About

Yoga with Michelle is a way share my yoga journey with you. Over the last 25 years I have traveled the country and had the opportunity to study with awesome teachers and guides. I would like to share my knowledge of Yoga and make it accessible to all.

I am not one of those people who gets to say yoga has been a part of their whole life, instead I’m one of those people who gets to say yoga helped me fall in love with my body. I have always been active, swimming, martial arts and I’ve always been round and fat. I love water so swimming has always been natural to me. Martial arts helped me to find unknown strength within. Both helped me to feel comfortable in my skin. I enjoyed being a mother, learning about childbirth, and becoming a doula and lactation consultant. Human bodies are amazing.

I lost that trust with myself when I found out I had cancer in May of 2000. After chemotherapy and surgery, I found myself not trusting my body. I found no wonder, joy or awe within my own skin. I had lost that joy of being amazed at humans and our bodies. When that became too much, I found a yoga class at the local YMCA and started taking classes. Yoga helped me to find myself again, to make peace with my body. It was two or three years of classes before I started really seeing the benefits of yoga. Not so much physically – those came later. The most prominent benefits were emotional and mental.

It took me almost 10 years of just doing yoga here and there before one of my instructors strongly encouraged me to seek out being coming a yoga teacher. I had lots of excuses why not – I don’t have a “yoga body”, I’m too old, I’m not that flexible there are just poses I can’t do, I never stand on my head, who’d want to learn from me. She didn’t let up and with her strong encouragement until I started my teacher training.

Teacher Training helped to reveal the depth of yoga that I was craving. I moved beyond the asana and pranayama work into the deeper spirituality and philosophy. Finding Curvy yoga, Yoga Nidra, learning to deepen my own meditation practice and the beginning of my mindfulness journey along with the quiet inward reflection that comes from yin yoga have helped me to embrace myself and to learn to embody the practice as well as helping me find the courage to move forward.