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Hey, loves. 💛 I’ve got a few extra classes on the schedule this weekend. Come practice! SATURDAY @thepeoplesyogapdx SE 9-10.15a: Gentle Hatha 10.30-11.45a: Hatha Flow SUNDAY @planetgranitepdx 9.30-10.30a: Foundations/Vinyasa @thepeoplesyogapdx NE 12.15-1.30p: Vinyasa https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxf-HrunJYl/?igshid=dn1f8l7npzs2

In my flow classes this month, focus is on the shoulders—active mobility, shoulder girdle stability and strengthening work, chest opening, self-myofascial release, and more good thangs. If you’d like to practice me with, tomorrow evening I’ll be subbing an all-levels Hatha Flow @thepeoplesyogapdx NE from 7.15-8.30p. Drop-ins welcome! 💚 (at People's Yoga) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv-pBPRF716/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=wnk9q3opjkhd

For the next two weeks I’ll be leading a combo Vinyasa + Restorative class @thepeoplesyogapdx Mississippi studio, on Wednesdays from 4-5.15p. Join me! 💛 ________________ Photo skillz courtesy of @marleykimbo (at The People's Yoga) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu2TWtulkx3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15dnjiijn1t5s

Yin tomorrow (Sunday) night @thepeoplesyogapdx NE from 7.15-8.30p || Drop-ins $14 (at People's Yoga) https://www.instagram.com/p/Buh-MBXFA-K/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1bd75v8bo9umj

Hey, y’all. I’m slowly returning to teaching post-surgery. If you’d like to practice with me in the next week or so, I’ll be at @thepeoplesyogapdx NE location for a few evening classes: • Tuesday 2/26: 7.15-8.30p: Gentle Hatha • Sunday 3/3: 7.15-8.30p: Yin • Tuesday 3/5: 7.15-8.30p: Gentle Hatha Drop-ins welcome 🙏🏼 💗 (at People's Yoga) https://www.instagram.com/p/BuW-lZ5hSx9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=qatre88st69k

I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day but I appreciated seeing this in my inbox this morning, a love letter to the self sent by @rootwholebody (thank you, Lovelies!). Sharing with y’all, because the ways we are with ourselves are the ways we are with others. _____________________ Dear Me, Thank you for all that you are. You are significant, worthy, beautiful, and smart. Your thoughts and opinions are valuable. Your feelings are valid. Your body is capable and strong. You deserve a lifetime full of health and wellness. Allow yourself a little grace when times get tough. You will persevere and prevail. Revel in laughter, indulge in joy and love with everything you've got, starting with yourself. Thank you for trusting your heart, even if that meant taking a risk. I look forward to continually watching you evolve into the wonderful person you are meant to be and I promise I will respect you, honor you and cherish you for all the days of my life. Eternally yours, Me ——————— Love and light and all the good things be with you. 💛 ______________________________ Photo by @marleykimbo | Wearing my beloved @buddha_pants (at Modo Yoga Portland) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt4F-pYB3_x/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=7porver0e8i1

In my classes this last month, we’ve been exploring the theme of Grounding. Using postures that keep more of the body in close proximity to the mat, as well as lots of seated, supine, and prone postures—all of which allow us greater access to the energetic quality of the earth—we’ve approached the physical shapes as tools to explore the inner experience. We all possess an inner calm, a groundedness, an unshakeable sense of equanimity, that supports our journey in life. But it can be easy to lose track of this internal compass, particularly when life is crazy-busy and we’re pulled in many directions, with little time or bandwidth to check in with ourselves, to notice the shapes of the internal landscape. Many of the yoga asana, or postures, can be tremendous tools for tapping into that deeply rooted, inner sanctuary. I find there’s something about being physically close to the earth that encourages a closeness to oneself (which is, as a little aside, part of why I adore the practices of yin and restorative yoga, and feel they’re so powerful—much of the body remains in contact with the earth, or props). With this theme, I’ve often shared this passage from John O’Donohue, who was an incredible Irish poet and mystic, and one of my favorite voices on the marvel and wonder of beingness: “There is a place in you where you have never been wounded, where there is still a sureness in you, where there is a seamlessness in you, and where there is a confidence and a tranquility in you. And I think the intention of prayer, and spirituality, and love, is now and again to visit that inner kind of sanctuary.” ___________________________ Photo by @marleykimbo (at Modo Yoga Portland) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bthrc-XlSyx/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=nm6kn05craid

I’m having surgery next week and won’t be able to teach for a while afterward, so these will be my last two public classes the end of February: Sunday: @planetgranitepdx Vinyasa / Foundations: 9.30-10.30a Monday: @thepeoplesyogapdx SE Vinyasa: 9.30-10.45a (Temporary studio located at 4252 SE Belmont) _________ 📸: @marleykimbo https://www.instagram.com/p/BtXQ18ql1G1/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=lliwzjfs798x

When @tamiapland shared this earlier today, I LOL’d...and then I said, “Yup.” Our understanding of fascia and its functions has changed enormously in the last several years—and what we now know about it is pretty freaking incredible (but still not the whole picture)! Fascia used to be considered “simply” connective tissue but we now know it functions, among other things, as a body-wide sheath and system of communication that, at any moment, transmits more information than our nervous system! 🤯 Where muscle is concerned, fascia not only encases and connects muscles, but it penetrates the deepest layers of muscle, such that we can’t really think of them as separate entities. Because muscle is contained within fascia, the health of those tissues, our flexibility and range of motion, and overall habitual movement patterns are directly affected by what’s happening in the fascia. One way we’ve learned to promote better fascial health is to practice yin yoga. (Yay, because as many of y’all know, I love—and teach!—yin.) I’ll share more in a subsequent post about why yin is such a powerful tool for fascial health. https://www.instagram.com/p/BtMSK1fBMZW/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=15fw7c12nw1m3

One of the things I love most about getting older, is how much more of the universe I see and experience in gray rather than black and white—or said another way: as both/and rather than either/or. I come to better understand nuance, to cultivate an ability to straddle tensions between seemingly opposed feelings and ideas. And I don’t feel that this is something wholly individual, but that I am coming into better relationship with the universe as it is, rather than I am, and in the doing, realizing that those multitudes are contained within me—and all of us—too. I think that coming into a place of greater acceptance of my queerness has helped, as it has allowed me space to explore in greater depths the construct of gender and its relationship to gender presentation. One of my great personal triumphs is to have learned to present in ways that feel wholly appropriate to me (and having the support of a partner these last few years who encourages exploration of presentation in myriad ways has been instrumental in that). While I identify as a woman, I don’t place strict parameters on what that means in a physical or energetic sense—and indeed those who know me to any degree understand how I have tried over the years to help others redefine what it means to be “a woman” or “a man”, moving away from these often oppressive and unhelpful binaries. I can’t discount the environments—cultural, political, and physical (i.e. living in a progressive place like Portland) that have afforded me space to breathe and explore, as well. So now it is that I allow myself to occupy greater space on the spectrum of physical presentation, and within myself greater space to be whoever the fuck I feel like being, to feel however the fuck I need the feel, to embrace more of the both/ands—even if it means I confuse or confound others, like, say, the classmates in my nephew’s class who, when I visited recently, asked if I were his father. 😆 I’m just really fucking stoked that more of us are unlearning in ways that allow for seeing more of the multitudes of each other and ourselves, more of the time. And that being “a woman” doesn’t have to mean what, or look like, it used to. 👊🏼 https://www.instagram.com/p/BtFMXNQge27/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=118cqtytnywup

More forest-rope-faerie magic w/ @marctaylor_photos https://www.instagram.com/p/BroDOKCBj4T/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=93hvsojyjf06

When I am among the trees rope and photo by @marctaylor_photos (at Washington Park) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrfuLKngsmB/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=vwf02kx6tryd

A little throwback of me and Mr. 눈이, from our Korea-livin’ days. Can’t believe he’s just turned 7! 🇰🇷🐶 #koreanjindo #진도개 #대한민국 #expatlife #강원도 https://www.instagram.com/p/BrYJlTHg1DG/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=4pf42697nntj

#koreanjindo #진도개 #대한민국 #expatlife #강원도

Hey, loves! I’d love to see some of y’all at practice this week! 😊 Here’s where to find me: SUNDAY @planetgranitepdx 9.30-10.30a: Vinyasa (Foundations of Flow) @thepeoplesyogapdx SE 5.30-6.45p: Vinyasa 7.15-8.30p: Yin WEDNESDAY @thepeoplesyogapdx North 4-5.-5p: Vinyasa + Restorative Drop-ins welcome 👌🏼 https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq2xhEsAEmh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1f6h39q9bx2et

Really appreciate these words from my teacher @tiffanycruikshank. All of the YES! ・・・ It’s so easy to get lost in the excitement of dramatic statements in this digital world. In the world of health & fitness we go from one exciting new thing to another. And even in yoga we experience waves of trends that come and go but one thing that comes back over and over is the need for balance. It’s great to see awareness brought to things like active mobility and fascial health but there is no active mobility without passive flexibility and there is no health in the fascial system without the support of muscular strength. As well the balance of the nervous system, good digestion, endocrine/hormonal health, mental health, and so much more. It truly keeps coming back to balance! #yogamedicine https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq0VrROgr_v/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=r8t6s5x6vj6t

#yogamedicine

As we approach the frenetic holiday season, it’s an especially good time to take a restorative class or 12. Give your heart-mind and body some time to slow down, relax, and restore themselves—so that when you have to be “on,” you can operate from a more functional place. I’ll be holding space for y’all @thepeoplesyogapdx this Friday. Hope to see some of you there. 💗 https://www.instagram.com/p/BqLMNeHgUvN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=8j73wbcnp1e5

Hey, y’all. I’m back in the studio; here’s where you can find me in the coming week: SUNDAY @planetgranitepdx 9.30-10.30a: Vinyasa 4-5.15p: Restorative FRIDAY: @thepeoplesyogapdx SE 5.30-6.30p: Restorative (at Machu Picchu, Cusco, Perú) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp5Ux9sgZLN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1qhxtomfsd64q

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