Christine began practicing yoga in 2000, frankly out of desperation. She had an old neck injury that began to creep into daily life. Her first yoga classes, taught by Arturo Galvez at UCSD, were filled with stressed out grad students and professors. Galvez used blocks, straps and the wall every class to teach basic alignment. After moving back to Oceanside in 2016, Christine took exactly one class at PLAY and I knew it was her studio. She found it to be a comfortable, safe and friendly environment that is deeply committed to learning. Yoga invited Christine to relearn good posture and to connect with her body in an entirely new way that years of endurance training had not. Christine completed her 200 YTT at PLAY with Jess McGimsey in 2017, and shortly after followed it with a Teaching Mentorship and Kick Your Asana Training by Monique Cornfield in 2018 and 2019.
Christine relishes teaching and practicing Hot Flow, finding that the repetition and the predictability of the movements allow for an invigorating experience of what constitutes a daily practice. Having internalized the asanas, the body begins to move at its own rhythm guided by its inner compass. More recently, she has enjoyed teaching Hot Flow Flex which invites another level of energy into the studio. There is both challenge and joy in sharing functional movement, strength training and quick, sometimes funky, cardio bursts.
As a teacher and practitioner, Christine thinks all humans should practice yoga. She’s found it keeps us young at heart, flexible in body and spirit, ready to try new things, and it may be our best tool to reconnect us to our ancestral roots. In her opinion, PLAY attracts the most kindhearted and fun-loving people. She finds it a blessing to be part of this community both as a practitioner and as an instructor.
