Summer 2026 Newsletter

May 28

🩷 Welcome!

I am excited to share my first newsletter with you. It has been a long time since I elected to write so publicly yet personally--fingers crossed the blog I managed in middle school is lost to time. There are few who remember the title, and even I am not among them.

Here, you will find brief reads about the goings-on of my professional life as a yoga teacher and an aspiring massage therapist. I will use this platform primarily to detail my recurring offerings and announce upcoming special events like workshops and retreats. Secondarily and selfishly, I will dust off my dormant storytelling, poetic, and otherwise artistic abilities. Feedback on either is always and greatly appreciated. Before I list what’s happening this summer, I would like to ensure a few things:

The written content of this newsletter is and will henceforth be entirely human-generated; and
I will not get everything right.

That said, I will attempt to explore complex concepts with scientific, historical, and cultural significance, allocating as much attention towards accuracy and authenticity as I am able at the time of writing. I am a life-long learner. Moreover, I believe there is merit in trying to learn and share, understanding the risk of making mistakes is ever-present. If you feel similarly, please, stick around.

🗓️ Weekly To-Do's

This January, I reduced my yoga teaching schedule from six classes, four days per week to two classes, one day per week with the promise that I would be adding another class at a different Yoga District studio. I then postponed the start of that new class because… it felt like the deep breath I needed. The peace I gained by taking a break “for my own practice,” which is teacher-speak for “to have a moment to myself,” was critical in the deep, dark winter months. Now that spring has sprung, I can enthusiastically announce that I am teaching a NEW restorative yoga class at Yoga District Petworth on Mondays at 7:45 PM.

The classes I sustained, my Thursday night slow flow and restorative classes at 6:00 and 7:10 respectively, will remain on the Yoga District schedule for the foreseeable future. The 6:00 PM class fills up in person, but there is also an option to register online through MindBody if you live outside of the DMV. Yoga blocks, a sturdy blanket, a bolster and/or couch cushions are recommended.

⭐ Special Events: Sober Yoga!

This summer, I am hosting a monthly Sober Yoga practice on a weekend morning outdoors. When I lived in New Orleans, I was aware of sober flow classes, but never participated because I had not yet cut alcohol from my life and, while curious, thought it would be disingenuous to attend. I am proud to profess that I am three-plus years alcohol-free and feel called to hold space for others who are substance-free and sober-curious. What does this mean, and who is welcome at Sober Yoga?

The shortest answer to that question is: anyone with the intention of being free from addiction. A longer answer is, anyone who has interrogated their relationships with addictive substances and patterns of behavior and is wondering if there is a world beyond the one they inhabit. At present, the plan is not to discuss our individual journeys during class; rather, the goal of Sober Yoga is to gather with the confidence that others in the space share similar values. It goes without saying, but I am not trained to counsel anyone looking for support to overcome addiction. Please see the Resources section at the bottom of this newsletter for help.

Group yoga classes were integral to my healing process. It took me five years from the time I started thinking about sobriety until I finally pulled the plug on alcohol. If you seek community and accountability on your path to your best self, please join me on the following dates at 9:00 AM, location TBD: May 24th, June 13th, July 5th, and August 29th (aka, my 32nd birthday). Follow @karmayogadc on Instagram for more timely details.

👀 What’s Next?

First Sober Yoga class, outdoor location TBD: May 24th at 9:00am
Full-body, hand, foot, and/or head and neck massage offerings in exchange for feedback COMING SOON! How to get on my list in the Fall 2026 Newsletter
2nd Yoga & Creativity Retreat with the lovely Britt Meyers Voelker in the fall (see last year’s PDF here)

🖊️ Theme-Writing:

Pranayama & The Nervous System

In early April, I listened to A Beginner’s Guide to the Roots of Yoga by Nikita Desai. Part 3, Chapter 10 is about Pranayama, the fourth limb of Ashtanga yoga, colloquially known as “breath work.” After relearning some familiar concepts and gaining more insight about how breath control stimulates and soothes the “fight or flight” response, I decide to incorporate teaching specific breath work beyond cueing inhales and exhales during poses in my regular yoga classes.

Sometimes, when you make a decision, the universe affirms it wholeheartedly. In the same week I decided to soft-launch teaching Bhramari Pranayama--humming bee breath--in my Thursday night restorative class, I got an opportunity to put the calming effects of deep breathing to the test.

This spring, I am comically assistant-coaching middle school lacrosse, never mind knowing nothing about the sport. On the day in question, the head coach organized a drill in which the players would shoot continuously on-goal, at all angles, around the goalie. Of course, her job was to block any shots she could. It was our first practice returning from Spring Break, and this goalie had not yet “suited up” this season.

From my vantage point, practically on the sidelines, I saw the goalie ask the head coach for a break. She zipped off the field towards the bleachers, where she sat in the hot sun without taking any of her gear off. She had been there for 5-7 minutes when I thought something might be wrong. I wasn’t doing anything useful anyway, so I left my post to join her on the bench.

When I arrived, I could see her face was blotchy and red under the helmet, and her chest was heaving quickly up and down. She was gasping choppily in through her mouth, though she couldn’t get a deep breath. I sat down next to her and asked if she was alright, to which she replied that she got hit pretty hard in the collarbone and it scared her. She shared that she had been hit before, she didn’t know what was wrong with her, but that her body was freaking out.

I said it made sense to me. She had been away, in a state of rest, then suddenly, she was being assailed by hard, rubber balls in quick succession. Her nervous system was doing exactly what it was designed to do, preparing her to run from the impending threat. Her respiratory organs were in overdrive, trying to sip just enough air to propel her muscles to flee. But, I shared, she had the power to override that stress reflex. I offered to breathe with her.

I asked her to plant her feet on the turf and place her hands, palm-side down, on her knees. We breathed in through our noses as evenly as we could, then out our mouths, shaped like “O’s.” I told her to let her exhales make a sound, like wind, and to elongate them, if she could. “This will tell your brain it’s okay to relax,” I promised. Simultaneously I thought, thank goodness I have some area of expertise, and I’m worried this won’t work, even though it has for my yoga students in the past. I know from study and in-studio experience that slowing the breath triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, responsible for that “rest and digest” state. But could this simple exercise, commonplace in the wellness realm, calm a frightened teenage girl?

Sure enough, and despite my doubts, our goalie’s exhales grew longer, and her inhales steadier. I asked her how she was feeling, and with an air of genuineness rare with a population of middle schoolers who know exactly what adults want them to say, she said she felt “a little better.” We continued breathing for a few more minutes, saying nothing, and then she asked me if it was okay to get some water from inside. When she took off her helmet before bounding towards the school building, I noticed her eyes were no longer teary.

So, while I still don’t know anything about lacrosse, I am grateful to have been there to teach a useful self-regulation tool to someone in need. The lesson that was reinforced for me is that the yogic practices really do translate, off the mat and in the world.