Private Yoga

My business is yoga.  I am one of the few who gets to do what they truly love for a living.  I am incredibly grateful.  And while I teach a lot of yoga classes, private yoga is my favorite.  I love my clients. 

To me, if one can do private yoga, that is the way to go.  It's time just for you.  No one else.  Time set aside to love yourself, de-stress your body, clear your mind, and make room for peace and relaxation (while getting proper technique and hands-on assists).  It's beautiful, really.

No private yoga session looks the same.  As everyone is different with different needs, so are the workouts designed.  I work to create a save place for the client.  I always say to them that what happens in private yoga, stays in private yoga. :) They have permission to be themselves, knowing that I am creating space and holding that space for them to just be.  We meditate, we flow, we workout, we sweat, we even do yogi push-ups and yogi crunches.  Sometimes we even chant!  I am so honored and blessed to get to work with people, creating space for them to connect the body and mind.  Making room for a little peace and zen... one private yoga session at a time.   - Namaste! 
Click here to learn more about Private Yoga with Katie

Love for a Friend

My best friend was just diagnosed with cancer.
She is 29.  She is fit, fun, and lovely.  We have traveled to some amazing places together.  Some of my favorite travel stories include her.

We've gotten lost in Italy, been searched for in Greece, majorly sunburned in Croatia, surfed in Hawaii, re-built homes in New Orleans, danced the night away on Burbon Street, went wine-tasting in Germany... and many other fun things... the list of traveling adventures with her could go on and on.  She is the closest thing I have to a sister.  Love her dearly.

Today Christine had surgery.  They went in to try and remove the cancerous tumor.  I'm in shock really.  How can someone so young and so amazing have this happen to them?  I feel for my best friend.  I wish that she did not have to go through this.  I have no idea the "why" in this... yet I do believe that one day I will be able to look back and see some good. 
Right now it just hurts... 
I'd give anything to be back with her in Venice...

Feeling Enlightened...

I met a Guru this week.  A Buddhist Lama.  Went to LA, off Santa Monica Blvd, to hear his teachings and lecture.  He talked for 3 hours.  Listened.  Learned.  We meditated.  The event went until 2AM!  The experience was quite enlightening.  Ever since I have met him, he gave me his blessing and then put his third-eye to my third-eye I have felt like I’m floating.  It’s been 4 days now and it’s like I’m still on cloud 9.  I don’t want it to end, yet I feel the spiritual/out of body experience hard to describe in words.  I feel a new sense of peace. 
When I went up to meet the Lama, even if you are not Buddhist you can go up and get a blessing from him, we had a connection.  It was personal.  It was real.  He said some amazing things to me.  Things that are not usually said…  When I think of our interaction and the words we exchanged with each other, it makes me teary-eyed.  Complete gratitude.  Utter peace.  I have a calm and a knowning about my life that I have not had.  I am grateful beyond words.  Thank you Lama Ole and my Buddhist friends in LA for a wonderful time of teaching and meditation. 

What is meant to happen will happen...

My first two months back in CA was just a total wash.  I was living with friends and an adopted family trying to find a place.  I was working hard to save money and I was in major major reverse culture shock.  Had the hardest time adjusting back.  I remember going with friends to a restaurant and soooo annoyed that the server kept coming by to see if we needed anything.  Don’t they respect our privacy?  They even dropped the check off without us asking – I felt they were rushing us.  I did not tip them.  Somehow I had become European… I understand why they are so frustrated when they come over here, as majority of Americans rush everything. 

A couple of months into it I had found a place to live, picked up a lot of work to support my massive monthly apartment fee, and broken up with the guy that I have moved back early from Europe for.  I thought we would be living in a fun flat together and starting a new season of my life with him, but that is not what fate had in store.  Oh how I often dream of going back to Europe.  Yet, running from life when it gets tough is not what works.  So, I am here – 6 months later.  Teaching yoga, trying to find my zen, and trusting that what is meant to happen will happen.  I am not to question life – just peacefully accept what I've been handed and try to give as much love and light as I can along the way. 

A place to call home...

After moving back from traveling Europe to the US, living in Ohio with family during the Christmas holiday and then finally hitting home in California – I was beginning to feel like a modern day gypsy. 
I had always said that I’d love to be this modern-day traveling hippie (who shaves) yoga teacher/gypsy woman… But in all honesty, it was beginning to take a toll on me.  I had lived in many places in the last year.  And, as much as I loved it and exciting as it was, there is something special about having a place you can call home.  I was craving that. Home is and has been for some time California.  Laguna Beach.  So to come back here after 6 months of hitting it hard traveling – oh it feels good to be back.  I’m meant to live by the water.  Maybe I was a dolphin in a former life :) – but I find a sense of peace and homeness( just made that word up) when I am here.  

As I travel the world, because I know I will travel again, Southern California will always be home base.  It feels good to know that.  It’s not perfect – but no place is.  Yet, it works for me.  I have friends here.  I have adopted family here.  I have the beach.  And I have the warm weather I love.  I get to walk to my yoga class on Saturday morning and do so not in 2 feet of snow.  I’m lucky.