RYT-200
Nickname: “Mom” is the name I hear the most! Tris is the name I grew up with. In fact, I didn’t know my name was actually “Tristana” until I was 10 years old! I love hearing “Tris” from old friends and family.
Favorite food: Sweet potato sushi, Asian lettuce wraps, dark chocolate with sea salt, Egyptian licorice tea with coconut milk.
Favorite place: Wrapped up in the arms of my sweet David.
Guilty pleasure: Cherry Coke Zero, French fries with gravy (referred to as “wet fries”!), chocolate chips eaten by the handful behind the closed pantry door.
Hobbies: My main hobby is playing mom to 5 cool kids: Noah, Jewel, Ella, Eris, and Cannon. I love the theatre and especially acting! However, for the past several years my theatrical pursuits have taken me behind the curtain where I direct an annual children’s musical production. I also enjoy oil painting, camping, and yoga, yoga, yoga.
Who do you most admire and why? There are so many great people that I admire; Corrie Ten Boom, Mother Theresa, Louis Zamperini, my own dear mother. And yet, I am most touched by simple acts of great love and courage of unassuming people all around me. One woman stands out in my mind whose effect on me was profound. I was sitting in Barnes and Nobles, half watching my son play with the train set and half trying to read my book, when I noticed a mother and son moving around the children’s section. The mother was wearing outdated clothing, her hair a mess, her face gentle and focused on her son. The boy was in a wheel chair and suffered from many physical and mental disabilities. As they walked the mother talked to him about what he was seeing, let him touch the moving handrails of the escalator, let him smell the pages of a new book, all the while wiping away saliva dripping from his mouth. Then she pulled him to the side, removed the heavy boy from his chair, and cradled him in her little lap on the floor while she read to him and stroked his misshapen face. The boy made lots of noise to which she made no excuse and felt no embarrassment. It was pure love. And I was blessed to be a witness of it.
What is your favorite yoga pose and why? I love the heart opener, Wild Thing or Camatkarasana. I find it to be so invigorating and freeing! Often I get to this pose and find my heart closed; to which I place my floating hand to my heart, peel back my shoulders and focus my breath on allowing my heart to take up all the space it needs – inside my chest and out. It always gets my prana flowing, heals the heart, and makes me want to giggle.
When did you start practicing yoga? My introduction to yoga was in 1993 as part of my acting training to “free the natural voice” at Brigham Young University. I was probably too concerned at that time about my well sprayed bangs getting flattened to really absorb the experience. It wasn’t until 2002 at Bally’s Total Fitness in Beachwood that yoga found me, again. It was so fun and I couldn’t believe how amazing I felt afterward (I wasn’t sore until the next day!). I have been hungry for more ever since! Who are your teachers and where did you train? My first yoga teacher was Kim Koson from Rx Yoga in Medina. She taught Hatha Yoga classes as well as love and compassion. Kim influenced me to find peace and balance in my crazy life. Joannie Andrews is the teacher that helped me develop a love and reverence for power yoga. I needed this push into deeper strength at this new stage of my life. And then I found Yoga Bliss and “home”. I was blessed to receive my 200-hour teacher training with Amy B-G and Tracy Rhinehart. I feel like I have been influenced by these teachers to be more passionate about yoga, to trust myself, to put in the work to get results but don’t worry about results, and to connect with a larger yoga community.
Describe your teaching style: Nurturing, Joyful, and Rooted.
What is your motto: It’s All Good! And “By small and simple things, are great things brought to pass.” Alma 37:6