All paths lead to yoga.
A life-long dancer and lover of all movement arts, I started dabbling in yoga in the mid-1990s as I sought a practice I could do on my own daily. As a householder and mother of 3 young children, I very much needed a personal movement practice as basic self-care, centering, and grounding. It became a more serious practice beginning in 1996, when I discovered the depth and precision of Iyengar Yoga.
I entered graduate school for my other love, creative writing, in 1998, at Antioch Los Angeles. All the hours of reading and writing paid a heavy toll on my body, and I used yoga consistently to counteract those effects. The result was that when I graduated in 2001, I began teaching Iyengar Yoga full-time.
In 2003, friends and I opened Riverwest Yogashala, a nonprofit community-based Iyengar Yoga center in Milwaukee, WI. I served as director until 2013, when I decided to move to Detroit, MI.
"I came to join the revolution," I told folks who asked me, "why Detroit?" I believe Detroit is 10-20 years ahead of any other city in the USA. De-industrialization has been taking place for 60 years in this former manufacturing capitol, so Detroiters have had to develop alternatives in the face of unemployment and ongoing economic/social/political shifts. Detroit is at the front line of issues of water rights, privatization, gentrification, race, home foreclosures, and more. Detroiters are survivors and warriors with a flourishing resilience, creativity, determination, and wakefulness. I have come to Detroit to learn, and to contribute in anyway I can.
I use writing as a healing practice and write essays, poems, and songs, and teach workshops combining movement and writing. I served as Milwaukee Poet Laureate 2006-2008, and I have a few poetry chapbooks and a full-length collection.
I embrace the "Healing Justice" movement to describe my practices, whether yoga, creative writing, cooking, gardening, and more. As Guruji BKS Iyengar reminds us, "Yoga is primarily for individual growth, but through the individual, society and community develop." I have to heal myself in order to be available to my friends, family, neighborhood, and broader community. As I heal myself, I turn the fruits of my healing outward, to promote positive social change, and to dismantle oppression (white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, heterosexism, etc), while actively building alternatives.
Since 2017, I have the privilege of being a live-in caregiver for beloved elder and activist, Baba Baxter Jones, a PSWD (person surviving with disabilities), who has been teaching me so much about Ableism. I have embraced Disability Justice as part of Healing Justice, to dismantle the intersecting systems that limit and oppress us.
Iyengar Yoga is my primary tool for Healing Justice. I am a Senior Intermediate I Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, with thousands of hours of training completed and ongoing. I have studied for month-long stints at Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017. I study with Senior Teachers Laurie Blakeney, Lois Steinberg, and others in the USA. I mentor developing teachers and teach classes and workshops in the USA and South Korea. I believe in the power and genius of Iyengar Yoga as a tool for healing our bodies, minds, and communities, and strive to convey it humbly and effectively. I am committed to sharing this practice as broadly as possible to all earnest seekers, regardless of economic status. To this end, I teach on a community gift basis, welcoming all forms of exchange.
Join me, heal with me.
A life-long dancer and lover of all movement arts, I started dabbling in yoga in the mid-1990s as I sought a practice I could do on my own daily. As a householder and mother of 3 young children, I very much needed a personal movement practice as basic self-care, centering, and grounding. It became a more serious practice beginning in 1996, when I discovered the depth and precision of Iyengar Yoga.
I entered graduate school for my other love, creative writing, in 1998, at Antioch Los Angeles. All the hours of reading and writing paid a heavy toll on my body, and I used yoga consistently to counteract those effects. The result was that when I graduated in 2001, I began teaching Iyengar Yoga full-time.
In 2003, friends and I opened Riverwest Yogashala, a nonprofit community-based Iyengar Yoga center in Milwaukee, WI. I served as director until 2013, when I decided to move to Detroit, MI.
"I came to join the revolution," I told folks who asked me, "why Detroit?" I believe Detroit is 10-20 years ahead of any other city in the USA. De-industrialization has been taking place for 60 years in this former manufacturing capitol, so Detroiters have had to develop alternatives in the face of unemployment and ongoing economic/social/political shifts. Detroit is at the front line of issues of water rights, privatization, gentrification, race, home foreclosures, and more. Detroiters are survivors and warriors with a flourishing resilience, creativity, determination, and wakefulness. I have come to Detroit to learn, and to contribute in anyway I can.
I use writing as a healing practice and write essays, poems, and songs, and teach workshops combining movement and writing. I served as Milwaukee Poet Laureate 2006-2008, and I have a few poetry chapbooks and a full-length collection.
I embrace the "Healing Justice" movement to describe my practices, whether yoga, creative writing, cooking, gardening, and more. As Guruji BKS Iyengar reminds us, "Yoga is primarily for individual growth, but through the individual, society and community develop." I have to heal myself in order to be available to my friends, family, neighborhood, and broader community. As I heal myself, I turn the fruits of my healing outward, to promote positive social change, and to dismantle oppression (white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy, heterosexism, etc), while actively building alternatives.
Since 2017, I have the privilege of being a live-in caregiver for beloved elder and activist, Baba Baxter Jones, a PSWD (person surviving with disabilities), who has been teaching me so much about Ableism. I have embraced Disability Justice as part of Healing Justice, to dismantle the intersecting systems that limit and oppress us.
Iyengar Yoga is my primary tool for Healing Justice. I am a Senior Intermediate I Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher, with thousands of hours of training completed and ongoing. I have studied for month-long stints at Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2017. I study with Senior Teachers Laurie Blakeney, Lois Steinberg, and others in the USA. I mentor developing teachers and teach classes and workshops in the USA and South Korea. I believe in the power and genius of Iyengar Yoga as a tool for healing our bodies, minds, and communities, and strive to convey it humbly and effectively. I am committed to sharing this practice as broadly as possible to all earnest seekers, regardless of economic status. To this end, I teach on a community gift basis, welcoming all forms of exchange.
Join me, heal with me.
2 comments:
Thank you Peggy!! You have given so much to so many.
Thank you! I found your blog as I was searching for more critical affirmative and non-AngloEurocentric, or Hindu nationalist interpretation of yoga sutras. Saludos in solidarity...
Post a Comment