Leslie's Teaching Schedule:
Monday Nurturing Mother PreNatal Yoga 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Saturday Intro to Yoga 9:00am - 10:30am
Contact Leslie; register for a class; check Leslie's Yoga Workshops
Leslie Mouton draws inspiration from poetry and nature and the joy of being alive. She loves yoga practice as a way to be present in each moment and to feel deeply by using the body as an instrument. Learning from her experience as a mother of three, she feels that mothering is a spiritual path, and the principles of the science of yoga guide us with grace to embrace the art of our daily life. Leslie holds a university degree in Movement Studies, and devotes herself to ongoing study and practice of yoga. She has studied with the Iyengar family in Pune, India, and with many fine teachers closer to home. Leslie continues to study Sanskrit and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and participates in the Education for Life program.
From "Meet the Instructors: Leslie Mouton", September 2010Two Dog eNewsletter
"I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold service was joy"- Rabindranath Tagore
When asked, "What do you do?" I do not answer, "I am a yoga teacher." I am a mother, a gardener, I work for Living Wisdom School, I wear a lot of different hats.
I didn't grow up with yoga, yet I did grow up with a love for being quiet and a desire to be one with nature. There was always an inner knowing that somewhere, within the hustle and bustle of people doing this and that, there exists a deep connection between each individual and all that is. It takes time to be alone in order to connect. When individuals come together seeking truth, there is a sacred quality to the group. Perfectly alone and silent, yet fully aware of the presence of others... this describes to me the state of mind of yoga.
Searching for training in yoga has taken me to the ocean, to the mountains, to India, to home. It seems that the best place to learn and to practice is at home, because yoga is most real when it is lived as daily life. Yoga classes in a city serve us, in that a class withdraws us from doing into a few moments of being. It seems that yoga classes serve not to teach us, but to remind us of what we already know.
Yoga practice is a matter of the heart. I practice yoga because I am alive, and I live in my body. I do not have a choice about living in this body. Here I am! This is my body. I can only change or control so much; I must accept that which I am given. Yet I do have a choice as to how I experience this living in my body. I choose to experience joy.
Over the years my practice has become more devotional. While it is important to practice postures with proper technique, focussing on technique can become mechanical. I believe that yoga postures are iconic, that is to say they are very old, and that there is something within the cellular intelligence of a human body that knows how to tune in. We can be taught from the outside, and we can also learn from the inside-out. We can align ourselves with the divine. The experience of yoga comes not merely from hard work, but from receptivity to grace.
Namaste "The divine in me honors the divine in you."
Leslie inspires me with her awareness of the body, her precise descriptions of the poses
and her expectation that we students learn the sanskrit names of the poses. I had taken yoga
classes before, but Leslie's teaching lit a spark in me that continues to burn more brightly day by day.
— massage therapist
Leslie's classes really gave me so much strength and I am sure that they helped in delivering naturally. With
each contraction I just focused on opening up, and early in labor I used some of the movements that we did
in class. I replayed some of the things that she told us in class in my head, and it really helped me. Thank you so much!
— Dipa Sudra
