Don began his yoga practice in 1996. He was in his late 50s at that time. In 2002 he began teaching at the local hospital's wellness center. Five years later he completed his 300-hour teacher training certification and has since been trained to teach yoga to those with health issues -- multiple sclerosis, and heart ailments. He currently teaches regular hatha yoga classes as well as chair based yoga classes at the Vidant Wellness Center https://www.vidanthealth.com/Manage-My-Health/Wellness-Centers/Greenville and at the hospital's new Cancer Tower. His meditation training began under Usha Gulati, his first meditation teacher. He took a basic course in Jon Kabat-Zinn’s Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction program, and completed a three week meditation retreat in India. He currently teaches meditation at the Purple Blossom Yoga Studio in Greenville, North Carolina. https://www.purpleblossomyogastudio.com
Don believes that the ancient wisdom given us by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutra has its counterpart in modern, Western science, and that understanding this connection between ancient and modern is vital in helping us know how to deal with the issues related to living in these stressful times.
In the spring of 2018 he completed Level One teacher training program in breath, movement and relaxation with Dr. Richard Brown, MD and Dr. Patricia Gerbarg, MD. This program teaches the use of breath and movement to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, some manifestations of certain inflammatory issues, and PTSD. These breath and movement techniques have been shown through published scientific research to produce positive results.