Nancy Rich

RYT

Describe your teaching style: I teach the Abhaya Method, systemized by my teacher Tara Glazier & owner of Abhaya Yoga, BK. The Abhaya Method focuses on the return to our natural state. Yoga provides the means toward awakening body, mind and ultimately one’s life. The method focuses on deepening awareness while releasing holding and gripping patterns in the body & mind. By integrating eastern philosophy/healing practices and western therapeutic techniques, a holistic approach is used to align, heal and guide the practitioner toward freedom. Each layer of experience from most gross to most subtle is explored through asana, pranayama, meditation, subtle body techniques, philosophy study, chanting, and community support.

How do you want your students to feel when they come out of your class? I would like students to leave class feeling grounded, connected to breath & body, calm, peaceful and most importantly awake. Quite often yoga gets lumped into the same category as other exercise modalities. While we may be looking to increase strength and flexibility through physical experience its valuable to acknowledge that as we improve ourselves physically we have an opportunity to heal through the many layers of ourselves. I believe that we all want to be free, but, I know from experience that freedom doesn’t always feel free in the moment. Much of the time I have left class feeling free and other times I have left class intensely aware of my perfectionism and negative self-talk. Facing the truth about ourselves can be uncomfortable because waking up is hard to do.  Having said that, asana gives us an opportunity to imprint a different way of being not only in our body and mind but in our lives. I have found this to be the case for me. As we learn to get out of the way of ourselves in our practice and loosen the gripping in our physical body we open ourselves to shift into deeper states of unconditional love for ourselves and others. It’s a process that takes time but is well worth the investment. I would like students to feel awake and willing to come back to the practice over and over again.