Please give it up for WYC featured Team Member – February 2018 – Maura Finn!! Most of you have taken a class – or attended an amazing workshop – or had a killer reiki session – with Maura, and we want to acknowledge how much we value her!! She is a valued member of the WYC community; and we appreciate her, both personally + professionally.

Maura teaches several weekly classes – offers regular reiki sessions – and has several events in the works, including Open Heart Journey: Cacao + Self-Love this coming Wednesday. She’s finishing up her first “Inner Teacher Training” and is gathering information for those interested in round 2: email us if you’d like to be added to the list.

To get to know Maura a little better, we asked her to share a bit about herself and her journey with yoga…

1. Tell me about your experience with yoga: how it began, where it has taken you, and how yoga has impacted your life.

I was a college athlete and always very physical and connected to my body, but I was also really intense and carried a lot of stress. I never thought I could “do yoga” because I wasn’t tall and skinny nor super flexible. The thought of being ‘still’ was really unappealing. I dabbled in pilates and gyrontics quite young, but it wasn’t until I went to a yoga class after getting out of the hospital in 2006 that everything changed.

In many ways, yoga was one of the most important ingredients in my healing journey. I began teaching children’s yoga in 2010 and found a way to express the joy I felt in movement with play. I then devoted more time to my personal practice, more breathwork and mindfulness. Yoga is not a separate part of my life, as it informs everything I do even beyond the physical practice.

2. What are your favorite yoga styles to teach and why?

I love to teach mindful and intentional yoga. Hatha yoga is the basis of all yoga, so it is really lovely to teach a slow, breath-infused class. I also enjoy teaching a solid vinyasa practice with some challenges and lots of great music. It is also amazing to teach beginners and children/teens. I love to witness the growth and expansion for each individual.

3. What are you doing when you’re not teaching or practicing yoga?

I am most at home in nature so I am often outside hiking, spending time near water or playing with my Golden Retriever, Blue. I am also a writer and working on my first children’s book as well as just completing my first bilingual poetry book. I have a private practice working with all ages using energy work and alternative therapies, so that also keeps me busy! I can also be found drinking cacao, singing and dancing. I love to travel and haven’t done much of it in the last year, so 2018 is calling me to get my backpack packed.

4. Tell me something funny or unexpected about you.

I have always had wanderlust, even as a child. My first plane ride in sixth grade was to Disneyland to babysit a neighbor’s child while she was at her conference. I never stopped! I drove across the USA with a friend at 19. We camped everywhere and visited many states. I still do not know how we did it. I lived and studied in Scotland during college and traveled throughout Europe. I moved to NYC after college and lived there for a decade.

There are many unexpected stories from those years. I moved to Guatemala in 2009 and lived there for 5 years. I returned to the USA in 2014 and have traveled back to Guatemala twice, Mexico, Hawaii, Virginia, Texas, Colorado and then lived in Indonesia for 3 months before landing in North Carolina for the last year. A lot of this travel was soul-searching, but also to learn a lot about people so that I can be of better service in the work that I do.

I am humbled that I have had these experiences and many of them were done on a super tight budget. I am grateful my path has taken me where it has, even if I felt really frustrated at never having a physical home. So, I take my ‘home’ with me. I do know that anything is possible when you put your heart to it. And, I believe in magical thinking.

Please join us in recognizing all that Maura is – and the goodness she brings to Waynesville Yoga Center! To register for one of her grounding yet invigorating classes, click here.