Pivoting

When I first moved to Nashville in January of 2019, I had planned to take a short hiatus from work to focus on being a full-time mom and managing our historic district home renovation before ultimately creating a private practice once my second baby was weaned. Well, we all know how 2020 went down, and all of my "plans" went right out the window, and it didn't look like returning to the treatment room was going to happen anytime soon. In the midst of all of the uncertainty, I found myself stripped of my former identity, as perhaps you did, too. I have worked full time since I was 18 years old, and without that role, or even the option of going back to work,  there was a big gaping hole in who I thought I was. I developed severe insomnia as a result of the anxiety I felt and spent the next two years devoted to understanding rest in all its' forms. It was through this dark phase that I was re-introduced to Yoga Nidra, a rest-based meditation practice that allowed me to experience rest, even if I couldn't experience sleep. And it changed everything. Through this practice, I explored all of my deep-seated beliefs about rest and discovered that I innately did not feel worthy of rest for a variety of cultural and  familial reasons, and was given the opportunity to heal these beliefs through the practice. And as I shared my journey with others, I came to realize that so many of us do not feel worthy of rest, which is no wonder, as we have all grown up in an extremely masculine culture that demands and rewards us for constantly doing/achieving/accomplishing. Yoga Nidra is a practice that celebrates being, and honors each person as a divine vehicle regardless of what we "do". We are all worthy of rest. It is our birthright. Yoga Nidra helped me reclaim myself as something so much larger than any role I may take on.

And so, while I still draw on my experience and knowledge in Ayurveda, massage, and skincare, my deepest desire is to help people discover the truest part of themselves, way below the surface of the skin through Yoga Nidra meditation and Yoga-informed intuitive movement. While witness-based meditation practices have been practiced for thousands of years, and ultimately teach us to transcend our bodies, I believe that most of us in this day and age carry trapped trauma inside of our bodies, and until we can transform it through movement, meditation can just be another way to disassociate. In my practice, somatic-experiencing inspired movement precedes Yoga Nidra to gain a deeply grounded foundation before experiencing the more transcendent sensations of Yoga Nidra.

I look forward to expanding my offerings via group classes and recorded meditations in the fall of 2022 in Nashville, and eventually private, one-on-one experiences in 2023 that incorporate movement, self-massage, breath work, and Yoga Nidra.