Kathie has been studying and practicing yoga since 1997 and has completed teacher training. She completed teacher training courses with Moksha Yoga Center, Ana Forrest and Tim Miller and has also studied with a variety of master yoga teachers.
Kathie is drawn to yoga because it purifies and integrates body, mind, and spirit. In her classes, she draws on her studies with master teachers, emphasizing a flowing series of strengthening poses and breathing to open the mind and body. Kathie also studies Thai Yoga Therapy and is a health care attorney by profession.
Once upon a time, an 8-year-old named Katie Thomas walked into her family’s living room only to find her father, post-jog, doing some weird looking stretchy things. Perplexed, she asked him what the heck he was doing, to which he replied, “Yoga.” Katie thought to herself, “My dad is weird.”
Since then, Katie has changed her yogic tune. She took her first class in 2004, and has been hooked ever since.
Through warmth, humor, and a strong commitment to remaining down-to-earth and accessible, Katie creates a space where students can work toward finding their true selves. In her classes, you can expect to be led through asana, pranayama, and meditation, with a focus on finding the beautiful balance between strength and lightness, between stability and motion, between alignment and freedom. Katie has a background in improvisational theatre so her teaching style is infused with a sense of play and whimsy. She believes that setting sankalpas (intentions), then consistently nurturing them on and off the mat brings concrete, undeniable changes to our lives.
To this day, Katie loves her dad and all his weirdness. She hopes to continue to live happily ever after.
Katie started practicing yoga in 2003, in hopes of healing a chronic injury from her former life as a dancer. Through the practice and study of yoga, she continues to discover not only freedom from chronic pain, but healing on a deep emotional and spiritual level. From this perspective of personal transformation Katie is eager to share the gifts of a consistent, intelligent yoga practice with others.
Katie completed her yoga teacher training certification at Moksha Yoga Center in Chicago, Illinois. She has completed more than 1000 hours of teacher training with master teachers from around the world, and finds tremendous joy in learning. She is grateful for her generous teachers and healers including Kim Wilcox, Tias Little, Erin Cowan, Gabriel Halpern, Lucien Caillouet and Daren Friesen. Katie holds an MA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a BA from Loyola University Chicago. She continues her studies in meditation, asana, pranayama, philosophy, and somatics. Katie has particular interest in restorative practices, pain management and therapeutic yoga, and inspiring mindful and joy filled lifestyles.
As a teacher, Katie aspires to create a safe space in which students can practice this transformational work with awareness, honesty, and integrity. Her classes are tailored for the growth of her students, and always include focus on healthy and safe alignment, connection with the breath, and the powerful use of heartfelt intention.
I’m proud to say I’m the oldest teacher on the Moksha staff. Years of intense play: sports, dance, horseback riding, skiing and triathlons - not to mention parenting! - have kept me fit, but life itself takes its toll no matter how hard you work at defying age. My firm belief, however, is that if there is a fountain of youth, it’s yoga. I’ve taught since 2000, and have seen how yoga is truly limitless in its ability to keep us in compassionate touch with our bodies, our selves. I did my initial training with Ana Forrest, then Daren Friesen, and many other master teachers. My style is so eclectic I hesitate to label myself, but the closest would be vinyasa flow. Core strength, reverence for the breath, respecting one’s natural range of motion, and always seeking for the sense of flow are essential to my style. I love language and music and incorporate Sanskrit and poetry into my classes. Being a psychotherapist, I value the addition of yoga to my healer’s toolkit.
Lindsay started practicing yoga sporadically in 2005 as a way to manage chronic pain. While yoga did help her back then on a physical level, it eventually changed the course of her entire life. In 2011 when her job relocated her from New Jersey to Chicago, her chronic pain escalated to debilitating levels. This not-so-subtle warning from her body finally woke her up. Lindsay quit her corporate job and took charge of her life. By starting a stronger yoga practice and lifestyle, she began to eliminate and reverse the physical damage to her body caused by stress and fibromyalgia. She went from wrist braces to arm balances – from medication to meditation.
To date, Lindsay has completed over 1000 hours of teacher training, including the completion of two 200-hour programs at the American Yoga Academy in New Jersey and at Moksha Yoga Center in Chicago. Additionally, she studied with Judith Hanson Lasater to become a certified a Relax and Renew© Restorative Yoga Teacher. Finally, as the owner of Dharma Inspired Business Coaching (www.dharmainspired.com), Lindsay helps other yoga teachers to succeed as entrepreneurs.
In Lindsay’s classes expect a strong, slow, and mindful flow. Her teachings are greatly influenced by traditional hatha yoga, vinyasa flow, viniyoga, and restorative styles of yoga. She challenges students to focus on alignment while relaxing the mind, to strengthen their bodies while flowing with the breath, and to let go while remaining grounded. She knows first hand of yoga’s ability to transform lives and hopes that through yoga, she can help facilitate transformation in the lives of her students.
Lyndsae Rinio was introduced to yoga in early childhood by her mother, and has continued independent practice throughout her life. She was once scolded by her first grade teacher for doing shoulderstand during recess. Her formal studies began in 2000 at the public library in her home state of Alaska. As a trained dancer, she built her yoga practice on her knowledge of movement and anatomy, as well as her long-standing interest in meditation. After relocating to Chicago, she served as manager of Nature Yoga Sanctuary until 2008.
Lyndsae has been fortunate to study with several instructors who have shaped her approach to teaching, including Tias Little, Quinn Kearney, Paul Weitz, and Nadine Lollino. Her classes offer a blend of hatha and vinyasa flow, with an emphasis on intelligent muscular and skeletal alignment. She is registered with the Yoga Alliance at the 200 hour level, and also holds certification in teaching yoga for cancer recovery.
As a cancer survivor herself, Lyndsae found yoga to be an invaluable part of her recovery process. This has fueled her deep interest in yoga’s therapeutic ability to shape and rehabilitate the body and mind. Lyndsae believes that a yoga practice is an exercise in self-observation. She encourages her students to find the integrity of each pose within their own body, rather than some external ideal.
Mary Kay passionately believes that yoga is for everyone…all ages and body types, and that we all must just “start where we are”, every day, and every moment. She approaches yoga as a process of self-discovery, acceptance, and transformation that builds strength, stability and flexibility in the body, the mind and the spirit. Focusing on alignment and the breath, Mary Kay helps students attune to the intelligence in their own bodies, feeling and gaining awareness of what is right for them at any given moment…both on and off the mat. Believing that yoga should be practiced with a sense of play and deep enjoyment, Mary Kay helps her students keep a smile in their hearts as they discover what is possible.
Mary Kay is a Moksha Yoga trained and Yoga Alliance certified teacher at the 200- hour level, and almost through her 500-hour certification. Mary Kay is grateful for the teachers who have influenced her approach to practice and teaching, particularly Daren Friesen, Aadil Palkhivala, Tias Little, Gabriel Halpern, Rich Logan, and Kim Wilcox. Mary Kay has interned under the direction of Gabriel Halpern at the Yoga Circle, working one-on-one with students addressing specific healing goals. Mary Kay also practices Vipassana meditation. Mary Kay is a graduate of Northwestern University, and holds a Masters in Design from the Institute of Design at IIT. Mary Kay is an artist/designer, mother, and grandmother, who credits her yoga practice for her excellent health, and the unbounded creative energy that fuels her very blessed life.
Meditate offers yoga and meditation classes in the Northcenter neighborhood,easily accessible to Lincoln Square, Lakeview, Ravenswood areas of Chicago.
Meditation classes include daily guided meditation sessions, meditation with the gong, music or silent in our soundproofed meditation studio. Our 12 Week Level 1 Meditation Course is very popular with those who have difficulty with busy minds. Our course address this challenge specifically.
Our yoga classes emphasize a balance of spiritual awareness with the physical practice. Perhaps we lean a little more to the spiritual offering less athletic yoga. Many of our classes offer specialty focus such as Chakra balancing, prenatal yoga, yoga for runners and an absolute beginners course. Watch our website for Sat. special workshops!
For more advanced students, we have an intensive yoga class (suitable for yoga teachers) on Tuesday evenings. As well, we teach Level 2 meditation classes for those really wanting grow spiritually.
Come explore!
I have been a student of yoga for 17 years and a teacher for 12. I fell in love with yoga as a psychology/pre-med student, when I realized by the knot in my stomach that med school was not for me! I was passionate about the miraculous human body but was much more interested in the art of health than disease. I found myself in an ashram in India and the mountains of Nepal instead of the library! Along my journey, I have had the honor of studying with a variety of master teachers in disciplines ranging from Ashtanga to Iyengar Yoga, all of whom have contributed to my comprehensive style of teaching: Physically balancing a blend of dynamic movement with longer holds in a progressive breath-centered sequence; Energetically balancing the doing - the action and intention in each pose, with the allowing - the surrender, relaxation, and acceptance in each pose. For each class, I choose specific alignment principles and intentionally weave them throughout the practice in slow, mindful meditation. All of my classes focus deeply on alignment and breath. Because the practice of yoga asks us to listen within and pay attention to what arises, I do not play music.
To me, the practice of yoga is the practice of living life and living in our TRUE reality! It is a never-ending journey of self-discovery and awareness. Yoga teaches us to become quiet, relaxed, and available to listen. It teaches us to become our own witness. Of everything- not just the pretty stuff! With presence, focus and deep inward concentration, we learn to distinguish between the chatter and fear of our ego mind and the truth of our heart, or intuitive mind. Our intuition is our heart aligning us with our dharma, or, our Soul’s true purpose for being. When we practice listening, we get to know ourselves authentically and learn that all the answers really are within us! And now ONLY right action in all aspect of our life is possible!
Through the practice of yoga, I have learned to see with a more expansive perspective. I have learned that there is no right or wrong. There is only the process and the practice, and the willingness and desire to explore and grow.
For the past 6 years, I have been apprenticing under the brilliant Gabriel Halpern, of the Iyengar Tradition, at the Yoga Circle in Chicago (which I absolutely LOVE!!).
I also very much resonate with the teachings of Para Yoga taught by Rod Stryker. I have learned through studying different styles of yoga that while approaches may vary, the intention is the same – to provide the practitioner with a tool to become more conscious, free and loving in spirit, and joyful in life!
***“Please get your Yoga practice from this wonderful person. She knows what she is doing. Linda has studied with the best teachers and can design a practice that is right for you… “your own yoga,” direct intimacy with Life in every way.” — *Mark Whitwell: Heart of Yoga****
Experience The Totality of An Authentic Yoga Experience…Yoga as it was meant to be taught.
Offering Hatha Yoga And Mindfulness Meditation For The Fox River Valley: Aurora, Batavia, Geneva, St. Charles, and Elgin.
Be it in small group classes or private one-on-one sessions, students have described their Metta Yoga experience as dynamic, inspirational, thought-provoking, and life-changing. Linda’s classes are for beginners who are seeking authentic yoga with a meditative emphasis, for those who want more than what a public yoga class can give them, and for dedicated practitioners seeking to expand their practice on a deeper level.
Whatever your path, Linda Karl has the years of training, practice, and experience to guide practitioners in all aspects of Yoga and meditation practice, bringing together body and mind, heart and soul. Yoga teacher mentoring and Yoga retreats in India also available.
Mia Park teaches Tantra Hatha in the Moksha Yoga 500 Hour Teacher Training and is a certified ParaYoga Level I instructor, 500E-RYT, and Rest and Renew restorative yoga teacher. In addition to having over 1,000 hours of teacher training, Mia received the Usha Yoga Foundation Scholarship and is becoming a Registered Children’s Yoga Teacher (RCYT). Mia is passionate about sharing how the power of yoga transforms us by revealing our highest self and how the right yoga practice helps us live peacefully and vibrantly.
Mia found yoga while teaching cardio kick boxing in 2002. Yoga offered her the perfect weave of physical health with internal peace that she needed to balance her active life style of playing in rock bands and professionally acting. Mia draws on her creative life style to bring a warm, joyful attitude to this ancient science of self evolution.
Mia trains extensively and broadly in yoga. She recently spent a month in India, studying the tantric lineage of Sri Vidya with her main teacher, Rod Stryker, and his teacher, Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, Ph.D. Mia also studies the Desikchar tradition with Gary Kraftsow and Chase Bossart. In the Iyengar/alignment tradition, Mia studied with Aadil Palkhivala, Gabrielle Halpern and Barbara Benagh. Mia has learned Anusara practices from Geri Bleier and Mitchell Bleier and practiced Ayurveda at Arogyaniketana Ayurveda Ashram in Hariharapura, India. She’s also studied with Dr. Robert Svoboda. Nicholai Bachman is another Ayureda teacher she studies with and learns sanskrit from. She has learned when to apply appropriate force in yoga from Ana Forrest, when to soften from Swami Shankardev, when to laugh from Dharma Mittra and Mark Whitwell, and when to deeply trust her number one teacher: her highest self.