My name is Nora, and I started practicing yoga over 15 years ago, shortly after my first child was born. Initially my yoga journey offered physical benefits: muscles getting stronger, improved flexibility helping mobility AND the teacher encouraged me to rest (a much needed prescription for a new mom!)
For many years I placed yoga in a nice category of fitness, and I found that I had a talent for leading fitness classes. As a group fitness instructor, I learned safety components about the human body and trained with a company that integrated yoga and Pilates movements into a choreographed format I enjoyed. I fondly remember learning foundational yoga movements while six or seven months pregnant with my third baby (I now have 4 children!)
In true form of the universe’s guiding presence, doors opened and led me to my first official teacher certification in 2008 that followed a more organic approach to leading a yoga class. This sparked a new mindset in me that yoga is not only a fitness class, but a lifelong practice of quieting the mind to hear the body. The beauty of thinking of something as a practice takes away the pressure of being perfect and helps usher out self-judgment.
Today I am also certified in Tai Chi for Better Balance. This practice is different from yoga in the movements, but the underlying philosophy is very similar. Both offer the benefits of meditation, a recognition of a continuous energy field and flow that we are connected to and the realization that our breath, our chi, our prana, is the sacred component that anchors us to this blessed field of energy. Both teach the art of being in the present moment. Practicing present moment “being” is where life happens, and it is not limited to the yoga mat or the studio in which we practice! We are all on a journey, and everyone’s diverse journey is sacred. As a Yoga and Tai Chi instructor, my intention is to help guide you in your path of discovering these truths. Thank you for allowing me to know you. Namaste!