You might be here to learn a little more about me, to read about or discuss personal practices (“blog”, header above), or to find my teaching schedule (“classes”, also in the header).
So let’s get started. As my teacher would say, “How much time do you have?”
I have 30 seconds:
My name is Mel and I’m a yoga instructor.
I support people in becoming more present and engaged in their daily lives by sharing tools for connecting with the body, the breath, and the self.
My tools are self-awareness practices including yoga, breathwork and meditation, writing and gentle self-observation; I teach these skills to groups and individuals along with kinder ways of integrating these practices into busy schedules, bringing the benefits home, and building consistency.
I’ve got time:
Quick intros are helpful, but I don’t really buy all that about getting a read on someone within the first few seconds (Except when I do. But that’s a contradiction better suited to an essay than an introduction). Read on, if you have the time.
I began online life around 2005 as a knit-blogger and occasional knitwear designer. My sister-in-law taught me to knit following a personal loss – it was a much needed way to occupy my hands and my mind – and I dove in. I studied obscure knitting techniques and their anthropology, discussed the finer points of colorwork and cables, and made friends around the world.
This creativity and community fed my personal evolution, and despite my plans for a healthy mainstream career, I stopped working overtime and began investing in other pursuits. I learned how to pull potatoes out of the dirt and make nourishing food from scratch. I paid off a mountain of debt and wrote a mountain of words and made good on some old pipe dreams. My yoga practice grew from a coping mechanism to a daily commitment. I began to teach. With my best friend, I traveled to find the Lost Coast, and Aurlandsdalen, and Göteborg, and Shiva and Ganesha and the Tsuglagkhang Temple.
Through these years of tugging at old threads and digging in the dirt I’ve unearthed some early loves. The dreams we cherish most can be the ones we bury deepest – I’m proof of that. I still don’t know exactly where this is all going or what’s going to happen next, but I’ve found some things I can carry with me wherever I go.
Now, I dig teaching people to connect with themselves in kinder ways. It’s one of these things I carry with me and a specialty I’m always practicing, whatever the method – yoga, writing, shiva nata or other techniques – they are all connected! To me, yoga is not the pretty poses we see pictures of – it’s ANYTHING that we do that connects us with our selves, anything that anchors us in the present moment and brings us closer to the truth of who we are (aaaannnd… Depending on your experience of yoga, that statement may excite and/or terrify you. I get it. I really really do). You’ll find me discussing these topics and my own experiences in personal practice and growth here on the blog.
If anything you have read here so far has tugged on you, or if you are in the midst of your own excavation process, you are most welcome here. Please come on over and join me on the blog or say hello on Facebook or Twitter, I’d love to hear your story too – the 30 second version or the many longer ones.
More specifics for the yoga practitioner (or the yoga-curious).
