I began seeking a more varied yoga practice after attending classes at a woman's spa with a male instructor who repeated the same class over and over again. Enrolling in a local class offered through my town's Park and Rec Dept offered a wonderfully gifted teacher, Fusun Charles, who had learned under Jyoti of Starseed Yoga in Montclair, NJ.
Meanwhile, after napping in an awkward position on a wooden deck -- as a relatively young woman and mother of two, I could not turn my head without a stopping pain in the back of my right shoulder. This fright led me to explore further what was happening.
I was fortunate to be working full-time in a hospital so had access to traditional x-rays and physical therapy, but chiropractic was also suggested, and I pursued, finding out that the bones in my neck did not form the curve intended. Thus began a multi-year progression with chiropractic and yoga, which completely opened my neck and shoulders to be flexible and suffering-free enough to live a life in which I am able to look both ways when driving!
From young adulthood, I always had an interest in the mystery of life and questioned the validity of things. In college, that interest was nurtured in philosophy classes that essentially delved into the Socratic dialogues, Plato’s Republic, and outings that nurtured my experience about the physical aspects of the planet. I would notice the pattern of cracks in rocks made from long gone water when out walking with friends at Clark Reservation in upstate New York, near Syracuse.
After I graduated from college and moved to New York City to start my more formal working life, I took courses in astrology and holography and began meditating, but not in a formal way.
Meanwhile, in the summer of 2006, I read there would be a backyard presentation in the area of Bergen County, NJ, by the spiritual leader of the Himalayan Institute. I attended on a sweltering day in July. People much older than me were calmly sitting, not sweating, sipping lemon-infused water. I was dripping with sweat, wondering how they were able to withstand the heat, and the speaker had not yet come from the house!
What the speaker was to present was about connecting and making a connection throughout the world through a lecture series called Sacred Link. I liked what I heard and that is how I became affiliated with the Himalayan Institute (HI) and its U.S. headquarters in Honesdale, PA.
The speaker was Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, who was actually a student of the founder of HI, Swami Rama and one of the gurus who came to the U.S. in the 1960s. Swami Rama wanted to prove yoga was a science. And though he did demonstrate a number of unusual ways, using his body, to show inexplicable alchemical changes, his premise was not really accepted. He searched for a place to teach and for learning yoga as it was taught thousands of years ago – how he had learned – and founded HI in facilities that were once occupied by a Christian order.In 2006, I became a member of the Himalayan Instititute. Simultaneously I sought deeper levels of learning about yoga and received certification as a teacher in 2009.
I have taken my interest in philosophy and continue to apply it so that I have what you might call experiential credits. These have included many training programs at HI and elsewhere, including a Living Tantra series taught by Pandiji Tigunait, and conferences such as Ayurveda and Consciousness, presented by the Association of Ayurvedic Professionals of North America. In general I believe there is a force, energy greater than ourselves, that we can draw from to improve our lives.
My certification in basic 200-hour yoga instructor training was through Yogaworks at Highland Yoga in Butler, NJ, and taught yoga at Essence if Self in Ringwood, NJ, and for the Parks and Recreation Dept. of Pequannock Twp, also in NJ. I am also certified to teach Yoga and Meditation and am an Ayurveda Yoga Specialist.
I have visited India four times, several of these journeys were spiritual pilgrimaged with HI, including during the Khumba Mela celebration in 2013 and to practice and consecrate the Sri Vidya shrine in Kujuraho with that organization in March of 2016, attending the 10-day Sadhana Immersion titled "Techniques and Traditions of the Himalayan Masters." In 2018 we journeyed to several locations in the lower Himalayas visiting many shrines of the goddesses and Dharamsala, current home of the Dali Lama.
I currently teach at Blackbird Yoga Studio in Haworth NJ, and look forward to teaching Yoga and Meditation to urban youth in a summer enrichment program through the YMCA in 2021.