YOGA TEACHER & LIFE COACH
Meet Carrie
Yoga saved and healed me! After two near death experiences and long and painful recoveries, I found refuge and my sanity in yoga, meditation, coaching, and self exploration. Yoga is my greatest love affair; it slows me down, and it makes me pause, focus, pay attention and go inward. Yoga helps me quiet my inner chatter; it reminds me to love myself. It taught me how to speak lovingly to myself, as if I was speaking to one of my best and closest friends.
Yoga stops my ego from taking over and robbing me of my true essence as a loving human. Yoga reminds me to observe my thoughts and not react to the emotions or impulses that come up. Yoga is magic and I am grateful I get to practice and teach it. Teaching for me is an opportunity and I’m privileged to share what I have learned. Yoga continues to teach me and inspire me.
How do you start your day?
Meditation, Gratitude, Yoga, Cashew Latte(!) and Love.
How would others describe you?
Powerful. Enthusiastic. Authentic. Impactful. Alive.
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I grew up with a verbally abusive father. Nothing was ever good enough. Perfectionism was my downfall; the boulder standing in the way of my freedom, self-love and acceptance. Being hard on myself was a daily practice. Yoga gave me the insight and tools to be okay with all my unique imperfections and to practice compassion, acceptance and love of myself and others.
I believe we’re all beautiful beings, but sometimes we mask that. We protect who we are out of fear; out of thinking we’re coming across too vulnerable or weak. We hold back because we’re afraid of being judged or hurt. These walls we put up move us away from ourselves. Yoga provides an open window for us to get back in touch with who we really are, which is beautiful. We are enough, just as we are.
What I can offer you:
- You will learn how to get out of your own way and I’ll provide tools to help you feel good in your body and mind.
- I’ll teach you to step out of self criticism and into acceptance, how to harness your inner power and learn all about self love.
- Your body will build strength and flexibility, and you will be taught breathing techniques and inner processing tools.
- You will learn how to process what arises, to be still while meditating and gain an overall essence of peace and wellbeing.
Carrie went on to complete several teacher trainings thereafter, including one in India, diving into the asana practice and a spiritual journey that continues today, along with coaching, and gratitude work. Carrie began her teaching in 2007, and is a 500-E-RYT certified yogaworks teacher and Trainer. She teaches with an emphasis on detailed alignment, so there is an intelligence and a purpose to her sequencing. Her goals as a teacher are to inspire, uplift, and support; and to encourage you to shine your brilliant, vibrant light from within. Carrie is a Certified Life Coach with IPEC and Master Practitioner in the Energy Leadership Assessment.
Why do you teach yoga?
I teach to share what I have learned from yoga and life. Yoga brings out your best self. Not your small self, but your complete self. It has a way of mirroring the shadow side of you; the side of you that you label not good enough or things you don’t like. It has you befriend it, and holds space for you to take a look at that and not shame it, not make it good or bad, but to say hello to it, to know that it exists and to be okay that it’s a part of who you are. It gives you an opportunity to fall in love with your imperfections and know that those things you label as wrong-- you wouldn’t be who you are if it wasn’t for them.
As a teacher what’s important to you?
As a teacher it has to be about the students, not me. When I walk into the room, I’m just the facilitator -- the healing is coming through me. I’m there to be of service; my job is to see my students, see what they need and take them to a place where they have a breakthrough. Whether that’s trying a pose they didn’t think they could do or sitting and silently meditating for longer than they thought they were capable of, I want them to realize anything is possible. But most importantly -- like my mentor did for me -- I want all of my students to know they’re seen. I see you, and guess what? You’re uniquely beautiful, whole and complete, just as you are!