As we enter into this new year with renewed hope, a desire for continued personal growth, and the healing that comes from connection and community, I welcome you to join me for a class or two sometime. For those students new to me, I’ve laid out the fundamentals of my classes and workshops here and in the next few posts.

For those students looking to reconnect, I hope to see you again soon! For those looking to refer my classes to your friends and family, feel free to share this and any of my posts so they can get to know me better. If you have any questions or need any additional support, know that you can reach out any time.

Ashtanga Yoga with V

I have written about practicing and teaching Ashtanga Yoga quite a bit already and I do hope you enjoy reading about the deep love and appreciation I hold for this practice. What I’ve discovered recently is that my style of teaching this very structured and vigorous method is quite unique and students who are drawn to me certainly seem to recognize that.

I am truly passionate about making this strength-building method of yoga accessible to everyone. While all Ashtanga teachers will guide students through the set sequence of postures, the connection of those postures and transitions to the breath, and the drishti (gazing point) to maintain steadiness and focus through one’s practice, I tend to offer quite a bit of extra discussion and therefore end up talking a lot in classes. [Insert laughing emoji here, haha]

For more traditional practitioners I am fully aware that this is not a desirable feature and so those students have many, many, many other wonderful teachers from whom to learn this practice. I, however, love to share and possibly overshare multiple ways for students to physically, mentally, and emotionally access the benefits of Ashtanga Yoga at every level and intensity and this results in a very different style of class.

Ashtanga with V is therefore somewhat of a hybrid between a Led Primary Series where I lead students through the traditional count and postures but also occasionally stop the class to provide additional, detailed guidance when it may be helpful to one or two students like in a one-on-one setting. In this case everyone gets to (or has to) hear what I have to share and (hopefully) benefits from it.

This direct attention my students receive has made teaching through Zoom quite conducive and I am truly grateful for that. As we all transitioned the many areas of our lives into socially distant formats, I have learned to adjust the pace and verbal instruction of my classes to meet the needs of all those in attendance. That being said, while my regular weekly students will typically experience a more standard pace because of their familiarity with the sequence, I highly encourage anyone new to me to schedule a one on one session first and then we can work together from there.

I am looking forward to the new year ahead and finding more and more ways to support you all and the community. Stay safe and healthy and I hope to *see* you and talk with you soon.