Amy discovered yoga as an Economics undergrad in 2004, finding that solace on the mat can lead to peace in the mind, even when the mind is cluttered with multivariate calculus. Ever since, yoga has been her method for finding the balance between effort and ease, logic and love. After spending years teaching dance, Amy is happy to share her love of movement in a different way, bringing her enthusiastic approach to vinyasa to the Portland yoga community by offering a powerful flowing practice that encourages inner strength and loving devotion, focused on quieting the mind and challenging the body. She hopes to inspire her students to use yoga to discover and travel their own paths to fulfillment.
MYF Workshop: Blindfold Yoga
An incredible opportunity to turn inward, ground down into your personal practice, and focus on articulation of movement. Removing a sense that we rely on so strongly will encourage you to open your third eye and move from the heart, depending on your intuition for clarity of movement. Basic knowledge of yoga is required.
Fun Fact Friday
Favorite Yoga Pose: My favorite yoga pose was once my least favorite - pigeon. Each time I would fold forward in a full prostration, I was overwhelmed with emotion. This is a pretty common experience - I find that giant hip openers like pigeon often churn up deeply held feelings for many students. So often these are feelings of sadness, pain, relief. For me, pigeon used to bring out anger the likes of which seemed so contrary to all the benefits I was finding in the rest of my yoga practice. After class one day, I shared this feeling with a teacher friend of mine, and she suggested that if this was how pigeon made me feel, perhaps I needed to do much more of it! I have found that she was right, and in the hundreds of pigeons I've done since, somewhere along the way I let go of that anger. I'm no longer holding a place for it in my hips or in my heart, and as a result am much happier, both on and off my mat. Now I can hinge forward with my hands extended in hasta mudra, release my hips onto the earth, and allow the sensationalism of the pose to wash over me.
Favorite Sanskrit word: Anahata. Literal translation "unstruck", anahata is the heart chakra, the place where our love and compassion live. Often associated with touch (my favorite sense) and the color green (another of my favorites), anahata is also the cornerstone of my lineage, the school of bhakti yoga. The connotations of love, devotion, adoration, and truth are impossible to separate, completely encompassed by this one word.
Favorite Maine adventure/road trip: This is easy! A trip with my husband and partner in adventure up Route 1 that ends in Acadia National Park. Along the way, a stop at the Big Chicken Barn to suss out an old book (or five), lunch at The Riverside Cafe in Ellsworth (might as well stop at The Grasshopper Shop while we're there!), then arrival on Mount Desert Island in the afternoon. Camp on the island with the sounds of the Atlantic in my ears as I fall asleep. Wake up early to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain for a sunrise yoga practice, a hike in the morning, an early lunch at the summit, then an afternoon kayaking on Eagle Lake. Enjoy the beautiful drive back home as the sun sets over the ocean. It's hard to beat having such a beautiful national park just a few hours from Portland!
MYF Workshop: Blindfold Yoga
An incredible opportunity to turn inward, ground down into your personal practice, and focus on articulation of movement. Removing a sense that we rely on so strongly will encourage you to open your third eye and move from the heart, depending on your intuition for clarity of movement. Basic knowledge of yoga is required.
Fun Fact Friday
Favorite Yoga Pose: My favorite yoga pose was once my least favorite - pigeon. Each time I would fold forward in a full prostration, I was overwhelmed with emotion. This is a pretty common experience - I find that giant hip openers like pigeon often churn up deeply held feelings for many students. So often these are feelings of sadness, pain, relief. For me, pigeon used to bring out anger the likes of which seemed so contrary to all the benefits I was finding in the rest of my yoga practice. After class one day, I shared this feeling with a teacher friend of mine, and she suggested that if this was how pigeon made me feel, perhaps I needed to do much more of it! I have found that she was right, and in the hundreds of pigeons I've done since, somewhere along the way I let go of that anger. I'm no longer holding a place for it in my hips or in my heart, and as a result am much happier, both on and off my mat. Now I can hinge forward with my hands extended in hasta mudra, release my hips onto the earth, and allow the sensationalism of the pose to wash over me.
Favorite Sanskrit word: Anahata. Literal translation "unstruck", anahata is the heart chakra, the place where our love and compassion live. Often associated with touch (my favorite sense) and the color green (another of my favorites), anahata is also the cornerstone of my lineage, the school of bhakti yoga. The connotations of love, devotion, adoration, and truth are impossible to separate, completely encompassed by this one word.
Favorite Maine adventure/road trip: This is easy! A trip with my husband and partner in adventure up Route 1 that ends in Acadia National Park. Along the way, a stop at the Big Chicken Barn to suss out an old book (or five), lunch at The Riverside Cafe in Ellsworth (might as well stop at The Grasshopper Shop while we're there!), then arrival on Mount Desert Island in the afternoon. Camp on the island with the sounds of the Atlantic in my ears as I fall asleep. Wake up early to drive to the top of Cadillac Mountain for a sunrise yoga practice, a hike in the morning, an early lunch at the summit, then an afternoon kayaking on Eagle Lake. Enjoy the beautiful drive back home as the sun sets over the ocean. It's hard to beat having such a beautiful national park just a few hours from Portland!
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