My Mission, Motivation & Mentors

hOMnaturale: Yoga & Natural Family Health

My mission in life is to practice what I teach, and teach what I practice, which is to live a wholesome, full life. True health is living as One with nature. wholesome 1 : promoting health or well-being of mind or spirit. 2 : promoting health of body. 3a : sound in body, mind, or morals.

I feel that we teach best what we most need to learn, or that we most need to correct in our ancesteral journey. We also must do what we love and aspire to do no harm, but rather grow and blossom while contributing to the betterment of existence.

“Let the beauty you love be what you do; there are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” ~Rumi.

For me, teaching Yoga and advocating for Mother Nature’s wisdom and creativity fills me with joy and purpose. I am so grateful to be alive and to be consciously aware of this wondrous opportunity to receive light each and every morning, and as a vessel for this creative potential to learn and grow with every challenge humbly celebrate by giving back.

This is the beauty I love.

Growing up I wanted to be a traveler, a teacher and the leader of the “Smile Club,” circa 1973.

I loved trees, maple trees especially, and the smell of nature, of the pine forest, blue berry patches, grape vines and freshly cracked open chestnuts and walnuts that lined the endless rock walled pastures that surrounded my family’s farm house.

I was the middle of seven kids in my family, and the first to go off to college, as we had two family businesses that occupied us all. But I was determined to go afar, and after a few semesters at UVM and graduating from URI, I was quick to drive west and determined to teach elementary school on the Navajo Indian reservation. I ended up teaching for seven years, one in Tuba City, AZ, three years in beautiful Sedona, AZ and a few more back hOMe in my native RI.

All awhile my interests and curiosities were shared with my students regarding planetary health and wellness, including my own well being, body, mind and spirit.

I taught my first yoga class in an Oregon yurt 25 years ago, when covering for one of my most beloved teachers, Hanneli Francis, who now rests in peace. Hanneli opened me up to grace with her Anusara yoga teachings and infectious glowing smile.

I took my first yoga class years before that in 1992, in a church hall in Newport, RI with Kripalu yoga teacher, Amy Weintruab, author of Yoga and Depression. I was 28 and going through a trying divorce and my first Saturn Return; basically I was letting go of what I no longer needed, and I was picking up the habits, tools and practices which would keep me on a path to my true self. I’ve been indebted to yoga ever since.

I continued to practice nonstop through 15 years of state and career moves; Ashtanga yoga with Tias Little in Santa Fe, NM and Iyengar yoga with Judith Laseter in San Francisco, Anusara Yoga with Hanneli Francis, Samantha Shakti Brown, Sianna Sherman and Deb Neubauer; Kundalini and Pre- and Post-natal yoga with Gurmukh Kalsa; Power Vinyasa with John Baptist and Prana Flow with Shiva Rae, Coral Brown, Sherri and Usha Biotia. I am so grateful for the expert teachers in my hOMe communities of Wakefield, RI and Martha’s Vineyard as well as those accessible online from around the world. Yoga has reached so many lives, since Amy first taught me mountain pose in a retail store space during off hours.

My first 200 HR yoga teacher certification was with Don and Amba Stapleton at the Nosara Institute in Nosara Costa Rica in 2002, now several hundred of hours of teacher trainings, workshops and retreats later, and with over 18 years of weekly classes within my veins, I continue to lead classes and align my private students and clients with the wisdom and alignment principles of yoga, as a Certified Interdisciplinary Vinyasa and Prenatal yoga teacher.

Wednesdays 9:15-10:15am at RiverBend AC in PeaceDale, RI and private sessions on Martha’s Vineyard.

I wish to include that my first teacher was my own innate wisdom. At 18, before I even knew what yoga was or meant, I began to practice a flow of movements, intuited postures that kept me calm and focused during the hard to get a hold of high, that ensued after partying with psychedlics back in my freshmen year at UVM. I can remember sharing my flow with my dorm mates, and I can still hear the interns observing me in the hospital intake room saying, “I think she’s doing yoga.” During my months of hospitalization my yoga practice and breathing exercises aided my recovery back to Self, and continue to do so whenever I feel imbalanced, overwhelmed with stimuli and self doubt.

“Let the beauty you love, be what you do. There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the ground.” ~Rumi

I enjoy teaching the asanas as a movement which aligns one spiritually and physically with all the parts of who they are, with breath guiding their journey into awareness. I teach each asana often sharing it’s origin story, and sanskrit name and unique energy of which it can invoke or release. I also like to share the modern day practical benefits to the physical and spiritual self on and off the mat.

Moreover, there’s nothing like a nourishing yoga class or challenging posture, to deepen our experience called life. I like to offer a flowing sequence of poses and teachings which allow the space and time to navigate the practice at one’s own level and pace. Traditional yoga music, sanskrit, stories, poetry and references to creating natural wellness off the mat, as well as seated meditation, svasana (prone relaxation) and the use of pure essential oils add to my teachings and influence the private or community class experience.

When we sit comfortably for meditation, with drishti/focused gaze, mudras/hand gestures and mantras/repetitious chants and/or with flowing movements aligned with our breath, carefully stretching, balancing, twisting or bending, we can let go of what we recognize is not needed and invoke the goodness of this ancient practice that leads us to the seat of our soul- a settled, still place, where all wisdom rises. Ultimately the goal of the yoga practitioner is this, to know thyself as ONE. Sat Nam

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Traditional Thai Massage & EnergyBodywork

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Health Coaching

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