The Seeds Of Movement Wisdom

Jess started her exploration of the body and spirit as a kid growing up in Kansas City. Her elementary school slumber parties with friends mixed Disney movies with meditation & hyperventilation games to reach altered states of consciousness. By middle school, she split her free time between the basketball court and the soccer field, and went to the local Buddhist and Unity temples on weekends. This mix of intense physicality and deep spirituality became the foundation of what would later become Movement Wisdom Yoga.

Yoga As A Handbook For Hard Times

When her best friend died at 20, Jess tried to numb the pain with drugs and alcohol. The day she graduated college, she left Kansas and traveled the world with a band. Before finally settling in Europe, and still searching for healing, Jess tried yoga for the first time at a YMCA in Toronto. The loud music, harsh lights, heat, and crowded room were overwhelming, and she fled after just five minutes, convinced yoga wasn't for her.

Then came the call that changed everything. Jess’ mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and given six weeks to live. Jess immediately rushed home and became her fierce advocate. She battled insurance companies for life-saving treatment - and won. Nearly 20 years later, her mom is still alive and well. She credits Western medicine for this miracle. But also, yoga.

For several months during treatment, Jess took her mom to daily yoga classes at the cancer hospital. These classes were very different from the chaotic yoga class she'd fled at the YMCA. This was gentle yoga for the heart and spirit. Each session was an escape to peace and calm, even in the midst of unbearable uncertainty and pain. Here, she discovered what yoga is truly about. Despite the constant fear of losing her mom, Jess felt more whole and balanced than ever before. Yoga helped her realize that the mystical state she'd been chasing since childhood actually lived within her all along.

10,000 Hours Of Yoga

After her mom left the hospital, Jess kept going. She threw herself into yoga like her life depended on it and practiced six days a week, 90 minutes a day. As her physical practice evolved, Jess got more and more interested in the spiritual and philosophical side of yoga. When a friend suggested she go to India to learn more, she didn't hesitate. Three weeks later, Jess had sold most of her belongings and was en route to the birthplace of yoga. Not necessarily to become a professional teacher, but to fully understand the vastness of yoga.

Jess completed her first 200 Hour YTT, spent several months living in an ashram, studied with spiritual teachers and traveled to sacred pilgrimage sites across the subcontinent. She learned to view herself and all of life through the eyes of a yogi. This began more than a decade of intensive study - multiple return trips to India, a handful of 200 and 300-hour YTTs all over the world, certifications in Yin, Restorative, and Prenatal Yoga, and rigorous studies in anatomy and movement science. But the wisdom she gained in India remains her greatest inspiration, and compass, in life.