Photo by Kara Mears
PINK SQUIRREL? WHAASAT?
When I was small, the lovely, ancient wife of my lovely, ancient pediatrician once gently grabbed my abundant, glossy pony tail and said, “My, you must have been standing in the right line when the angels were handing out hair!” For a long time after that, I assumed that how you got born was you stood in various lines for your various attributes (I was in the right line for green eyes, the wrong line for naturally straight teeth) and then the angels sent you down to earth to fare as best you could with whatever you were given. As I clearly missed the line for the calm and tranquil mind, when I started doing and reading about yoga, my favorite sutra from Pantanjali’s great lexicon was, instantly, the second verse “Yogash citta vrtti niroda.” My Sanskrit remains rudimentary but, basically, this translates as follows: Yogash is yoga; citta (say: chee-tah) is thoughts or mind; vrtti (there is a silent short i after the vr) is mental turbulence or mind ripples; nirodah is an infinitive meaning, variously, to control, to tame or to make tranquil. I had to do a LOT of yoga before my citta vrtta began to nirodah, I can tell you. And it wasn’t before I made friends with the fluctuations of my mind and their loose cannon-ness that I finally started getting somewhere in the tranquility department. Affectionately, I refer to those busy, crazy, incessant thoughts as Pink Squirrels. So, loosely translated the second sutra means, “Yoga? It is designed to tame your pink squirrels.”
PINK SQUIRREL is the business and communication arm of my personal yoga practice. I offer support to rookie teachers, or experienced teachers who are looking to reboot; I consult to the yoga and wellness industry, helping them tame the squirrels that challenge yoga studios, chiefly by providing practical answers to the question, “How do we keep the lights on while offering a quality yoga experience?” I am passionate about the Guerilla Yoga Movement which works to de-mystify and de-commercialize yoga by making yoga available and accessible to everyone, anywhere and regardless of financial status. I teach yoga in schools because I think the next generation is going to have to save our sorry selves from the mess we’ve created and I’d rather they had some yoga under their belts as they attack the innumerable problems we appear to be leaving them. I also teach, privately and publicly, in an experiential and humorous (one hopes) way to help students tame their own pink squirrels while accessing their powerful physical selves.
KAT’S BIO
I took my first yoga class while pregnant with my first child. That baby is now a yoga teacher in her own right and my enthusiasm for yoga continues unabated. Full disclosure: my passion for yoga is seasoned with a substantial grain of salt, a necessary condiment for keeping one’s yoga practice palatable and acquired over years of sorting the Real Deal from the woo woo nonsense, of which there is an abundance in this business. After an initial fierce infatuation (aren’t we all like that when something is new, sexy and astounding?), I now experience yoga as a powerful tool for living in a complex, ever-changing world with a naturally busy mind and a body that craves fulfillment of its kinesthetic blueprint.
An intrepid learner, I have studied with Bikram and Rajashree Choudhury, Diane Ducharme, Baron Baptiste, Krishna Das, Sharon Saltzberg, David Magone, Sally Kempton and Dharma Mittra. For the past couple of years, I have been a student of Anusara Yoga, studying with John Friend and Marc St. Pierre. I continue to study all eight limbs of yoga and gratefully acknowledge the influence and support of my many teachers, both inside and outside the discipline of yoga.
Formerly the director of Bikram Yoga Ipswich and Ipswich River Yoga in Ipswich, MA, I was recently the managing partner at Ananda Shanti Yoga in Manchester by the Sea, MA. I have taught at studios throughout the Boston area for the past dozen or so years. I currently teach yoga, coach and mentor young teachers and consult to businesses — studios, wellness centers and the like — in the yoga industry. My personal practice, in the world and on the mat, is at the center of my life, my parenting and my teaching. I also have strong interests in progressive nutrition and am closet a CrossFit junky. A former high school English, History and Theatre Arts teacher, I hold an Ed.M from Harvard University. I live in the most beautiful place on earth — Boston’s North Shore — with my family, who are the true yogis in my life.
