The new equation for the future of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is to end traditional codependency in yoga and to shift the holding of the sacred fire of yoga to the individual practionier. 

Ashtanga is evolving towards (or remembering) a new way of existing in energetic balance. I’m extending the invitation to examine, disengage and drop the belief that a student MUST be in the Mysore room 5 days a week, continually being seen and adjusted by a teacher, as a necessary requirement of mastering their body and their Ashtanga practice.

Refocusing the where the true power of Ashtanga stems from, the practitioner. A teacher who recognizes the power of the student becomes someone who provides information, maintains the integrity of the Ashtanga Method protocol while also holding the space for students to find their own affirmation, their own ok, their own Ashtanga practice. 

Taking practice with me once a week - the way T. Krishnamacharya taught - gives time for deep integration of effects of the asanas there by allowing yogis to more quickly approach self-mastery by requiring them hold the sacred fire of yoga for themselves. To allow that fire to grow within them, rather than be given away to someone else 5 days of the week!

This new/old format of Ashtanga empowers the Ashtanga student and is supportive of their individual journey of fulfilling their purpose in this life, creating a direct path for Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga practitioners to spiritually grow up. To grow into self-empowered, sovereign spiritual adults who know their yes’s and their no’s.

Spiritual adults who are able to be effective in this world. Who are able and willing to set and hold their own boundaries that enable them to honor, maintain, and direct their energy into their calling to create whatever they are here on earth to create or heal or do. 

In order for me to follow up that big statement about what’s next for Ashtanga, here’s a bit about how I got here. Yoga began for me by spontaneously practicing the final pose of closing sequence of Ashtanga yoga at the age of 6. Later in life as a young mom I reconnected with yoga and my brilliant teacher Gretchen Robinson. Practicing with her for several sacred and special years was a time of intense and pure yoga consisting of my teacher, my mat, my practice. It was the time before the internet and existence of social media.  With all the transformations this brought, I knew I wanted to pursue teaching yoga. This meant committing to steeping myself in my own practice and study as well as rearranging my life to allow for it. With the support of my husband, Chuck and our kids and a few years of job changes from an office job, to licensed massage therapist, to personal trainer, I was finally able to teach yoga full time at a combination of gyms and studios in Kansas City. Another couple years and I had the opportunity focus on solely teaching Ashtanga and to travel to India to practice with Rolf and Marci Naujokat early 2012. Shortly after returning from this trip to India I had the joy of meeting Tim Miller in Kansas City at Maya Yoga workshop! June and August of that same year I went to Encinitas to Tim’s shala and completed his Primary Series and Intermediate Series Training. Ashtanga can spark a quick expansion that’s no joke. During Primary series training at Tims shala I experienced a full kundalini ascending event as well as the secondary kundalini event that occurs at the heart chakra. I was incredibly lucky to be with my teacher during this time. Talk about expansion! I’m forever grateful for Gretchen’s lightning wisdom transmissions of deep yogic knowledge and strength that provided the foundation to me giving me the ability to remain grounded while receiving and integrating multidimensional levels of expansions.

Since teaching yoga in Kansas City beginning in 2009 at Gretchen’s studio, many things have shifted. Through the teaching in KC and assisting and teaching in India, Honduras, Long Island, and India I had a first-hand perspective to observe and have long conversations with many, many Ashtanga yogis from around the world. Some were teachers and some practitioners, all were diverse in age and experience. What I observed and listened to shaped my philosophy on Ashtanga more so than the tradition of Ashtanga. One of my favorite things is keeping an eye on the evolution of large collectives and I was able to do this with the Ashtanga collective through the thread of my teaching travels & the yogi’s I met. My teaching path led me from 280 hours of downright magical practice with Tim and his two training courses, to a wonderful and respected teacher Aura Revol at Yoga Utila, Utila Island, Honduras the fall of 2012. I returned annually to take over teaching at the shala through 2015. In 2013 I returned to India for practice and Rolf and Marci both invited me to come assist them. I practiced with and assisted them both from 2013 to 2015 in regular mysore classes and two and a half  30 day yoga gathering courses completing exactly 1,106 hours receiving the transmission of Ashtanga through mysore practice and assisting during that time span. In 2016 &17 I was honored to be a long term guest teacher at Aura’s very special new studio, Ashtanga Yoga Long Island. First tip to new yoga teachers, keep detailed records of your yoga path and hours you will need them!  

That’s how I came to receive direct transmission of yogic knowledge, the Ashtanga Vinyasa Method primary & intermediate series protocol for asana, adjustments, and pranayama. But what’s more interesting is what’s next! Being a yoga teacher is to accept the responsibility of having the authority to transmit yogic knowledge as yoga evolves into the future. From my scope of observing this large collective I’m highly tuned in to what’s next for those who are ready to step forward out of ending age of pieces and forward into the age of aquarius a shift that’s happening in our solar system now. From my direct experience receiving and integrating all three kundalini energy awakening events, and the openings created by them, I hold the energetic pattern that will transmit awakening energies to those who are ready and wish to receive them (who’s ready is determined by each persons higher self, not me).

Even though pieces is also associated with water, the age of pieces also represented “soul, guru, teacher” that would transmit through earth based fire activations, ascending fire of Kundalini energy for example. The age of aquarius is more about a collective sense, inclusive leadership, with descending, cosmic based water transmissions that are the next level and gentler to our human neurology. The next generations of people have a different way of being. They don’t need a piece of paper or system or tradition to tell them how to act or what to do or what is good, they are born knowing or already stepping into knowing their sovereignty, their own inner-authority. The next evolution of yoga as technology fits perfectly with this. Transmitting yogic and spiritual knowledge as technology creates space for yoga to move on from the traditional way of teaching yoga that adheres to the old ways of the age of pieces where knowledge was passed down from guru to student.

I’m honored to conscientiously and most importantly compassionately transmit yogic knowledge and Ashtanga yoga as technology, free from the old and codependent beliefs that have been attached to yoga. Currently I’m creating this elegant equation for the dynamic shift of way of being for Ashtanga Yoga through my teaching at Maya Yoga in Kansas City. You are invited to join me in being a bridge between the thousands of years of yogic tradition and the future of Ashtanga!