ABOUT YOUR TEACHER MOLLIE
I want you to have a fantastic life in your body. I want you to experience the pleasures of being alive, in and through your body. And I want you to feel the best you can in your body. Because I believe it is our birthright to have a good, pleasurable life as human beings.
WHY I Teach
It is my Mission to help US all come into right relationship with our bodIES, through movement.
When most of us think about our own bodies, we use words we would never say to someone we love. But part of this is how we have been taught and conditioned by the world. Our bodies are mysterious, so we think there is something wrong with them.
When we understand our design and our function more accurately, we can move better, train more effectively, and have deeper pleasure, sensuality and connection to our bodies, as they are. The forms that I teach serve this mission
WHY I PRACTICE & WHAT YOGA MEANS TO ME
There are many different definitions of the word yoga. Union. Yoking. Moving into stillness. Connection of body, breath and mind, or mind, body and spirit.
For me, yoga is not something that we do. It is a state that arises. Sometimes yoga is achieved in physical poses, and sometimes not. Sometimes union happens while taking a slow breath on a commute to work, hiking in the mountains, witnessing beauty or persevering through challenge. We set the stage for yoga to arise by practicing certain techniques. And when we are lucky, yoga happens.
Everyone can practice yoga. It does not matter if your hamstrings are tight, or you have injuries. If you are old or young, fit or unfit, calm or stressed. You start the journey of yoga where you are.
Yoga cultivates peacefulness, empathy, abundance and joy. I believe that a rising tide raises all boats, and so I believe in sharing knowledge, resources, perspectives. Let us together make yoga and yoga teaching an expression of human excellence. Let us share freely and abundantly so that we all rise up.
“Yoga is a form of working body, breath and mind. The form of yoga deepens our physical experience of life, to become more embodied, sensitive, accurate and mindful in our experience of our lives.”
MOLLIE McCLELLAND MORRIS
I was a dancer for many years, and yoga kept coming into my life. It was a practice that brought balance to my body & mind.
THIS IS MY STORY
I stumbled into studios in Massachusetts, New york and Pittsburgh. While I was studying abroad, I found a folded up handout with yoga poses from a class I had been to in New york. I started practicing the series, what I could remember, on my own. Soon, I ended up in India with one of my teachers learning Ashtanga yoga.
After years of praciticing wth injuries that migrated around my body, I discovered the Franklin Method, through a teacher and friend, Kimba Bridgman.
When I discovered Franklin Method, there were so many pieces of my life that fell into place. I had been wanting to learn how to move since ballet training, and never found anyone who could help me feel and understand what was going on. At the same time there were basic things about my body that I didn’t know. I had been dancing, training and practicing for nearly 30 years, and I didn’t know where my legs connected to my body.
My curiosity about my body, and my own nature, drives my practice. My wonder at these bodies we have drives my teaching.
The way I teach movement is to explore a particular feature of our body. Then we take that exploration and bring it into movement practice.
MY WORK WITH TEACHERS
I teach anatomy separate from yoga posture practice. Why? Because some teachers share anatomy in order to justify or elaborate on the cues they have learned. For me, it is important to understand movement, our anatomy and design first, and then explore how our unique body works in the pose.
My work is multi-sensory, multi-disciplinary, playful, creative, deep, precise and curious. We don’t look for answers. We inquire, research, question, test, hypothesize, infer and start over. The lab is the body. The experimenter, the analyst is you.
I am not here to tell you what is right or wrong, but to point you towards areas of your body you might not have felt before. To open up gateways of perception, and to offer imagery or movements that might bring you comfort, healing, power or flexibility. To open up your sensuality and connection to your body and give you tools to decode what it is telling you.
ABOUT THE FRANKLIN METHOD
"No matter what your movement practice, the question is: Are you fully enjoying your physical existence? Because it is that which brings you health."
When I was first taught yoga it was "hard" and "driven". I was given cues like "drive into your hip joints". "Tuck Tailbone." "Engage your core" "Square your hips" and even "tighten your anus". My hip joints do not like to be driven into. Tucking my tailbone injured my hips. Engaging my core meant I couldn't breathe. My hips are not square. And tightening my anus, all the time, in all my poses... It felt so wrong. So hard. So painful. So contracted.
I did yoga to move, to balance the body, to bring body and breath together. To be in myself and with myself and to accept myself as I am. I practiced yoga for grace and for presence, and for a healthy body for a long healthy life. Not for driving into my joints. And not for a tight a**!
The Franklin Method gave me language for what I already knew and experienced in my body. That we do not need to be aggressive to get results. That too much is too much. And that it is possible to train for and practice with longevity, ease and grace while improving strength and flexibility.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FRANKLIN METHOD
"The Franklin Method Approach can be applied to any movement to improve it’s function. Our goal is to create happy minds & healthy bodies through anatomical embodiment and Dynamic Neurocognitive Imagery (DNI)™."
Franklin Method was created by Erik Franklin as he noticed that how he was dancing was causing him injury and pain. You can read more about Franklin Method here.
Anatomy is the study of the structures of the body. But "Anatomy" is irrelevant if we don't understand how those structure function and move. Anatomical embodiment is understanding the forms and functions in the body both in the mind and body. So we can move in alignment with our form and function, instead of fighting with form. To find ease and grace is to find out how we move and then give the body uplifting, graceful imagery.