FAQs
- What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
I am a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher through Yoga Alliance, and I have also done a 60-hour Hot Yoga Training and a 30-hour SUP Yoga Training with Rachel Brathen.
- How did you get started doing this type of work?
Throughout the years, I have been a yoga instructor, there is one question that always seems to come up: why yoga? I’d like to say that there is a typical reason for people to begin yoga and I am some exceptional case, but that would simply be untrue. Some people do yoga to find peace in their busy lives, and some were introduced to yoga in their childhood by a family member. I am one of the collections of people who started yoga to make my body feel better. Flashback to my childhood days: I was in competitive dance, soccer, and gymnastics. I could move my body in whichever direction I desired. I was blessed with a limber body for years, and I always took it for granted. Unexpectedly, on May 1, 2012, to be exact, my life changed. I was on my way from lunch to my high school in College Station when a truck smashed into the left side of my car at over 50 miles per hour. The girl behind the wheel of the truck was texting and driving, and she didn’t notice the red light she was running through. My car was totaled and my life would never be the same. The fire department had to cut me out of my car, and they transported me to the hospital down the road. Upon my arrival, it was revealed that I had sustained significant injuries from the accident. All the ribs on my left side were broken, in addition to my sternum, right shoulder blade, tailbone, and pelvis in a few places (in the Ischial area for all you anatomy nerds). My most significant injury, however, was my torn aorta. They said my chances of survival were if you flipped a coin and it landed on its edge. The doctors at the hospital made the decision to fly me to Memorial Hermann in Houston for treatment. Long story short, I made it to the hospital, had two surgeries (one heart surgery and one to place a metal fixator in my pelvis so it would heal correctly), stayed in the hospital for ten days, and was transferred to an inpatient rehabilitation facility for a week. I was finally given the approval to go home, and a month later I had my fixator removed and had two screws put in my hip. –LESSON: DON’T TEXT AND DRIVE!!!– After all the excitement, I had to re-learn how to walk. It was during the struggle of dealing with atrophied muscles that I knew I would never take the ability to walk for granted ever again. After a month of training my body to function, I was back to semi-normal. However, I began to notice how badly my body felt. I couldn’t bend over and touch my toes – something I had easily done my whole life. My hips ached and my body was stiff. I had accepted this as my fate until the magical day I discovered yoga was a course option for the local community college I was attending. The first day of class, the instructor-led a basic yoga flow class and introduced me to my favorite pose – toe stand. During that first class, I couldn’t even bend over to get anywhere near the full expression of the pose, but the idea that I might one day do so was thrilling. After the class, I felt as though for a moment all my pain was gone. I knew then that I was in love! I immediately went home and began researching all the different challenging yoga poses I could work towards. For the next few months, I religiously practiced, met one of my best friends in the universe, and realized my true calling was becoming a yoga teacher. I wanted to make it my life’s work to help facilitate other’s healing and/or journey to mobility. A year before the anniversary of my first yoga class, I accomplished my dream of being a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT). My teacher training made me fall even more in love with yoga and, surprisingly enough, with myself. I had spent the years before my accident struggling with an Eating Disorder, and I was finally looking at my body through a different set of eyes. I began to feel my body and mind opening to possibility and acceptance. It was sincerely the greatest investment I have ever made.
- What types of customers have you worked with?
All ages, genders, and ability spectrums. Yoga is for every body and everything is always modifiable.