by kari kwinn yoga

In 1984, my favorite book in the library was called Your Bones. It was square, with thick, brightly colored pages, appropriate for precocious youth with a penchant for skeletal anatomy.  I read it cover-to-cover, parroting back the words my mother sussed out for me. Every two weeks, we would return to the library and I would feed it to the book return, and march directly back to the shelf where I had discovered it, hoping it would beat me to the punch. I was hooked. My mother has always loved me by nourishing my insatiable appetite for learning.

In 1985, I first saluted the sun while ankle-deep in crab grass outside of my Kindergarten classroom. Yoga was not a practice I chose, but one that was required of me in the days preceding specialized mats, and pants, and influencers. Greg, my Kindergarten teacher, with his long hair and recumbent bicycle, whose last name and lineage is lost to me, was my first teacher.

In 1986, my brother Andrew was born in a typhoon of precipitous labor, and I lamented that he had no carpals in his wrists (no babies do). For the rest of my life, then until now, the magic of bones and babies has stirred my heart, and my yoga practice has anchored me through the tumult of it all.

In 1987, my father stumbled into a lecture about the enneagram and dove headfirst into a dozen books on the matter. A '5' to the core, my father's way of learning how to love me correctly was to read the instruction manual. While he believes I am a '4,' I believe I'm on the crevice between 3 & 4. This early exposure to personality types helped me understand that each of us perceives the world differently, and that story matters.

In 1993, at the ripe old age of twelve, my maternal grandmother Hazel pulled me into a corner with a love-threat that reverberates within me. After a depression-era childhood and boot-camp style nursing education, her lengthy career as the director of her underresourced urban Emergency Department guided her misguided wisdom:

"If you get pregnant before you turn 18 years old, I'll kill you myself."

In 1996, I started teaching yoga. It was an accident, foreshadowing of my future relationship with codependency, when I volunteered to teach yoga for my own high school PE class so that the dance instructor, who had injured her ankle, could continue to get paid as the teacher and not hire a sub. This continued for years. I had no formal training, only lived experience of the gifts of this ancient practice.

In 2000, I took a course in forensic anthropology, which led to medical anthropology, which led to linguistics. I attended dozens of births and a bevy of 'What To Expect' classes as I researched the nuances in how our birth preparation and the language used influenced both our births and our perceived birth outcomes. While some people gravitated to the words “normal, typical, and safe,” others migrated to “extraordinary, magical, and life-changing.” Regardless of the unfolding of the birth itself, the stories they told about themselves and their journeys were predicted by foundation of terminology and stories infused into them prior to birth.

In 2003, I graduated from Colorado College with a BA in anthropology, having written an extraordinary thesis about The Communication Styles of Prenatal Educators. I then worked as a Health Center Assistant and the Director of Education for Northern Colorado for Planned Parenthood where I got a collection of entirely new perspectives on pregnancy and birth.

In 2004, I took my first yoga teacher training in the basement of a hotel, in the armpit of a town on the Central Coast of California. It was equal parts Ashtanga and instructor ranting, but it kept me out of trouble and exposed me to a style of teaching I did not want to replicate. I took notes on everything I would do differently when I was in the seat of the teacher. I encourage you to do the same. 

In 2005, I completed my Master's Degree in Nonprofit Management with Regis University, and started working as a Client Care Coordinator for the Southern Colorado AIDS Project. I supervised a program for pregnant clients and their children, which took me into so many places I'd never been. I had the honor to support clients in hospice, those incarcerated or in work release and halfway programs, those seeking to care for children themselves, seek out a better life for their children, as well as those lobbying with a judicial system to receive a tubal ligation.

In 2007, I took my second 200 hour YTT program, because my first pre-dated the popularity of the Yoga Alliance and I was told I needed a credential with them in order to teach. Again, I took many notes about how I would do this differently, once it was my turn.

In 2008, I helped open cambio. Yoga - Colorado Springs’ first donation-based studio, where I joined the YTT Faculty teaching anatomy, both Western & Subtle. In time, I became responsible for The Business of Yoga, The Seat of the Teacher, as well as the Prenatal Modifications. I innovated a modification to the curriculum and birthed the Extended Format option, which allowed students to train in alignment with their own schedule and financial capacity. In this role I made many mistakes, and continued to take notes about what I would do differently. 

In 2009, I launched a six month self-study course called The Desert, which culminated with an in-person retreat in New Mexico. Feeling wildly unprepared to Hold Space, a term I wasn't yet aware of, I turned to one of my teachers Maggie Chumbley and learned some of the most magical ways to foster intimacy and connection between a group of people who have never met in person, but have a common shared set of values and interests.

In 2012, I attended a prenatal yoga teacher training. I didn’t think it would go anywhere, because I had never been pregnant, but thought I’d build some skills. No one would ever trust me to teach them without the street cred of the lived experience, right? Sitting on the floor in a circle with other eager yoga teachers, Katie Wise said the words that changed my life:

"You’ve all been a mother in another lifetime."

As an RPYT, I started teaching weekly prenatal yoga classes, which grew from 6 students to 24, with people leaking out into the hallway. Then, they graduated, and I learned how to teach Mom & Me. Then Mom & Tots.

In 2013, in partnership with Bea Wilds, we opened Colorado Springs’ first prenatal yoga studio, which is still chugging away today. We went to The Farm to become Midwives’ Assistants, and formed a doula circle, attending births alternately as clinical assistants and non-clinical support people.

We trained with Karen Strange to get our credentials in Neonatal Resuscitation, and this training more than any other was the most skillful and engaging way to impart learning to adults about difficult topics. I have taken it three times with my principle interest in gathering her teaching styles. 

I also took a training with Laurel Wilson to be a Lactation Educator, because I realized that most of what my Mom & Me Yoga students needed was safe and accurate resources regarding lactation and infant feeding. While I did not ultimately register with CAPPA, I did offer a Breastfeeding Basics course for pregnant students to set them (and their partners and/or support team) up for breastfeeding success. Through these classes, I met Monet Nicole, whose photography you see throughout this site. She has since launched the most successful career as a birth photographer, and I have loved watching her journey from the sidelines.

In 2014, after years of Unexplained Infertility, I spent some time digging into the depths of my personal practice. I learned to teach Yin with Bernie Clark, and then went to the Sivananda Ashram and took my third 200 hour YTT, as well as my first 500. I started working for Recovery 2.0, and my teachers Tommy Rosen & Kia Miller. I started teaching people how to teach Yin.

In 2016, in the unfolding of the darkest chapter of my life, I encountered many teachers. Sukhdev, who held space as I oriented to an experience of faith. Pasqual, the sha-woman, who wrangled the demons within me, and Nikki Myers, the founder of Y12SR and the person to nudge me in many right directions.

In 2017, on the streets of Rishikesh, India, I met Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa in a stall selling socks. Having read everything she had ever written, I did flat-affect fan-girl. We have many differences in our ideologies, but her sentinel work Beautiful, Bountiful, Blissful remains one of the most revered books on my shelf. That same year, I became the Director of Yoga at White Lotus Therapeutics, an integrated and HAES-aligned yoga & wellness studio.

In 2018, I sold my interest in Enso and embarked on a deeper exploration of Yin, which is a felt practice. Instead of orienting on how postures look, Yin asks how postures feel. In Yin, the teacher is more a midwife than a master, and I realized something I had always known, but hadn’t spoken.

In 2019, I was hired by Meta Yoga Studios in Breckenridge to create the curriculum for their Advanced Yoga Teacher Training course, which included modules in Authenticity, Commitment, Confidence, and Inspiration, as well as a twelve-week elective module about Yoga & Pregnancy, which has grown and evolved into this course. I contributed written pieces about infertility to a number of publications, including [M]otherboard Birth.

In 2020, as the world shifted, I migrated all of my teaching to the virtual environment. Renewing my intensive study with Maggie Chumbley, I pivoted quickly, taking all of my coursework to the virtual environment. In November, published my first book, Better Boundaries.

In 2021, I launched my first evergreen course about Yin Yoga Sequencing, which was so well received by students that I started considering how I could adapt Yoga & Pregnancy to this more meaningful & accessible way of learning. I began studying with Kelly Diels, who helped me refine my perspective and my words, and demonstrated the missing piece of hybrid education: evergreen curriculum & live virtual office hours.

In 2022, this course, the culmination of my life's work, will be born.