Dear Yogadownload students, First of all, thank you for choosing to spend some time with me on your yoga mat. I love the idea that we spent part of our day together! It is truly an honor to hold space for someone's exhale, and I want you to feel comfortable showing up as simply as you can manage. In my classes, I hope that you are empowered to customize your practice to honor your beautiful body's unique design. The practice of yoga is powerful and can interrupt your bad mood, bring awareness to the "little t" truths swirling around your mind, help you re-align with your Truth, soften the effects of stress and tension, and strengthen you to walk courageously in love. My deepest prayer is that you would receive the homecoming awaiting you each and every time you return to your mat.
How do you think yoga can help the world?
I remember the first yoga class I ever took and the amazing, transcendent feeling I experienced in my first savasana. I also remember the teacher saying, "Soak in how you feel in this moment, and imagine if everyone in the world practiced yoga."
One of my favorite niyamas in yoga philosophy's ethical practices is svadhyaya, or self-study. Deborah Adele in her book, The Yamas and Niyamas, talks about how our true essence, or pure consciousness, is packed inside many "boxes" informed by country, culture, gender, town, ancestors, and family history, groups we belong to, and our personal experience. "Svadhyaya, or self-study is about knowing our true identity as divine and understanding the boxes we are wrapped in. This process of knowing ourselves, and the boxes that adorn us, creates a pathway to freedom." We see the world through the lens of our boxes, and the practice of breathwork, movement, and meditation helps us return to who we were, before the world told us who we are.
Yoga calls me to yoke with truth, and yoga philosophy teaches me that truth (satya) is married to non-violence. When I imagine everyone practicing yoga, I see a world full of people who are deeply connected to their true-self identity; and therefore, can humbly look through the lens that everybody is coming from someplace.
How has being a yoga teacher evolved for you over the years?
What are some things that have not changed. I stepped onto the yoga mat after suffering from a season of back pain and surgery for herniated discs. The hot, sweaty power yoga practice made me feel like my athletic self, after years of believing I may never be active again. For 16 years, I loved sharing a fun, music-driven, strength-building style of yoga to help inspire and empower others.
Over time, my yoga practice evolved to a more mindful movement approach, where I began to detangle some of the mental mess that was manifesting as stress and tension in my own body. While I still taught vinyasa, I started to also take and teach practices like yin that felt spacious and counter-cultural to the busy modern life. It was in these quieter practices that I witnessed a transformation and the renewing of my mind that helped me to connect to a deeper spiritual journey.
I now lead a yoga school called Living Soul Institute, where the fullness of me gets to show up and train new teachers in a holistic faith-based approach to the yoga practice. I have been a teacher trainer since 2008, and I never get tired of watching new yoga teachers come alive in their unique voice and style of teaching.
One of my favorite quotes I share with my trainees is this: “Our deepest calling is to grow into our own authentic selfhood. As we do so, we will not only find the joy that every human being seeks - we will also find our path of authentic service in the world. True vocation joins self and service, as Frederick Buechner asserts when he defines vocation as ‘the place where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.'” - Richard Rohr
PRACTICE ONE OF KRISTIN'S TRANSFORMATIVE YOGA CLASSES, HERE!