I provide personalized private yoga instruction to individuals, couples, and small groups of 6 or less.  This private instruction allows for specialized practices directed towards the students’ personal needs. Experienced and passionate Yoga Instructor with over 15 years of teaching experience.

I offer Hatha Yoga including modification for beginner, intermediate, and advanced students with an emphasis on alignment and breath work.  This work assists and complements where you are in your life at this time.  I am committed to providing extensive instruction and counseling to my clients, while motivating them to find true inner peace, so each student can live a healthier and more productive life. I will create a teaching plan with the goal to support each and every student.  I do this bringing forth a love and respect for the art of yoga, and all that it encompasses.

·       Guide students through encouraging and effective mind and body practices

·       Attend training workshops and seminars to ensure my teachings are of the highest quality

·       Work to ensure safety, comfort and fulfillment of student

·       Promote a calm, welcoming, and fun atmosphere

·       Teach centering, mediation and relaxation from beginning to end

·       Challenge students to remain sensitive to their individual needs and goals

Jnana Yoga

Together with Bhakti (devotion), Karma (activity), and Raja (meditation), Jnana yoga is one of the traditional schools of yoga, each offers a route to moksha (spiritual freedom) and self-realization. Jnana (Sanskrit for “knowing” or “wisdom”) is one of the most straightforward yet complex ways to experience spiritual growth. Ancient Hindu literature that emphasizes freedom from suffering, the Bhagavad Gita, first introduced the idea of Jnana yoga. Jnana yoga is a thorough investigation into the Self. Using the mind to comprehend and discover the reality underlying the mind is the goal of Jnana yoga. According to Jnana yoga, practitioners must seek an experienced understanding of the Divine, universal consciousness, or Truth.

Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga are often blended and confused with each other.  While it is true that both offer components of physical and energetic well-being, Hatha Yoga is derived from Tantra, focusing mostly on purity, balance, and health within the physical and energetic bodies. Raja Yoga is a study of the human mind, becoming aware of its habitual tendencies, and ultimately transcending identification with the body-mind-intellect multiplex through meditation to rest in the vast ocean of consciousness, which comprises it all.  A Raja Yogi is self-sufficient, fearless, and independent.  Raja yoga is a way of practice and self-discipline. Raja yoga is closely tied to the Noble Eight-Fold Way.

Karma Yoga

Karma yoga is one of the most effective and practical means most people prefer for spiritual development. This is because it is known to be a way of action, selfless service towards other people, and a way to self-realization and spiritual liberation. Both Hindu and Buddhist traditions define karma, which is derived from the Sanskrit word for “activity,” as the total of a person’s deeds in their past, present, and future states of existence. Karma, or the road of action or selfless service to others, is a concept in yoga. One of the most valuable and successful methods for spiritual development is karma yoga. The Bhagavad Gita, a 700-verse Hindu text believed to have been written between the fifth and second centuries B.C.E., was where karma yoga was first described. Karma yoga is undoubtedly the most helpful method for achieving escape from suffering. It’s about selfless action, which involves providing service out of the goodness of one’s heart while being fully present and conscious.

Hatha Yoga

Hatha yoga emphasizes proper breathing and posture to channel one’s vital energy. Hatha is the Sanskrit word for force. Classes typically last 45 to 90 minutes, including breathing exercises, yoga postures, and meditation. The practice incorporates the body, breath, and mind. Although yoga postures, asanas, and breath control were first documented as a strategy to improve vital energy, it took another 1,000 years for hatha yoga breathing practices to appear in Buddhist and Hindu scriptures dating back to the first century. In the 15th century, classical Hatha yoga featured instructions for the proper practice, asanas, pranayama or breathing exercises, mudras or hand gestures, and meditation for a person’s spiritual development. Hatha yoga is increasingly renowned for its benefits to the body-mind-spirit connection on both a physical and spiritual level.

Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti yoga is frequently referred to as the path of devotion or the ‘yoga of love’. Many practices that encourage one’s heart to express love in many diverse devotional ways will help you take the Bhakti yoga path. Many researchers and instructors today define Bhakti yoga in a much more universal way. They view it as the pursuit of unwavering love for everyone and everything. Furthermore, ever since thought and critical reasoning have become part of human culture, people have been interested in the Divine. In the earliest Hindu scriptures, and the first texts of yogic teaching (1500 BC) mantras and prayers that Bhakti yoga practitioners say have their roots in the Vedas. These are a collection of Hindu scriptures that were written over a long period, between the 1st century BC and the year 1400 CE/AD.

Tantra Yoga

Tantra Yoga is an updated version of the traditional Vedic and yogic spiritual disciplines. The Tantric’s created novel, unconventional methods for experiencing the reality of one’s true self, the unity of the entire cosmos. Tantra recognized the importance of the body as a tool to explore and delight in, as opposed to expanding and directing one’s awareness externally. In the past, yoga practices emphasized giving up the physical body and making a conscious effort to separate from the misery experienced in the body. On the other hand, tantra found the importance of being aware of and enjoying the body’s internal energy world. Given that hatha yoga developed from this system of yoga and that tantra offers a context for the many practices and techniques of contemporary yoga, it is crucial to comprehend the techniques and objectives of tantra yoga. Tantra is a form of yoga that combines a variety of practices, including mantra meditation, visualization, mudras, pranayama, and initiation to learn about the inner cosmos through our physical forms.

The asana, pranayama, and mudra techniques use the physical body to awaken energy. Therefore, the Tantra yogis created the yoga asanas (postures) and pranayama (breathing techniques) employed most frequently in Hatha Yoga today.

The Eight Limbs of Yoga Explained

1st Limb – Yama (a code of conduct which provides direction toward a purposeful and happy existence).

The yamas, or the ethical restraints, are the first step of the eight-limbed path of yoga, making them a foundational step for all serious yoga practitioners. This limb has five components: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy or energy conservation, and non-hoarding. These are essentially guidelines on how to live a more ethical and harmonious life.

The yamas are something that we take beyond the yoga mat and engage with in our daily interactions. For example, the principle of non-violence reminds us of the importance of engaging with compassion with ourselves and others in our lives. While the principles of non-stealing and non-hoarding remind us to observe our relationship with objects, time, and people and to engage with things in a reciprocal, harmonious, and balanced manner.

2nd Limb – Niyama (self-study, self-cleanliness, contentment, clarity of body, mind and spirit)

The niyamas are the next step of living an ethical and harmonious life. These principles are again often taken beyond the yoga mat and practiced in daily living. But in contrast to the yamas, the niyamas are not often as visible in our daily interactions and are typically an internal practice you engage in.

3rd Limb – Asana (your seat, where you sit to meditate, your pose)

Asana, or physical postures, is perhaps the most widely known component of the eight limbs of yoga. Nearly every yoga class incorporates asana in some way. But in the traditional understanding of the eight limbs of yoga, the meaning of asana was simply a stable and comfortable seated position to practice meditation and breathing exercises.

Traditional asana practice was not nearly complex in the past as it is today, and it was also typically a slow and meditative practice in contrast to the fast-paced yoga classes we see today. That being said, asana practice in all forms is part of the eight limbs of yoga because any posture can be fertile ground to connect deeper with the inner self and explore the principles of yoga on the mat.

4th Limb – Pranayama (regulation of breath)

Pranayama is the practice of specific breathing techniques that are aimed at controlling or influencing the flow of prana/air, or vital life force energy. Prana is the main underlying energy that flows through the nadis or energetic channels throughout the body, mind, and spirit. With specific breathing techniques, we can gradually influence the flow of this energy, clear out blockages, and facilitate the raising of our consciousness.

The typical foundational practice to begin exploring pranayama is through diaphragmatic breathing or the 3-part breath. Initially, yoga students are encouraged to work on slowing down and extending their breath while also beginning to incorporate pauses or breath retentions after the inhalation and exhalation.

8 Limbs of Yoga

5th Limb – Pratyahara

Pratyahara is the first step toward gradually moving deeper inwards and connecting with your inner consciousness. Pratyahara can be roughly translated to mean withdrawal of the senses. This component of yoga emphasizes the philosophical concept that our senses are constantly being bombarded and distracted by the outside world, and through yoga practice, we begin to methodically move our awareness inwards.

There are many ways to practice pratyahara while engaging in yoga asana or pranayama practice by simply closing your eyes and focusing inwards..

6th Limb – Dharana (focusing on a single point)

Dharana is the first step to beginning to deepen into meditation. To begin practicing single-pointed awareness, you must first choose a point to anchor your mind. Some common points of awareness for dharana may be on the breath, body sensations, a mantra, a mandala, or a candle flame.

Many people struggle to focus their attention on a single point for very-long. With continued practice you will attain dharana.

7th Limb Dhyana (absorption)

Dhyana is the deeper practice of meditation. In this level of meditation, the boundary layer between self and other begins to dissolve as you become absorbed in your point of focus.

There is no longer a limit between yourself and your point of focus as you slowly merge into the experience of absolute oneness – the ultimate state of meditative awareness.

8th Limb – Samadhi (pinnacle of union)

Samadhi is not a practice but a goal or an experience that one hopes to achieve. Essentially, samadhi is the experience of complete enlightenment or awakening. This state is also known by other terms, such as moksha or nirvana. Engaging with samadhi in your everyday life is out of the capacity for most people, but we can use this understanding of awakening as a way to keep us motivated on the path of yoga and moving toward the goal of reaching higher states of consciousness.