#ODDlight Teacher Feature: Ducky Punch

Each month we bring a teacher into the #ODDlight and illuminate their interests, practices, and who they are. There is a real person behind those teachers and it’s their knowledge filtered through their own experiences that make them that person that pulls you into class.

Name: Ducky Punch

Nick Name: Effie, Nula, Nools, Duck

Hometown: CORK

Favorite Place: Kauai Hanalei...can I have two places, if so Nepal....

Favorite color:  On me...RED, on a front door it's Yellow, Blue for the sky and when swimming Turquoise.

What’s your sign? Pisces

Most embarrassing moment?  Ohhhh I still blush, Too many...seriously...way to many....I'll tell you when the next one happens!

Most empowering moment?  Receiving my Masters in Neuroscience on a Wednesday and flying to San Francisco the next Saturday....woohooo roll on new life!!

Fun Fact most wouldn’t know about you?  I LOVE POI  (Spinning fire)....Just keep your distance..I've a lot to learn !

Fun Fact most wouldn’t know about you? I went hunting on a very stubborn and feisty shetland pony, named cowslip, when I was 10. I though I was going to die.

Can't think of any !   (We think this is because all of Ducky's life is magical, funny, adventurous...)

When you aren’t at the studio where can you be found (favorite past time)?  At the beach of course, in an infra red sauna, traveling to remote places, sipping tea, detoxing, drumming,  giving cranio-sacral therapy to my nephews, sprouting seeds, playing table tennis at the Hammer museum, studying the psoas, chatting to donkeys !

How do you define yoga? One of the many great teachings that has the potential to guide you straight into your heart, expose your innate compassion, transform and enhance the quality of your life.  SATNAM to that !

Why do you teach? That's an easy question.  It's sounds like the stereotypical answer but it is the truth. I get to see the best of people when I'm teaching. The good, the bad, and the gritty, but it's authentic and real.  Yoga simply works, there is medicine in the poses that is unique for us all. As students practice they connect deeper and deeper to themselves and theres such a sweetness in that. Yoga invites us to shed our fears and inspires us to let our true nature shine. It's an honor to teach and see students transform. So thanks to you yogis for giving me that gift.

What brought you to become an instructor? Pure fluke!  I was a science nerd with a wild side that was hidden under a shy veneer. I had a dream of going to med school but was not totally enamored with the direction the profession was taking. While figuring out my working life I decided to take a few months off to learn more about yoga because I loved it. Bit by bit, favor by favor, friends asked me to step in and teach and the rest is history !

What is your favorite song to play in class?  The one and only inspiring, uplifting and crazy talented Kendrick Lamar and his song  "I"  Introduced to me by my friend ET

Favorite line in the song besides "I love myself"  is "how many times our potential was anonymous"

First of all they're all my favorites because they all build upon each other.  Like the meaning of yoga they are better united/yoked.  But if i had to choose a pose that will never fail to yield incredible benefits, it would be dolphin. Our lifestyle has most of us gravitating to a slouched position and dolphin is such a good chest opener. it also opens our armpits :)))

“If you open the armpits, the brain becomes light. You cannot brood or become depressed.” — BKS Iyengar

I love armpits !!

"never hold your farts in, they travel up your spine, in to your brain and that where shitty ideas come from"

(she insisted the cows be included. as they are an important part of her life)

Memorable yoga moment? Just getting to take class!

I get this question a lot. and it always reminds me of a line from the movie "Once we were warriors". At the end of the movie one of the main characters was asked by his brother if he was going to get his Maori tattoos and he said no bro, I wear mine on the inside. I feel the same, I wear my yoga on the inside too. But I do have a meditation space. My personal sacred space that is a home to some special items that I do love to have nearby when I meditate.

Yoga for youth, is an amazing organization that offers Kundalini yoga to incarcerated youth in LA. Training with Krishna Kaur was one of the most heart wrenching and warming experiences I've ever have had. These kids in everyday life are treated as if they are worthless so to have someone believe in them, see them, respect and teach them to recognize their inner beauty (I know this sounds blablahish ) boy do they shine bright ! Seriously "no mud no lotus!"

I have so much respect for Heifer international. It is one of my all time favorites too!

My workshop! 5/14 - 5/15. Bring your bodies. Bring your questions. Anatomy workshop - Body Love.

@ducknormal on instagram - #duckypunch is me and a bowl of punch with rubber duckies!