In 2005, I began teaching yoga, meditation and mindfulness, sharing the practices that had changed my own relationship with my body.

Over the years, I’ve watched people reclaim their strength, steady their nervous systems, and reconnect with parts of themselves they thought were lost.

Again and again, I’ve seen what becomes possible through practice. Through showing up. Through learning to listen.

Daily Downdog grew from those experiences—and from more than 40 years of living in, rebuilding, and learning from a body that has defied expectations time and time again.

It’s a space for real people, real bodies, and real life.

Healing isn’t about escaping your body. It’s about coming home to it.

My healing journey didn’t begin in a yoga studio.

It began on my 14th birthday.

I was struck by an SUV traveling more than 45 mph as I crossed the street. I lost my left kidney and spleen and suffered catastrophic injuries to my pelvis, femur, knee, ribs, and skull.

I wasn’t expected to survive.

I did.

Doctors told me I would never walk normally again and would live an immune-compromised life.

I chose to explore what might still be possible.

After months in traction, a wheelchair, and a full-body cast, I learned to walk again. I joined a gym and began rebuilding a body that had severely atrophied. Nine months later, I placed second in my weight class at the Southern Arizona High School Bodybuilding Championships.

But recovery wasn’t a straight line.

More surgeries followed. So did years of structural complications and learning how to compensate for a body permanently changed by trauma.

Still, I moved.

I swam. Hiked. Biked. Danced.

And three years after graduating from UCLA, I discovered yoga and qi gong.

These practices didn’t simply make me stronger.

They changed my relationship with my body.

That’s when I stopped asking my body to overcome, and started learning how to listen.

Today, most people would never guess what my body has lived through.

That has taken decades of dedication, patience, perseverance—and a daily practice of meeting my body as she is.

Yoga taught me something strength alone never could: I don’t have to wage war against my body to live fully within it.

I can listen.

I can adapt.

I can meet what is.

That understanding became the foundation of how I teach.

If my story offers you anything, I hope it’s courage: courage to listen to your own body, meet yourself where you are, and keep showing up through whatever life places in your path.

You don’t have to practice perfectly.

You just have to practice.

Your body is the practice.

Daily Downdog offers accessible practices for strength, mobility, energy, nervous system support, and a deeper relationship with your body.

You’ll find yoga, qi gong, face yoga, breathwork, meditation, and grounding practices created for real life—not retreat life.

Whether you’re rebuilding, navigating change, or simply seeking greater steadiness and joy, there’s a place to begin.