My first true experience with yoga happened in an alpine meadow atop six feet of fresh snow. I was working as a naturalist in Southern California’s San Bernardino Mountains. A co-worker and dear friend taught me sun salutations to stay warm. Nine years, a new family and many thousands of miles later, teaching yoga has become a central part of my life.

My study of yoga has run the veins of three practice styles: Iyengar, Ashtanga and Kripalu. In 2004, after learning and teaching for a few years, I committed to a 200-hour teacher certification training through the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. A year after completing the program, my daughter, Nora was born. She was considerate enough to start the contractions off gently (I taught my last class about 2 hours into labor). She then proceeded to change the way I teach, practice and understand yoga entirely.

Blending techniques from all three of the styles I’ve studied, and drawing on the complexity and richness of this stage of my life, much of my current focus is on working therapeutically with yoga. I’ve discovered that whether working with post-partum women and babies, cancer survivors, or athletes seeking balance to their training regimen, yoga practice can unlock the body’s innate potential to heal.

I regard the act of practicing yoga as both practical and symbolic. Actively shaping our reality calls for identification with the values we hold most dear, repeatedly acting upon those values and committing to stay with, observe and learn from the consequences of our actions. Harsh negative judgment obscures our ability to do these things. In yoga classes, we learn to be in our bodies, experience breath and see our repetitive thought patterns. We learn to stay, observe and learn so that we can we can apply this process to the real challenges in our lives.

Photos by Sharyn Peavey. Visit www.sharynpeavey.com for more information.