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My Yoga Journey

I started practicing yoga in 2002--Bikram at first, then general hatha classes at a gym & then Infinite Bliss Yoga studio. When Anusara came to town, I immediately felt the difference its principles & teachings made in my body. Later, as I came to understand more of tantric philosophy, it began to make a significant difference in my mind & spirit as well. I began to make greater & greater peace with my body, & with the way the universe works, the way teaching works. My yoga began to impact my university teaching, & my writing, my thinking.

 

Then, in December of 2011, I felt called to train as a yoga teacher, to bring the yoga that was transforming my life to the broader Louisville community. I started by teaching a few friends, privately, then brought free classes to Bellarmine University students. In spring 2012, I created an Interdisciplinary course at Bellarmine on yoga philosophy & literature, which included asana, pranayama, & meditation. And in June 2013, I was given my first regular class at Infinite Bliss. Currently, I have three weekly classes at IBY and have just completed my 200-hour teacher training in the Anusara school & hope to be an Anusara Elements teacher (RYT 200) within a few months!!!

 

What's next? I have been working and writing in the field of trauma recovery for the past few years (2012-2016). My next project will be to complete further, specialized yoga teacher trainings in trauma sensitive yoga and stand-up paddleboard yoga! One goal is to offer trauma sensitive classes in the Louisville community, both for veterans and for the general public. My long-term dream is to work at a trauma rehab facility or a retreat center, offering yoga classes both to trauma survivors and to their counselors and caregivers.

choose your own adventure...
My Teaching Philosophy

Anusara (informed by rajanaka tantra) holds a radically positive view of the human condition. The body is not a problem;  the mind is not a problem. Many yoga systems treat the body as something to be transcended, or fixed, or worked into the ground, cleansed, purified, apologized for. In my view, the body is a gift, to be enjoyed and experienced fully. It may not always feel or do exactly as we'd like, but we are beyond lucky to inhabit our bodies, and we can choose to engage them & engage the principles of Anusara to enhance our physical experience.

 

The mind is likewise, not a problem. Our thoughts & feelings also may be painful, problematic even, but the mind is a gift we can engage & influence & explore. We do not have to still its "chatter," necessarily; we do not have to mistrust our minds in favor of our feelings or our bodies. My mind, my body, and my spirit or "heart" are all intertwined, all part of one amazing package that is capable of the full range of human emotion & action.

 

By extension, I think this view entails that the student is not a problem. It is not my task as the teacher to fix her body, or control his experience. He or she chooses freely to draw near to a teaching (perhaps less to the teacher personally), chooses how to engage, what to take away and how he or she will use that teaching. I make a point to learn students' names, to encourage them verbally throughout the class, to notice what their bodies & spirits seem to need, & to offer as much or as little support as they need to achieve the optimal form of the pose for them in that day's practice.

 

PROPS TO MY TEACHERS:

 

  • denise stottman

  • taylor mcfarlane

  • laura patterson

  • laura beasley

  • allison terracio

  • nate terracio

  • teresa phelps martin

  • catherine guthrie

  • dara harper

Student Testimonials

  • "Yoga with Olga-Maria is 

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