Yoga Practices - Portland, Oregon
I draw from many different modalities and share various tools that help guide you into more embodied self-awareness and well-being. Located in Portland, OR, I provide instructions and classes for a variety of practices.
Active yoga means practices that build strength and stability in the body. We move at a mindful pace, build heat and work muscles. I’ll guide you with an anatomy-based and accessible approach so you explore the alignment that work best for your body.
Passive yoga refers to practices in which the muscles are asked to relax. These aren’t sweaty or strengthening, and are a counter-balance to our fast-paced world. Passive yoga includes yin, restorative, and yoga nidra.
Yin yoga is mostly practiced seated or lying down, and is an exercise for your body’s connective tissues, not your muscles. These less-fluid tissues require application of slow, steady pressure. During yin, you’ll hold poses for time and are likely to feel the sensations of stretch and opening in your body. It can be quite deep!
Yoga Nidra is a multi-part guided relaxation and meditation practiced while lying comfortably on your back. The practice aims to bring your entire brain into consciousness while your body melts into a deep relaxation. It’s like sleep with a slight trace of awareness and a powerful practice for healing, intention setting, and stress reduction.
Additional Practices
Somatics
Somatics is an embodied practice used to connect you with your felt sense of self.
Many of us are more connected to our mind and thoughts than to what goes on beneath the neck, yet our bodies are constantly sending our minds messages about our environment, how we’re feeling, and what we need.
Somatics is a way back into relationship with our bodies. It’s an effective practice for releasing habitually held muscular tension thereby reducing persistent pain and is used in the mental health profession to build resilience after trauma.
Open Awareness Yoga uses somatics practices as a technique to:
- reacquaint you with your body, so you learn to feel and describe your experience in greater detail
- drop in to your body, to focus the mind away from thoughts and into the present moment
- explore areas of discomfort and relieve symptoms of pain and tension
- prepare the body and mind for strength and coordination-building yoga postures
- deepen breathing
- relax
Restorative Yoga
Isn’t all yoga restorative?
Yes. Although we use “Restorative Yoga” to describe a certain style of practice. When we do restorative yoga poses, we use yoga props or common household alternatives to organize our body into incredibly comfortable and supported shapes.
In a restorative yoga pose, your body will be gently held in place with your props. Once we get you set up in a shape, you’ll typically relax into it for 5-10 minutes. We can practice the full range of postures in a restorative manner – back bends, twists, forward folds, side bends, and inversions.
Restorative yoga is deeply relaxing and a counter to our fast-paced world.
Open Awareness Yoga turns to restorative practices for many reasons:
- When the body is extra tired, recovering from an illness, during menstruation or pre- and post-natal, and any other time you don’t have the energy for an active practice.
- During times of mental and emotional distress as a way to self-soothe, process, and re-energize. The poses can naturally bring your nervous system into a relaxed, balanced state.
- As a transition at the beginning of a practice to help you shift from your busy external world to the grounded presence of your body
- As a transition at the end of an active practice to shift from muscular effort and work into a relaxing savasana or Yoga Nidra.
- For digestion issues, as the poses make space in the abdomen and stimulate digestion and elimination.
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We pay much attention to the breath in every practice. Each class has a breathing component, whether you’re simply reminded to breathe throughout practice or we take a deeper dive into the anatomy and mechanics of breathing.
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