My Story

My first yoga class began on a dare. I had just moved to Venice Beach , CA , a magical place that immediately changed my life. Most of my new friends did yoga, and not only did they love it, they positively glowed after class. Curious, I dared myself to try it, despite my perception that yoga was all “chanting and hippie stuff.”

I took a Bryan Kest Power Yoga class and loved it. At first, I came back because of the amazing workout and of how good I felt afterwards. It wasn't until later that I realized the immense healing effects of yoga. Instead of creating tension or feeding stress, yoga relaxed me while strengthening me from the inside out. This was a novel thing for me – getting a good workout, while feeling healthy and alive both emotionally and physically. Yoga didn't feed into the typical workout mentality. Instead, it freed me from it.

Since then, yoga has became my greatest source of healing, and I've had a lot of healing to do:

  When I was 14 years old, I was hit by a car while walking through a cross walk. I was lucky to have survived the accident at all. Everyone - nurses, doctors, even the policeman at the scene – told me I should be dead. I lost my kidney and spleen, fractured my ribs and pelvis, and broke my femur. My leg was suspended in traction for a month, and over the next two months, my femur was broken and re-broken over six times, in an effort to straighten it out. Afterwards, I was wrapped in a full body cast for six months. When I could finally walk, almost a year later, my left leg was bent at an awkward angle, bowing outwards and noticeably shorter than my right.

Contrary to what was “possible,” I decided that I would walk normally again. I read voraciously on nutrition, healing, injuries and health. I observed people and became my own teacher. I began weight training to build muscle in the atrophied leg. In high school, I competed and placed twice in the Southern Arizona High School Bodybuilding Championships. Just a few years later, however, due to the unnatural torque in my femur, my leg had to be reset. Doctors told me to never expect to walk normally again. My joints had deteriorated to someone twice my age. At that rate, I would need artificial joints in a few years.

  Over the next two years, I had two more surgeries. But, for the first time since the accident, my left leg was straight again.

During these college years, I was determined to regain my strength. I added sports into my weight-training repertoire: swimming, hiking, rollerblading and jogging. However, as I ran further, biked faster, and swam longer, self-competitive anger festered inside of me.

In my obsession with getting better, I had become obsessed with working out daily.

It took years and many purges for my awareness to shift. The first step was quitting the gym and not allowing myself to exercise in anger. I began to seek out activities that I loved, like dancing. When I realized how deeply doing something that I loved affected my body and state of mind, I began to honor my thoughts and my intentions. Soon after, I found yoga. Or rather, yoga found me.

  Since then, yoga has been a steady companion and an amazing resource. I have studied Sivananda and Iyengar, Yin Yoga, Yoga Trance Dance, Vinyasa Flow, Basic Hatha, Kundalini, Forrest Yoga, Anusara, Power Yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Gong, Ballet, Ecstatic Dance and Shamanasim. They have all influenced me, but my primary style draws from the Vinyasa Flow, Anusara and Power Yoga traditions, with a strong emphasis on Core Strength, especially as developed by Ana Forrest.

In 2002, I was faced with yet another healing opportunity. my ACL tore and snapped. I had to have a complete ligament replacement. Four months after my surgery, I strapped on my knee brace, and was back in class. Undoubtedly, it was yoga that helped me heal.

I am at peace, now, with my body. I love the process of healing and learning, and teaching is just an extension of that love.