ABOUT ME
My mission is to teach children, pre-teens, teens, and adults how to calm and settle their minds using yoga, meditation, and mindfulness. These foundational tools allowed me to completely rebuild my approach to navigating life.
After teaching high school English in the Bay Area for 17 years, I experienced a massive burn-out that made me mentally, emotionally, and physically ill.
Unfortunately, many of my students and colleagues were experiencing the same things I was - chronic anxiety, overwhelming stress, and the feeling that we never had enough time to accomplish what we needed to get done - let alone find the time for self-care.
I was forced to reflect on my past actions, put my needs first, and begin my journey toward healing – after consistently putting the needs of others ahead of my own for almost two decades.
One of the first things I did was go to a yoga class - something I hadn’t done in over eight years, before the birth of my daughter. It proved a transformational decision, and motivated me to complete my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training (at San Francisco’s Yoga Garden, now Folk) in December 2022.
It didn’t take me long to realize that I wanted to continue teaching - just not in the way I had done previously. I had to relearn how to share my gifts through my work, raise my daughter, be a wife, and approach life in a way that was more balanced and wouldn’t make me sick again.
Now I teach children, young people, and adults how to refocus on the core demands of daily living using the same practices that rescued me – including easy-to-learn skills to become more embodied and to calm active minds – through trauma-conscious classes guided with patience and kindness.
I’ve done this by going into public schools through programs like Niroga Institute and Shine Kids Yoga, as well as in private schools like French American International School (FAIS) and by working at small, inclusive yoga studios like Casa Om. By starting Rebuild Yoga, I’m bringing these offerings to individuals and small groups.
I’d be honored to help you, your child(ren), family, or team reset your body, mind, and spirit. Learn how to better navigate daily challenges as they arise by recognizing and regulating your emotions and reactive responses through yoga, meditation and mindfulness. In yoga, we learn how to develop “A state of active, open attention to the present … observing one’s thoughts and feelings without judging them as good or bad” (Psychology Today).
I just completed a 300 hour training (also at Folk) that centers on teaching yoga to kids and teens, and studying trauma-informed theories and practices, as they apply to yoga/meditative spaces.
Creating art (watercolor and “sharpie art” are my current favorites!), journaling, reading, spending time outside in nature, and walking are additional tools I’ve added to the foundational practices of yoga to help me process big emotions and “ride the wave” of overwhelming feelings. I am happy to share these tools with my students during our sessions.
Working with yoga poses, pose-holding, and movement (“asana” in Sanskrit, an ancient language of India), combined with energetic breathwork (“pranayama” in Sanskrit), made my body physically stronger. After almost two decades of sitting at a desk, commuting to work, and getting very little exercise - my physical body was wrecked. Becoming stronger physically allowed me to strengthen myself mentally and emotionally, and allowed me to identify the roots of my discomfort and dis-ease and begin to address them.
In addition to helping individuals regulate their emotions and impulses, I seek to welcome queer, trans, non-binary, and black and brown individuals in yoga and meditation practices - just as much as white, cisgendered, and straight people are.
View my offerings to start your yoga journey.
Thank you, and I can’t wait to meet you!
- Cindy Shusterman
cindy@rebuildyoga.com
