Sharon

Bringing a wealth of compassion and over 30 years of experience into her yoga classes, Sharon encourages students to challenge themselves while knowing their limits and wants them to have fun while they practice. She sees yoga as not just an exercise, but a tool that gives us the ability to live in the present moment and experience the peace and contentment that comes from knowing the true self. A direct student of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, she teaches Ashtanga according to tradition. While keeping this tradition, she does make allowances for physical limitations and gives modifications so the students can work at a suitable level. Understanding that Ashtanga students are drawn to the physical benefits of building strength and stamina, she enjoys watching her students blossom into the deeper and richer aspects of yoga that illuminate the heart.

At the tender age of 23 Sharon discovered yoga while going through some difficulties in her life. Someone gave her a copy of Be Here Now by Ram Das and she started on a life long journey into the world of yoga and healing arts. Sharon first learned Ashtanga yoga from David Swenson in 1995 and will forever be thankful for this. She has continued her study of Ashtanga with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, his son Manju Jois and grandson Sharath Rangaswamy. Her studies and teachings encompass many other disciplines. She is a certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor and holds a First degree black belt with the Tae Kwon Karate Association. She is also a State of Texas Certified Art Teacher and has attained the 1st and 2nd degree attunement of the Usui method of Reiki healing.

Sharon has been an essential part of the yoga community in Austin and was instrumental in helping to create the Austin Yoga Association. Many of her students have gone on to become yoga teachers in their own right and she has served as the Ashtanga instructor for Yoga Yoga’s Teacher Training program. She loves working with children and has decades of experience working in that capacity, with many children who suffer from physical disabilities. Sharon taught regular weekly yoga classes for 7 years at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She has instructed teenage boys at the Texas School for the Blind in martial arts and taught yoga to teenage girls from the State School for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired. In her spare time she enjoys organic gardening, playing the piano, painting, bicycling, and reading with her Siamese cat, China Moon, nestled on her lap.

Click here to see when Sharon teaches.

“Seek to do brave and lovely things left undone by the majority of people. Give gifts of love and peace to those whom others pass by.” - Paramahansa Yogananda.

Sharon recommends:
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, translated by Swami Satchidananda
Bringing Yoga to Life by Donna Farhi
The Wisdom of Forgiveness by the Dalai Lama and Victor Chan