Lizzie

Lizzie has a love/hate relationship with yoga—she loves doing it and hates when she can’t. That’s why she does at least a few poses every day, even if it’s tree pose in line at the grocery store or a backbend over the arm of her living room couch.

In 1995 Lizzie took a yoga class with her mom. Lizzie, being an avid runner, thought the class would entail simple stretching and possibly some tree hugging. While sweating profusely and attempting to concentrate through trikonasana (triangle pose), Lizzie started thinking that her assumptions about yoga had been very wrong. When she woke the next morning feeling sore in muscles she didn’t know she had, she was convinced that yoga had a lot to offer. Her entire body had obviously worked together in a way it hadn’t before.

Her practice became less about what poses she could force herself into and more about what poses she could stay in and breathe through—even dreaded paschimottanasana (seated forward bend). But it was yogic philosophy that made the biggest impact on Lizzie’s life. Learning to be calm and breathe smoothly in a challenging pose quickly turned into learning to be calm and breathe smoothly through challenges in other areas of her life. She decided to become a certified yoga teacher and completed Yoga Yoga’s very first Hatha Teacher Training course. She’s taught in different studios in Houston, Austin, and even in her U.T. professors’ homes. As of early 2007, she became a registered E-RYT, having taught over 1,000 hours of yoga.

Lizzie calls herself a yoga “mutt.” She has explored many different lineages and styles of yoga and pieces together a practice that she believes will be the most beneficial, therapeutic, and fun for her students. Her all-level Hatha and Hatha Flow classes are a mix of mindful movement, breath, challenge, surrender, and most likely a few bad jokes. She offers challenging alternatives, as well as modifications, for easier access to poses.

Lizzie hopes that her classes will inspire students to find the teacher within, realizing that there is a fine line between going deeper into a pose and forcing a change that the body isn’t ready for. The insight she offers is that sometimes our practice seems fluid and limitless, and sometimes it feels like a part of us has hit a brick wall. But at the core of yoga—even at that brick wall moment—yoga is there telling us that in time we will move past it. Yoga is there nudging us, reminding us to breathe and be patient until we find ourselves around, over, or through that wall completely.

Lizzie lives in South Austin with her husband, son, and two black labs.