Essentially my job behind the camera was to make sure everything looked perfectly balanced and composed. I was training my eyes to become the master observer I am today. That skill along with my passion for health and creating wellbeing are natural gifts I bring to you as a Yoga Therapist.
​
As I explored deeper training in breath and movement I understood how those external adjustments originated in the mind as thoughts and under stress, these thoughts created dysfunctional patterns. I needed to know more, not just to heal my own body but to share the art and science behind this connection as a yoga therapist. Through both sides of the lens, I have used this intimate work of the body to help bring more function into the lifestyle, careers, relationships and hearts of my clients.
I currently live in beautiful Marin County, CA. as a yoga teacher, business woman and therapist. I design yoga classes, workshops and private therapy sessions for people in transition, who have health concerns, chronic illness and everyday life-style dramas. Together we co-create what I call "the essential yoga care package" with prescriptive practices for health. wellness and balance.
Like you, I have a background and story that has brought me to this point in my life. I have always had gifts as an athlete and expressed them up through highschool through sports. Other interests and talents seemed more appropriate for the business world and so after graduating from college with a degree in advertising design, I was lucky to land a job as a designer. I continued with “ladder climbing” career moves and although I loved my job, the travel and deadlines took their toll. I began to require more vacation time to recuperate from projects and on one vacation, a ski accident brought me to my first yoga class.
I remember lying in corpse pose on an off-gassing, carpeted boardroom floor at the AMA headquarters in downtown Chicago. It was there, in the dim haze of bad florescent lighting where I experienced...something. My mind, for the first time, recognized that the only person I was really competing with was myself and my mind stopped. That was it. Stillness.
I drank my practice up and began teaching before I was certified. In between the demands of an 80 hour work week I finally caught up with myself and received my first Yoga certification at the Kriya Yoga Temple in Chicago as well as my certificate in T’ai Chi Chih. I began teaching in the very same profession was running me ragged.
After moving to the Bay area I left the world of 9-5 when the economy “downsized” me from my Creative Director Position. In spite of the perceived loss of identity, this presented the obvious opportunity for me to freelance and begin teaching yoga full time. I was fortunate enough to find a community of teachers in Marin County and became certified in Baptiste Power of Yoga. I also worked part time at a yoga studio and attended a workshop with Mirka Kraftsow. Another moment of stillness as the pain in my back subsided for the first time since my ski accident and I was on my way to my next training. I fell in love with Viniyoga as a form of healing therapy and half way through my 500 hour teacher training a turn of events changed me and my practice forever.
My beloved partner of 17 years was rushed to the ER room one evening and diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. All energies, collided and the following 18 months were a test in faith and ultimate survival for me as breadwinner, caregiver and holder of an unknown fate that was ultimately death. My yoga asana practice took a back seat and a deeper practice of bhakti yoga emerged. In the years since Keiths’ passing, I have traversed the many corners of my psyche and heart to find reasons, answers, shortcuts and addictions to relieve the pain and suffering of grief and loss. Through all of this, my yoga practice has refused to leave my side and has grown into a constant companion.
I can now say this event was one of the biggest gifts I could have ever received. To feel the “thwack” of impermanence and the depth of unconditional love is something I had only read about. Those experiences radically altered my path and morphed me into the teacher and person I am today. I allowed myself to accept this initiation as a “free fall” from my ego, self, and identity. I sold most of my possessions, let go of old relationships that no longer served me and over a two year period felt light enough to move myself to the island of elements and the unavoidable arms of Mother Maui. My husbands’ illness through allopathic and homeopathic treatments had given me the experience and trust in my own intuition to navigate the wisdom of my own healing. My island life, aloha and, yoga became my cure.
When I finally decided to step back into mainland life again however, I had no idea how challenging it would be or how long it would take to adapt back into the mainstream of urban life. During that transition, I reached for the deeper therapeutic teachings of Viniyoga Therapy. I found comfort in practices for anxiety, depression and the pranayama techniques became the delightful antidote to my menopausal symptoms. Now, as a Viniyoga Therapist through the Ayurvedic College at Mount Madonna, I know that as I continue to learn and teach, I bring that deep knowledge, experience and understanding to every student I work with. The presence I carry after almost three years of solitude and hermitage on Maui now attracts a different kind of student. My awareness has deepened, my attention re-directed and my priorities shifted.
We all have a story and I have humbly offered you mine. As I continue to let go to what is next, there is nothing else that would wake me up in the morning with joy. And more importantly, there is nothing else that would matter to my heart. I am here to serve. In whatever form of yoga it takes, as a business woman, yoga therapist or partner, I have experienced how yoga CAN cure the perceived separation from our wholeness, our SELF and our optimal wellness and contribution to the world. I have experienced it, lived it and I continue to create personal, adaptive practices to help others find their own “cures”. I look forward to you joining me on this journey. Please connect with me soon. Much Aloha, Linda