Nicole M.

I started tagging along with my mom to Franklin Street Yoga 7 years ago. As a retired competitive gymnast, I had an extensive, yet complicated relationship with movement.

In the beginning of my yoga journey, I enjoyed it because it was conducive to the way my body had been trained to move. But I gradually came to realize, that there is no leaderboard in yoga to fight your way to the top of, only the internal journey within your own practice. I started to fall in love with yoga because it offered me autonomy over my own movement and was not something to excel or fail at, only something to be offered as I needed.

My senior year of college, I started coming to the studio regularly as a way to mitigate running injuries. Several months into coming to the studio almost daily, not only did I reduce injuries, but I found such a special community and sense of belonging. Yoga has helped me as a runner physically, but has also helped me to develop a mindset of patience and acceptance in my running.

I am drawn to yoga because of the way it makes my body and mind feel. During a yoga class, I am able to practice my intuition and connect with myself, something that translates into my daily life. One of the biggest gifts that yoga offers to me is practicing neutrality or moderation. In my daily life, it can be easy to swing between extremes, but yoga helps to balance me in the middle: not too much, not too little. I am excited to start teaching to be able to find creative expression in my flows and honor this practice of yoga.

It is my aspiration to cultivate a yoga environment for that makes others feel the way yoga makes me feel.