Here's
me with some of the amazing kula in March. i'm standing 4th
from the left in the brown and pink. 
who
knew that month i was to join them in prenatal bliss? 
happy
to be pregnant with the kula... 
everything's
getting bigger... 
especially
the itchy belly!! 
pondering
the changes  and
so grateful for the yoga - it reminds me we are part of something amazing, helps
me feel great, and keeps me pain-free at 8 1/2 months...
 helps
me stay playful when everything goes topsy turvy...
 and
inspires me to move toward my center as life takes a big shift.
jessica:
background and training. I
have been teaching Anusara yoga since 2000, and one of the most beautiful things
in my life has been helping develop the Los Angeles Anusara Prenatal Kula (heart-filled
community). When I first started teaching prenatal
yoga, I looked around at these beautiful pregnant women and thought, "There
is nothing I can teach them - they are so full of goddess wisdom and beauty right
now." Soon I realized that students were not feeling goddess-like at all:
in our busy city lives, pregnancy is often a time of fear and isolation for women,
full of overwhelming choices, physical discomfort, and frightening life and physical
changes. I discovered that Anusara Yoga with its Universal
Principles of Alignment was the perfect way to help us connect to pregnancy in
the highest way: to find play and joy in the process, as well as allowing ourselves
to be transformed by the challenges of our unique journey. The idea that we are
co-creators with the divine is nowhere more obvious than in a prenatal yoga class;
the heart-opening poses help us not only find strength and openness, but also
feel more connected to our growing baby and ourselves as a mother. I
come from both Eastern and Western traditions, as I have always believed strongly
that the guru appears in many forms. I became a Certified Health/Fitness Instructor
at UCLA, studying nutrition, pregnancy exercise, and biomechanics, and completed
coursework for my Masters in Science in Exercise Science/Rehab Exercise at Cal
State LA. I trained as a doula (through Doulas of North America, or DONA) and
combine my in-home prenatal services with birth preparation. My greatest honor
was after over 1000 hours of Anusara Yoga training becoming a Certified Anusara
Yoga Instructor in 2006. I
was fortunate to be able to
team up with the Chief of Staff of OB/Gyn at Kaiser to create a program for pregnant
women as part of my Masters thesis, in which patients come for long group medical
visits instead of short individual appointments, have discussions and share experiences,
and then practice yoga together. The program became
so popular that we are preparing to train other Kaiser hospital to incorporate
this community-based method of OB care. Through it
all, the ever-expanding Prenatal Kula has been an amazing gift in my life. Getting
to share in this amazing journey with pregnant students constantly opens my eyes
to nature's intelligence and beauty, deepens my gratitude and awe for our embodied
experience, and reminds me of the profound power of nature that each of us can
learn to align with so that we can offer our brightest light to the world. 
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