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Life doesn’t add up but opens up ~Mark Nepo, The Book of Soul
Kim brings a wealth of experience and depth of knowledge to the practice to create an embodied approach to living yoga.
It is from her 25+ years of practice and 20+ years of teaching that Kim offers what she has received, practiced and lived.
She orients from the space of studentship, continually curious to learn and open to the organic evolution of her craft.
Kim has an innate gift for making both the art and science of yoga digestible and relevant to modern-day living.
She is guided and inspired by her own life experience to deliver teachings that are meaningful and authentic.
IN KIM'S WORDS
I’m an Island girl at heart, born and raised on Oahu where generations of my family breathed the spirit of aloha. From a very young age, the natural world was my steady companion. I spent countless hours in exploration of natures wonders-swinging from trees, studying the sea life within the tidal pools, traversing streams and waterfalls, playing in the waves of the great Pacific Ocean. It was here that I felt the most connected, at ease, and alive. Years later, when I found yoga, I realized that the yogic teachings understood this thing that as a child I called “aliveness”. The yogis had a name for it: Prana Shakti. Prana is the life force that animates and pulses through all living, sentient beings. In a way, my intimate relationship with mother nature was my introduction to Yoga.
The very first time I stepped into an actual yoga class was in my early 20s. I was living in NYC in a tiny studio apartment on the upper west side. A long way from my homeland and my Ohana, separated from the beauty of the natural world, I was struggling with depression and anxiety. I arrived to the yoga studio scattered and fragmented. Laying in Savasana at the end of class, in a puddle of sweat mixed with quiet tears, I felt held for the first time in a long time. I felt the “real” me that had been covered by addiction and self hatred. It was like someone flipped a switch inside of me and all of a sudden, the light allowed me to see things more clearly.
I walked the thirty blocks home in silence. While my crazy brain couldn’t land on a word to name this feeling, it didn’t matter. Usually our intuition, which for me comes through as a felt sense in the body and a knowing in our spirit, is ten steps ahead our minds. It was during this walk that my intuition heard the call loud and clear: that self love was my work and yoga was my path.
The very first time I stepped into an actual yoga class was in my early 20s. I was living in NYC in a tiny studio apartment on the upper west side. A long way from my homeland and my Ohana, separated from the beauty of the natural world, I was struggling with depression and anxiety. I arrived to the yoga studio scattered and fragmented. Laying in Savasana at the end of class, in a puddle of sweat mixed with quiet tears, I felt held for the first time in a long time. I felt the “real” me that had been covered by addiction and self hatred. It was like someone flipped a switch inside of me and all of a sudden, the light allowed me to see things more clearly.
I walked the thirty blocks home in silence. While my crazy brain couldn’t land on a word to name this feeling, it didn’t matter. Usually our intuition, which for me comes through as a felt sense in the body and a knowing in our spirit, is ten steps ahead our minds. It was during this walk that my intuition heard the call loud and clear: that self love was my work and yoga was my path.
I immersed myself into the yoga practice with devotion and passion. It didn’t matter where I was living or traveling. Year after year, I sought out yoga studios to call home. As time went on, I mentored and learned with healers and teachers of various traditions. My natural curiosity led me to studies beyond the physical practice of yoga and into the spiritual teachings and philosophy of Eastern and Shamanic disciplines. When I started teaching, it opened up an entirely different level of growth and my personal practice ripened. I eventually went on to open two yoga studios, the first in 2005, the second in 2007. These were fruitful busy years and I learned many things about running a business and building strong community
Each of us holds potential to feel more whole, integrated and connected to ourselves and to the world around us. Yoga for me is a process of awakening to this potential. As the Hindu invocation goes, “ Lead me from the unreal to the real.” Perhaps the journey of yoga then is the journey of not just realizing this potential but transforming it from something untouchable and mysterious to something that becomes the tangible and lived experience. Perhaps that is why the great sages and wisdom teachers universally tell us that everything we need is already right here inside of us.
As a mother raising two beautiful girls, my attention and my heart strings are pulled on a daily basis in every which way imaginable. The time I spend on my mat is when I can draw my energy back inward and really tend to myself. In this way, I can continue to show up for my loved ones and friends in a more grounded, present and loving way.
I like to remind my students that you don’t have to be good at yoga or even understand it, to reap the benefits. Just practice and you will quickly experience the healing for yourself. Whatever your life circumstance, whether you’re surfing a high or a low, know that the practice is here to serve you.
My mantra is “Come as you are.” Just show up. See what happens. As your guide, my role is to simply hold space for the organic and the intuitive within you to arise so that the practice can bring you into relationship with the wisdom of your body and breath.
When you go out into the woods and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn't get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don't get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree. The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying. 'You're too this, or I'm too this.' That judging mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.
-Ram Dass
