Hatha Yoga Instructor and YogaOasis Studio Manager

My first introduction to yoga was when I worked as a Barista in New York City. The owner of the coffee shop kindly provided a yoga class once a week for the staff. I found that yoga helped me with stress and to release the aches of a fast paced job. It was not until I moved to Tucson that I developed a practice (a fancy word for people who do yoga often). When I first arrived, many aspects of yoga were still foreign to me. However, I felt drawn to study the many nuances of yoga, which continually transform me spiritually and physically. After a few months in Tucson, I was lucky enough to be brought on as a manager of YogaOasis and tour assistant for Darren Rhodes. Working for YogaOasis has offered me many opportunities to continue to deepen my relationship with yoga and with this beautiful community. I look forward to continuing to manage YogaOasis and getting to know more of the friendly faces I see each day. Please join me for a fun and personable class!

Hatha Yoga Instructor and YogaOasis Studio Manager

I took my first yoga class in the summer of 2003 while searching for relief from depression. I began teaching almost 3 years later having found not just relief but a whole new world, and wanting to share what I'd learned with others. My classes are uplifting, challenging, and playful, and offer my students a safe place to explore their strength, courage, and abilities, as well as expand their capacity for all this life has to offer. My Friday night class (6pm YogaOasis East) also ends with restorative poses to help you end the week and start your weekend with a sense of peace and calm.  I'm energetic and enthusiastic and so excited to share the practice of yoga I tend to 'geek out' from time to time. I'm not perfect but I'm a good student, and I'm always learning.. especially from the remarkable yogis I see in my classes. I'm forever grateful for YogaOasis, where I fell in love with Anusara Yoga, and for the Grace of my teacher Darren Rhodes who inspires me to look past what I know into what is truly possible.

Hatha Yoga Instructor

 I took my first yoga class in 2004 but didn't find my practice until 2009 upon entering into recovery from drug addiction.  What yoga initially offered me was relief from embodiment, which in turn, has evolved into a celebration of embodiment.  My practice keeps me challenged, focused and energized which has led to deep healing of body, mind and spirit.  I started teaching privately in 2010 because people in my 12 step program asked me to teach them yoga.  I teach because it is a calling and because I feel I can help people with something that works.  In my classes I aspire to provide what I enjoy which is challenge, quality information and a passion for the practice.  My wife and two boys keep the rest of my journey full of adventure. I am also pursuing knowledge in the area of healing thru raw foods. 

Hatha Yoga Instructor

 As an avid athlete, I initially began practicing yoga in 2001 as another of the myriad means that I enjoyed challenging my body. While experimenting with a variety of styles and teachers over the following decade, it was not until I returned to the healing heat of my desert home in Tucson that my relationship with yoga took a turn for the profound. Under the guidance of many wonderful teachers at YogaOasis, I began to experience the power of this practice to cultivate a more loving, grateful and compassionate relationship with the beautiful blessing of life. Each time I come to the mat, I am reminded of yoga's power to release tension and shed light. I am eternally grateful to be a student and teacher in this community and I enjoy giving refined alignment instructions in an atmosphere that is challenging and supportive, present and playful. I aim to offer classes that leave bodies vibrant, minds clear and spirits smiling! Off the mat I stay busy and inspired teaching environmental education, pursuing a Master's Degree in Public Administration, co-directing Fenster Ranch Summer Camp, exploring the Sonoran Desert, doing handstands and juggling! I am a Leo...or a Virgo...depends who you ask.

Hatha Yoga Instructor

 When I was in high school in rural Illinois (with no yoga classes in sight), I started practicing yoga to a video, alone in my basement. It's not fair to say that I loved it; I couldn't touch my toes and many of the poses required an agonizing strength to keep my legs steady. But despite the difficulty--or perhaps exactly because of it--slowly my body began to unfold. How sweet and amazing is it to find an opening right in the heart of effort? Since those early experiences trying to read Light on Yoga and recreate it on my basement floor, yoga has always been a physical way of opening myself up to possibility. 

I was drawn to Tucson in 2007 for a number of reasons (ample sunshine, adventure) and for the first time started taking regular yoga classes at YogaOasis, which turned into a swan dive into teacher training and then into teaching classes myself. I think dharma has a way of coming after a person; the further I step into my practice, the deeper it gets and the more there is to dig up to share with others. In my classes I love playing with new possibilities, and I work to create a fun, supportive space to experiment while rooting the practice in good alignment and strong effort, in the hopes that each time on our mats we can open ourselves up a little more. Off the mat, I love all kinds of outdoor adventures--rock climbing, mountain biking, backpacking--and my best friend says my laugh is like a volcano.

Hatha Yoga Instructor

I started practicing yoga about 11 years ago after the birth of my first daughter, Megan.  I went because I thought it might help me lose pregnancy weight and quiet my ever-chattering mind.  It did that and a whole lot more!  From the very first class, I knew that I had found a practice that would challenge me and help me grow for the rest of life.  I practiced on and off for a few years until about 2004 after having my second daughter, Macie.  I became a  much more dedicated student and loved both the physical and emotional well being it brought to me.  I found Anusara Yoga in 2006 and it felt like home.  As soon as my family and I moved to Tucson in July 2007 I began a steady practice at Yoga Oasis and wanted more and more, so I started the Immersions.  I became a yoga teacher after realizing that I truly wanted to share this practice with everyone.  I took my teacher trainings with Darren Rhodes and Christina Sell and have continued to take courses with many gifted teachers.  I love to teach fun and challenging classes that ask students to go beyond what they may have thought possible.  Students in my classes feel welcome and safe, not only expand themselves physically, but emotionally as well.  Yoga has helped me become more open to being vulnerable to change and growth, and I offer that to my students.  We are all in this process together, so why not learn from each other and offer support along the way.  Since marrying my sweetheart, Andy on December 30, 1995 we have lived in 7 places all over the country.  Moving around a lot wasn't always easy, but we've made great friends and had amazing experiences because of it.  We call Tucson home now and hope to for a very long time.

 Art Director and Hatha Yoga Instructor

I have been working for YogaOasis for more than a decade carrying much of the graphic design and photography projects. Through Tirtha Studios I helped produce yoga products such as the poster, From Tadasana to Savasana, and Darren Rhodes' Yoga Resource book.

I am back to teaching! Come check out my YogaHour class at yo downtown on Tuesdays, at 12:15 p.m.

Email: milo@yogaoasis.com

Check out my work online:

youtube.com: yogaoasis108

shop@yo (tirtha studios products)

Hatha Yoga Instructor

 Watching my father practice headstands in the middle of the living room when I was a teenager was my first introduction to yoga. Initially, I resisted my Dad's invitation to practice yoga until I began my path in 1999 with Brian Kest's Power Yoga tapes in the hopes of becoming more "fit." Yoga asana (poses) came quite naturally to me since I did gymnastics as a little girl. While attending physical therapy school, I learned about my personal muscle imbalances that contributed to my bouts of back pain. This increased my yoga interest, and after graduating in 2005, I started using modified sun salutations as part of a home exercise program for my patients with low back pain. Consistent practice has resulted in improvement in my muscle alignment and little to no back pain. In December 2010, I started teaching public yoga classes with an emphasis on a therapeutic approach for those who have injuries, chronic conditions, or have had surgery. My backcare classes are slow paced and alignment focused, with props and pose modifications strongly encouraged. I want to offer students the opportunity to learn more about their unique anatomy and improve awareness in their bodies to help to heal or prevent injuries.

Hatha Yoga Instructor

I popped into a yoga class with one of my super close friends about 4 years ago.  My soul reason for going to yoga was to “get ripped” and though I was successful in that, I became in love with the practice for how it made me feel on the inside.  I loved how purifying the body and coming into these bizarre shapes had a profound and bizarrely wonderful effect on my emotions and thought patterns.

I began teaching as soon as possible.  Once I began to practice, I didn’t stop, and proceeded through my first few intensives, and teacher trainings – I am still on that path now, steadily deepening my knowledge and personal practice.

My classes are intense and sweet!  Getting sweaty and smiling about it is a common and fun motif that runs its way through my classes.  I seek to offer my students support and encouragement, knowledge for their own safety and a different perspective for their own creativity.  Most of all, I seek to offer my students my love for yoga.

Off the mat and out of the studio, I usually spend my time with animals.  Either with my best friend Adíra (my dog) or out in the desert looking for new ones!

Hatha Yoga Instructor

 I wandered through the door at Yoga Oasis looking for a physical practice to supplement my dancing, which I got, along so much more. Since taking that first class, I have been at the studio at least once a week. This place has become my second home, and I love the people in it. Yoga has given me more confidence, deeper relationships, and a grounding spirit for my vata-self. YO holds such a special place in my heart and soul that I'm honored to be part of the team. When I'm not doing yoga, I am dancing or teaching dance. I am co-Artistic Director of NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre, as well as a member of Movement Salon, Tucson's one and only compositional improvisation group. I'm always telling my dancers, "Do more yoga!  It will change your dancing (and your life!)"

 I started practicing yoga when I was 17. The resort that I worked at offered free fitness classes to employees so I started attending classes whenever I could. Even though my first class was difficult, challenging and awkward, I made it through and I felt amazing! I was sore in muscles I didn't know I even had. From that class I knew that I wanted to teach. I took a couple of teaching training courses and started teaching when I was 19. I had two students and I was so nervous! To this day, I still get a little nervous from time to time when I teach because I respect my students, their time and feel truly honored that they set aside time out of their day to come to my class and practice. It is one of my primary goals as a teacher for my students to leave feeling that yoga is accessible to them. Period. Anyone can do yoga! I hope to challenge my students to work hard, deepen their practice and know that they will come through it stronger, more flexible, empowered and calm.

I am a reader. I love to read! I have been an avid reader since I was a child and it is still one of my favorite things to do.

Anusara-inspired Yoga Instructor

 My formal introduction to yoga began in 2000 with Ulla Lundgren at the Yoga Experience in Flagstaff, Arizona, but it was curiosity that led me up the stairs, through the door, and into my first yoga class. During my first class, I recall feeling uncertain and nervous at the start, but by the end, I felt intrigued and excited. Ultimately, I left my first class with a feeling of bliss and wholeness that made me take notice. The feeling of completeness I experience when I practice is what continues to bring me back to my mat.

As my practice developed, my desire to feel a deeper connection to that truer part of myself and others encouraged my exploration of yoga further. In 2003, I attended my first Anusara immersion and teacher training with Christy Burnette. My decision to immerse myself in Anusara put me on a surprising, new path. I continue my travels on this amazing and challenging path as I work towards Anusara certification. I feel incredibly grateful and fortunate to have studied with such gifted teachers as John Friend, Christy Burnette, Ulla Lundgren, Desiree Rumbaugh, and Darren Rhodes.

Over the years, I have learned that the practice of yoga is both an artistic expression of essence and a way of life. I firmly believe that the practice of yoga brings us back to the heart and reconnects us with our true nature, our blissful, joyful self. I believe that from that place of heart, all things are possible!

Hatha Yoga Instructor

 I've heard it said that there are two kinds of people in this world: those who can take your word for it and those who have to learn the hard way.  I belong to the latter category.  Yoga found me after college, lost, disappointed, and accustomed to seeing the world through a cynic's eye.  My first class annoyed and frustrated me, but left me with a lightened heart.  Hundreds of classes and many styles later, I find myself in Tucson both practicing and teaching yoga and no longer describing myself as an angry person.

 
Yoga has taught me how to exist in discomfort and choose my reaction to it.  Because of my practice I purposely look to the good in situations, which balances my inner critic.  I bring these lessons into my teaching, asking my students to be willing to walk carefully into difficulty and maintain awareness to navigate it more skillfully.  Those skillful means include learning to move gracefully through the moments where we feel we've failed.  Thus I bring to classes the lightheartedness that was my first gift of yoga—just because we fall doesn't mean we fail, but neither does it keep us from coming back.

 

Hatha Yoga Instructor

My favorite thing about teaching is helping students realize how awesome they are.  When we start truly loving ourselves, we change the world.  Yoga is revolutionary.  I am passionate about social justice, radical acts of love, international travel, falling deeper in love with the parts of myself that lie in the shadow, the dance between strength and vulnerability, and music.  I am currently studying Somatic Counseling at Prescott College.

I am grateful to my sons, who have been my biggest life teachers, and Darren Rhodes, Christina Sell, Jamie Ackley and Rachel King who are my most influential yoga teachers.  Yoga Oasis is one of the most special places in the world. It is a blessing it is to be both student and teacher here.

Hatha Yoga Instructor

My first yoga class was in 1996. I kept returning to practice because it offered me a side of tranquility and ease that wasn't familiar to me at the time. I started teaching in 2005 because I wanted to be able to offer back the great gifts that yoga continues to offer me today. My classes are fun and work at the same time. I want my students to walk away feeling accomplished and empowered. I want them feeling good about themselves because that's what it's all about. When I'm not teaching I'm in the studio working on my next painting.