I come from a long line of teachers, with a grandfather who was a principal and grandmothers who both taught in one room school houses. So, of course, I too somehow ended up in the classroom in the public school system for 15 years.
Then the diagnosis of cancer arrived, and I found that illness became my opportunity to reflect deeply on my life: the stress levels and what I could change to support my health.
It just so happened that the opportunity to do my yoga teacher training showed up at the same moment! Becoming a yoga teacher and leaving the public school were the beginning of big life shifts for me. In the training we were introduced to yoga nidra and also practiced it from a CD.
I was intrigued, but when I offered yoga nidra to groups of teens in recovery with whom I was working at the time, I had to modify the scripts I found from Swami Satyananda Saraswati’s book to make it more applicable and something was missing for me.
Four years later, I was ready for more training and during the very first module, Jennifer Reis arrived and lead Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra to our large 72 person group, magically transporting us to a level of rest I had only known briefly in meditation. I was fascinated and wanted more!
When Jennifer taught Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra Teacher Training near my home, I jumped at the chance! In the five-day training, we learned how to carefully plan and deliver yoga nidra. We also created our own healing journeys for ourselves and others, based on the sound research Jennifer brought as our trainer.
I had opened up a yoga studio and offered Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra regularly to our clients and it became an important way to reach a much larger variety of people. We were even fortunate enough to have Jennifer Reis come to the studio and lead Five Element Yoga® and Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra. The result for me has been transformative both to me as an instructor, and as a personal tool for me to practice myself, especially when I can sense I need more grounding.
Today, many years after the cancer surgeries and subsequent treatments, I teach yoga and yoga nidra to a large population of over 55 seniors who find their way to me in my very active, adult community where I now live in Florida. Once a month, the studio is packed with dear souls, carrying mats, eye pillows and small pillows – ready to settle in for the deep healing of Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra.
I am honored to hold space for each person and find this work to be a natural extension of the compassionate self-awareness that is Kripalu Yoga. I feel my own story of health and wellness is supported by my regular yoga and Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra practices.
I have so much gratitude for my teachers, and their teachers, including dear Jennifer Reis, who opened my heart to new possibilities. I am aware that every breath is a new beginning.