About Michelle Morrison, RYT-500
Michelle is a compassionate teacher who loves sharing the joy of yoga with others. Drawing on her training in OM Yoga and Mindfulness Yoga, as well as her background in Iyengar Yoga, Buddhist meditation, and acting, Michelle creates classes that are insightful, spontaneous, and fun. Her students appreciate her relaxed, down-to-earth style, and her commitment to their growth and healing.
She has taught weekly classes at ArtsCetera in Brooklyn since 2004 and at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan since 2008. She also teaches yoga to cancer survivors at OM yoga, leads retreats in Maine, works with corporate and private clients, and leads workshops on special topics in yoga and meditation practice.
Michelle earned her advanced certification at OM Yoga, where she studied with Cyndi Lee, Christie Clark, Bec Conant, and senior OM instructors. She earned her initial certification at the Energy Center, where her primary mentor was Frank Jude Boccio. She has additional certifications in Mindfulness Yoga and OM Yoga for Women Cancer Survivors.
Michelle is a member and facilitator of the Rock Blossom Sangha, a community of mindfulness in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University.
About Mindful Yoga
Mindful Yoga is a complete integration of the physical discipline of yoga and the mental discipline of meditation. The physical and the mental can never really be separate, since what happens to the body happens to the mind, and vice versa. But all too often, our body is in one place while our mind is somewhere else, so that we are neither fully here nor there. Not only do we miss the present moment -- the only moment when we are truly alive -- but we may also experience dukkha ("dis-ease" or "ill-being): feelings of fragmentation, isolation, depression, or anxiety. When body, mind, and breath become unified, as in asana practice or meditation, we experience sukha (ease or well-being): feelings of wholeness, expansion, freedom, or “flow." We are able to see more clearly into the nature of our joy and suffering, and into the joy and suffering of others. With this insight of interconnectedness, compassion naturally awakens in us.
Any form of physical yoga can be “mindful,” if it is practiced with sustained awareness and gentlenes. However, many yoga classes today lack a spiritual dimension, and students can end up using yoga as just another means to distract, judge, or punish themselves, or to bolster their egos. Mindful Yoga addresses these pitfalls and more, by weaving into the practice the Buddha’s teachings on mindfulness, loving-kindness, impermanence, interbeing, and non-self. In this way, it can be a path leading to insight, peace, and healing.
A growing number of yoga teachers and students are recognizing the transformative power of mindfulness and compassion. I am grateful to my own teachers for offering their wisdom and support, especially Frank Jude Boccio, Cyndi Lee, Michael Stone, and my root-teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh.