I have a busy brain

I won’t lie to you.  My mind can move a mile a minute.  Out of necessity, I developed the ability to keep a lot of plates spinning at once, metaphorically speaking.  And there are definitely times when that’s served me well.  I’ve managed large teams to great success.  I’ve progressed in my career.  I’ve worked full time while being in school full time and come out with solid grades and most of my sanity.  But in cultivating the skills that were necessary for my success at the time, my ability to maintain an awareness of my own emotional and intellectual ecosystem slowly eroded and I’ve needed to rediscover my sense of self.

Yoga helps me to step more keenly through my life.

Humans come to yoga practice for a lot of reasons.  For fitness, for community, for the music. For the release and the relief.  As a physical being, yoga’s āsana practice, the shapes, movements, and poses on the mat, offers me a lens through which to focus my mental energies back on myself.  Once those I turn those energies even a little more inward, my mind can begin to slow.  It becomes a little easier to see myself a little more clearly and not to be distracted by all of the movement in my busy brain.  Truth: Some days it’s easier than others.

As a physical and philosophical practice, yoga offers me the opportunity to learn to guide my attention so that my attention doesn’t guide me instead. 

There are a lot of shiny objects in New York.  Lots of things that can call for my attention.  And if I’m not aware of myself, my mind moves to the first shiny object that I see.  And where my thoughts go, my mind, my eyes, my intentions, and my body are likely to follow.

Working first with my tangible body makes it easier to work with my intangible mind.

The exquisite attention to detail of yoga’s physical practice requires all of my attention to execute well.  Interacting with my complex and tangible body in the āsana practice prepares me for the more subtle work of interacting with my equally complex but intangible thoughts as I move both my mind and body towards the stillness that meditation demands.

When I move through my day without the developing awareness of self that my yoga has offered me, I might still get the broad strokes.  But there’s a chance I’ll miss some of the smaller details that hold a lot of value.

Everybody is different and every body is different.  

My years of experience as a licensed massage therapist and studies of anatomy, myology, neurology, and pathology greatly inform how I move in my own body and coach others in how to move in theirs.   That said, every yoga practice is different.  I believe in working with all of the glorious range and strength and movement available to you to develop the yoga practice that is truly yours.  I believe in fitting the pose into your body rather than fitting your body into the pose.  

Yoga comes in all shapes and flavors and what works for one person or personality might not be what works for another, both physically and philosophically.  So we work together to discover how you thrive.  We work together to find the practice that sustains you and that’s sustainable for you.

I believe that it’s possible to sweat and laugh at the same time.

Truth: Life and sometimes yoga are far too challenging not to enjoy the effort that they require.

I look forward to working with you,

Buddy