What was your initial experience with yoga?
When I was 21 I lived in Lake Tahoe, CA, and I took a vinyasa yoga class at the community college there. Amrita, from England, was my first teacher and after close to 20 classes doing the same poses and sequences over and over, I was hooked. I remember having deeply profound experiences in savasana at that time, and I never looked back.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching yoga?
Even after all these years, I LOVE teaching Yoga. When I am teaching, it feels like something beyond me comes through me and guides me. It is so rewarding to be in a space with people wanting to be in their bodies, to learn, to feel and to breathe. As class goes on, the nervous system of the room begins to settle and we all experience this together. We quiet down, we breathe deep, our senses open, and we start to become more aware of our inner and outer world together. This is what we need to heal. We need awareness and we need each other. Yoga is a Golden Gateway to the evolving human soul work, and It is an honor to connect with students through this practice.
It is so rewarding to be in a space with people wanting to be in their bodies, to learn, to feel and to breathe.
Do you have a favorite yoga pose?
I do love so many poses, and depending on the stage of my life I am in, my favorite pose changes. These days, one of my favorite’s is High Lunge Pose, often referred to as Ashta Chandrasana, which literally means eight moon crescent. Maybe I love it b/c it resembles the shape of a crescent moon rising, hence my name “Luna”. Mostly though, It engages my full body, asking for stability, strength and balance from my legs and core. My hips open, my front body lengthens, and my heart expands in this pose. So many parts of me have an active place in high lunge, and it often gives me a feeling of YES, I am powerful!
Opportunities to Practice with Luna
Weekly Classes
Bhakti Flow | Mondays 8:30am-9:45am
Upcoming Workshops
5/13: Gather: A Community Women’s Circle Info & Registration Here
6/28-30: Liberating the Voice: Authentic Teaching/ Authentic Living Info & Registration Here
I am a PSEP (Somatic Experience Practitioner), am ERYT-200 Yoga Certified, and have a BA degree in Community Studies. I am a musician, an international recording artist, and an activist for conscious and empowered community collaboration. Over the last two decades, I have lead a variety of classes, workshops, trainings, and retreats around the world. I Co-Founded the True Nature Education Center (http://truenaturetravels.com) and The CREER Service Organization (501c3).
I left my hometown of Cincinnati, OH, and my exclusively catholic upbringing at the age of 18. Knowing that there “must be more”, I courageously set out on a spiritual quest to the west. Over the next decade, I based out of California, and traveled extensively through Central America, New Zealand, Fiji, and India to learn about healing, diversity and the power of wholesome community. Early in that journey, I taught myself to play guitar, and since then continue to use music to connect deeply to myself and others through diversity. In 2006, I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Community Studies from The University of Santa Cruz, CA. Shortly after, I completed my first 200-hour Teacher Training, and began teaching yoga merged with music, with a focus on the devotional aspects of yoga (Bhakti yoga). Next, in 2007, I moved to Costa Rica where I lived in the country on rich, fertile land, and co-founded the True Nature Education Center (truenaturetravels.com), and the CREER Service Organization. In 2009, I co-produced the first of 3 original albums that have circulated the international yoga community and can be found on Spotify, I-tunes and Amazon.
In 2011, I home birthed my first daughter, Jaya Arielle. This was followed by a series of traumas that left me unable to travel, dance, teach, sing, and more. After years of therapies, and diets, medicines, healers and doctors, and the birth of my second daughter, Sasha Grace, who has Down Syndrome, I was led to a 3-year Somatic Experiencing Training. This training has taught me, changed me, and been an imperative part of my journey back to wellness and vitality. Not only have I recovered from years of anxiety, depression, stagnation, grief, and fear, but I am now inspired, and committed to helping others do the same.
I am currently making the best life I can. Although there have been many waves, and changes, my blessings are countless. I am surrounded daily by my creative and wise 13-year daughter Jaya, my 7-year-old “Star Child” Sasha Grace, and my best bud, and husband Joshua. Surrounding me also are rivers and mountains, stars and moon, and a creative community of best friends whom we do life together with. We reside in Asheville, NC, the Native Eastern Lands of the Cherokee.
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