WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

I didn’t find yoga…yoga found me!  

Nah, just kidding.  But that always sounds good right? 

I actually started going to yoga classes as a means of rehab.  I was 20 years old, and a division-one soccer player that couldn't even go for a jog anymore. In fact, I couldn’t do the majority of the physical activities I wanted to. I suffered major injuries to my hip and leg muscles during my second (and unfortunately final) season of soccer at UCSB. As a highly competitive athlete, I suffered numerous sprained ankles, torn ligaments, an arthroscopic knee surgery, numerous strained leg muscles, and finally the debilitating torn muscles in my hips. Needless-to-say, my body was left in very poor physical form. Thus, like many, I took to yoga for the physical benefits. I spent my early twenties practicing on and off while bouncing around to different studios. I reaped many of the physical benefits and wished I had started sooner. It became my desire to incorporate this into my future teaching profession, and more significantly, it became my life-raft when I found myself drowning in unchartered waters.

FOLLOWING THE PATH

From a young age, I knew I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps as a physical education teacher. And with my father’s advice, I geared myself toward the community college level.  

Upon earning my Master’s degree, I began seeking teaching assignments at the local community colleges.  It was early spring of 2010 that I decided to get certified in a wide variety of activities to increase my chances of fulfilling any teaching opportunity that may present itself.  To my delight, I discovered that the majority of colleges in Southern California offered yoga!  I immediately researched, found, and enrolled in a 200hr teacher-training program, set to start the following spring, 2011, in Encinitas, CA. But it wasn’t long after, that things took an unexpected turn.

DIVING DEEPER

In the fall of 2010 my father passed away. Having lost my mother a baby, my father was everything to me and I could never imagine living life without him. Yet here I was- 25 years old and forced to do so.  I was falling into the hardest time in my life. And yet, at this same time, the teaching opportunities I had been dreaming about were beginning to present themselves. Regardless of the pain I was experiencing, I took nearly all the teaching assignments I could. I knew these opportunities were rare. I knew this was my chance. And I knew how much my father would have wanted me to pursue them.

That being said, come the spring of 2011, I was in the darkest and most depressed place I had ever been in. The idea of trying to complete a 200hr yoga teacher training on top of my new teaching assignments during a time when I was just trying to survive emotionally each day, seemed far too overwhelming. I wanted to quit before I even started. I felt like I was in no mindset to take on such a task or embark on such a journey. I pushed myself to do it anyways.

To my surprise, the yoga teacher training was exactly what I needed during this period in my life. I dove deep into the philosophy and more spiritual aspects of yoga.  It was during this time that I fell in love with the teachings, and in turn, found a glimpse of my own inner light again. 

I truly believe yoga saved me.  It didn't happen over night.  Or by the end of my 200 hours. But it was the philosophy and teachings of yoga that gave me hope; the belief that one day I would find a place of peace and harmony again. That I may rediscover pure joy and true happiness again.

GROWTH AND SUCCESS

Flashback again to 2011. I had landed my first major teaching assignment at Mira Costa Community College as an associate faculty member (part-time instructor) in the Kinesiology division. Along with teaching health and fitness courses, I was one of four instructors hired to create a 200hr yoga teacher-training program at the college.  I was the youngest and by far the least experienced at teaching yoga. I was highly intimidated by the credibility of the other yoga instructors and anxious about the major task at hand. That being said, my fellow instructors were a very supportive group and it became a priceless learning experience for me. Together we created a successful 200hr Yoga Alliance certification program that launched in 2012. 

In 2013, I landed my dream job as a full-time faculty member in the Kinesiology division at Saddleback Community College. All the years of hard work and dedication had finally paid off. From the start at Saddleback, I knew I wanted to bring my yoga and wellness programs to students. Upon my arrival I quickly teamed up with a fellow dance and yoga instructor to develop our very own 200hr RYT program which launched in 2014, and continues to run successfully. Since then, I have created and been a lead instructor in the Personal Training Specialist, Holistic Health Studies, and Integrative Health for Fitness and Wellness Professionals certificate programs.

 LOOKING FORWARD

With the education, training, experience, and wisdom I have gained in the last two decades, I am finally ready to share more of what I am most passionate about, with a community outside of the college system.

Thus begins the evolution of the Wisdom and Wellness Institute.