2014, you blew my heart wide open...

” What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”

–Ralph Waldo Emerson

photo credit: Amy Rollo

2014. You blew my heart wide open.

Some of what our community experience together…

With one delicious yoga class in Portland, on behalf on Renal Cell Carcinoma research and Kick Cancer’s Asana, we raised $650 to contribute to a nationwide number of over $12,000. Thank you to everyone who came, participated and donated…thank you, Mehdi Farjami for playing beautiful music.

In addition, our Elevate Yoga Trainings Team raised $4,255 on behalf of Living Yoga via their annual Yogathon. And, we came in second for our overall fundraising efforts!

GOOOOO Team Elevate!

I was honored to co-teach the Yogathon kick-off at Yoga Pearl with my friend, Rocky Heron.

2014 was FULL of so many amazing collaborations, creations and good times on the mat!

Elevate Yoga Trainings graduated a third group of awesome yoga teachers. And, during the program we participated in the powerful What I Be Project with Steve Rosenfield. You can read more about my very personal experience here.

Then… we were off to the Northwest Yoga Conference in Seattle.

Life-long connections were made that weekend and I can’t wait for this year’s conference in March.

I am forever grateful for the sweetness of these two lovelies, Kendall Hassemer and Shea Donaldson for being my roommates, my dear friends and my partners in crime at the conference.

Rolling into summer…

On July 5th, with Rara Avis, we kicked off the season of Yoga Rocks the Park guiding upwards of 200 yogis in Laurelhurst Park to his beautiful live tunes. Gratitude to Rara for sharing his artistry and also for his peaceful, loving presence. I’m looking forward to being reunited with Rara at Inspire Truth, New Year’s Day.

Next up? Let’s BREAK A WORLD RECORD!

On July 11th, in collaboration with the World Domination Summit and Yoga Rocks the Park, we strategized and planned how to pull off breaking the world record for the longest yoga chain.

The Great Namaste!

WE DID IT.

With the amazing vision and brilliant team work we gathered over 1,000 awesome humans together in Pioneer Courthouse Square- 808 mats fit in the square (and on the stage!) to make up the sum total and official head count. We blew the world record for the longest yoga chain out of the water. Once set with 696 people, we rocked it out with 808 people and 5 successive poses. I got to lead the charge with one of my best friends, Jen Johnson and a bunch of om-azing participants and rockin’ volunteers.

Here’s a cool 30 second video of the event created by Oliver Asis.

And, the WDS fun continued…

On July 12th, with the summit in full swing, we recreated Yoga Rocks the Park in the Portland park blocks and I got to teach yoga to the rockin’ beats of DJ Drez. More dreams coming true…

Just three days after the amazingness of WDS wound down, we were on a plane headed for Wanderlust Tahoe! There were five workshops: Balancing the Four Winds of Change, Talkin’ About a Revolution, High Voltage Vinyasa, Yo-Ma and Anahata Bliss…all collaborations with amazing artists including Kevin Paris, Philip Steir, DJ HyFi, Jeff Liffman & Friends and the incredibly talented //HANNAH//.

There was a HUGE Portland contingency in Tahoe which made it feel like HOME!

Photo credit: Kari Baker-Pollard

Reflecting…

Working in financial services industry for the first 13 years of my career truly hightlights the beauty of what I get to do now. The perspective and contrast leaves me feeling so incredibly humbled, grateful to be doing work that I love, work that connects me deeply with others, work that gives back + builds community, work that leaves me with beautiful memories, work that is about being healthy, happy and at peace.

It has been a decade since my transition from corporate work to HEART work.

And, 2014 was a very big year.

It had it all.

It was a year of beauty and births.

A year of pain and losses.

A year of saying yes in the face of fear.

A year of tremendous growth.

A year of truly loving.