To register for classes or to be added to my list of offerings/updates, click HERE or contact me at bonnie@lotusyogajax.com * 904/891-6537.
ABOUT BONNIE:
They say that when the student is ready the teacher appears. My yoga practice has been my Teacher since I first rolled out my mat. I didn’t know I was ready at the time, of course, or even what “being ready” meant. I was a partner in a law firm with a busy practice who spent my free time long distance running and competing in triathlons. I knew only one speed – Go and Go Hard. I didn’t realize then just how hard I had been working to be “perfect,” how I had come to wear my “busyness” as a badge of honor, or how reactive and rigid – and worn out, I had become.
And then one day I stumbled into a yoga class. And then, another. At the time, I couldn’t have told you why I went back. What I know now is that a seed had been planted and, over time, something inside me began to shift. I began to feel better; the seed was taking root. Yoga reminded me that I had a body and helped me rediscover how to live in it. My footsteps were heavy; then they were not. I was clumsy and awkward; then I was not. Over time, I learned to move with grace and with lightness and with ease. I began embracing my vulnerability and soft spots instead of running from them. I learned how to practice love and compassion and kindness. I began to see myself in others and them in me. When it became time for me to teach, Yoga helped me find my voice and, when it came time to open Lotus Yoga in 2008, Yoga taught me to trust it.
My love for the practice has led to extensive training in ashtanga and vinyasa yoga, adaptive yoga, healthy back yoga, trauma-sensitive yoga, meditation and mindfulness. I am a certified facilitator of Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY-F) (www.traumasensitiveyoga.com), of Love Your Brain Yoga (www.loveyourbrain.com), and of mindfulness and mindfulness meditation (Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program). Through the Love Your Brain Foundation, I facilitate yoga and mindfulness to individuals who have sustained traumatic brain injuries and their caregivers. I also have had the great privilege of offering yoga and mindfulness practices to underserved populations in our local community, and I endeavor to bring a mindfulness-based and healing-centered approach to both my group classes and the work I do with folks individually. This work (as well as my own practice) - whether with individuals who have sustained physical and emotional traumas, those with eating disorders or physical limitations, or those simply seeking to cultivate insight and deepen their own practice, has taught me first-hand about the extraordinary healing potential that lives inside the practices of yoga and mindfulness.
I believe that every teacher remains first a student, that curiosity is the spark for discovery and growth, and that yoga is so much more than posture - it is the practice of opening our bodies, minds and hearts.
