About
The concept of UtYt started years ago as a place for my mind to wander. It was a note scribbled in the middle of the night on a scrap of paper from my nightstand; it was quips of conversations among friends.
As my personal yoga practice evolved so did my ideas. Yoga lead me to a place of internal solace where I began to feel my perceptions shift and my priorities change. As the veils lifted I could see I was on an exhausting path of mediocrity that I desperately needed to step off of. I took the leap; I jumped in heart first.
What started as the 3AM translations of my imagination into chicken-scratch became hours of planning and research in front on my MacBook. Crumpled notes became an organized, electronic plan on a screen that lit up my home.
Yoga mat rolled and slung over my shoulder I hopped on a plane destined for Costa Rica. In an open air studio deep in the rainforests of Central America, I joined 32 other students for 21 days of intensive yoga teacher training under the watchful eyes of Vidya (Jacqueline) Heisel and Jennifer Yarrow.
After four weeks of insane electrical storms, gangs of mosquitoes and heaven on earth I left Costa Rica with a RYT-200 certificate in hand, a photo of Arenal volcano on my camera, an extended family on Skype and a swelling heart for life and everything yoga.
Thanks to a now dear friend of mine, I returned home to Fort St. John to teach my first real-life class to real-life students in a real-life…coffee shop?? Thirty minutes before class I examined my surroundings: 12 tables and their assigned chairs stacked in the corner, a freshly washed hardwood floor and a sign reading “Sorry folks, we’re CLOSED” dangling on the door. I could feel the energy of this beautiful space tugging at my heart. I breathed the residual aroma of coffee and muffins into my lungs… let out a sigh…Under the Yoga Tree was born.
