Yoga
Yoga as a full path and scope of practice offers everything one needs for a contented heart, peaceful mind, healthy body, and a well-lived life. Yoga as a life practice is to align with the felt sense of what's happening in any given moment, and to bridge the gap between one's inner and outer life. Most of what is offered in the United States Yoga scene is the physical practices, often amped up to fast paced, and fitness based, with little discussion of the depths of the spiritual side or subtleties of the practice. There are some teachers and studios out there bringing the balance of softer practices, stillness practices, and illuminating the studies of subtle body work, somatics, gentle movements, restorative, and yin style practices – but those are in the minority! If none of these words make sense, then keep googling! Or give me shout and we can make time to chat about it all.
Yoga is not a religion, or a physical fitness program, but an entire scope of disciplines, values, and inquiries that connect one with the felt sense of who and what they truly are. While Yoga is a philosophy, it is one that lays its trust in the Divine. It can be included in any religious tradition and simply asks of someone to find, strengthen, and reside in one's true nature. Easy to say, simple in concept, and the difficult work of a lifetime. : )
Yoga Therapy
Yoga Therapy (YT) is a fast growing field today, and was little known when I became an accredited Yoga Therapist in 2015. YT is all inclusive of what Yoga is, and makes room for a particular need being illuminated, met, transformed and healed. That need can be working with injury of the body, of the psyche, or heart, or all three -- as they are not separate. Yoga therapy can offer refinement in relationships with self, one's parts, or other beings. Maybe someone wants to understand a particular movement of the body, a family of poses, or a part of one's body that doesn't feel totally connected or whole. Yoga Therapy is digging into questions in the interest of connection, understanding, learning and growing. Anything applies and it's all valid!
