What should students expect in your classes?
Expect to flow, have fun, be challenged, move to the music, and plenty of moments to show up for yourself. I always create opportunities to take what you need, to choose your own adventure, while still providing a vessel of support and safety. I don’t really care what you do or how you follow along, so long as you’re honoring yourself, I am cheering you on. Music, movement, and dharma fuel my classes and passion for teaching.
When you're not practicing yoga, what do you like to do?
I love going to the beach, biking on the boardwalk, watching the sunset, spending time doing things that nourish my soul, heart, and mind. I enjoy spending time with my girlfriend and my dog and people who uplift my energy and feel like chosen family. I can probably also be found at my writing desk getting frustrated, toting my camera around to find something beautiful, or binging the latest true crime doc on Netflix.
What/who inspires you?
My students are truly my biggest inspiration. In six years of teaching, I am in constant awe of how they show up for themselves, how they honor themselves, and their commitment to their practice. It is so powerful to watch their growth and personal journeys on and off the mat. I’m also hugely inspired by nature, by the beauty around me, by trying to slow down and soak it in. Some of my biggest inspirations are: Cheryl Strayed, Glennon Doyle, Liz Gilbert, wonderful, powerful, creative women who make the world better through sharing their stories.
“I strive to be a teacher my students can see themselves in, I try to highlight my humanness and imperfection. It took me so long to accept my flaws, my faults, my struggles and weaknesses. But when my own teachers shared their truth, it made me feel seen and less alone, which is one of the best feelings in the world.”
What do you love yoga?
I love yoga because it taught me how to love myself. Yoga has been the longest, most meaningful, consistent, and profound relationship I have had in my life. I started practicing when I was 15 and really struggling, and it allowed me to connect to myself in a way that was so unfamiliar, it became the place I could exist without judgement or expectation. My yoga practice has grown along with me, it has had its ebbs and flows, but it always brings me back to myself, and it was the catalyst that allowed me to become the person I was meant to be.
What challenges you in yoga?
Can I say everything? Nothing in this practice has ever come easy to me, both on and off the mat. I think my biggest challenge is to be kinder to myself, to be gentler with my words and thoughts. I have always been my own biggest critic, and my constant practice is softening and offering the same compassion to myself that I do to my students.
What are the MOST important things you want your students to walk out of your class having experienced?
I want my students to experience whatever it is they need to experience that day. I want them to know my class is a safe space to explore, to fall, to cry, to laugh, to embrace freedom and hold space for yourselves, whatever that looks like.