that help them laugh and love and grow.

Namaste,