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ABOUT ME
Meet Kristin Butler
Founder of Side Effects Yoga
My journey to yoga began...
In my early 20s in the late 1980s, following a mental health crisis when I was led to a small Kundalini Yoga Ashram in Washington, DC by a good friend. I was surprised by how breath-based exercises, mantras and the yogic discipline immediately affected my physiological and emotional recovery.
I have been a life-long seeker ever since.
When I moved to Portland, Oregon in 1992, I started practicing Hatha yoga, the physical yoga practices from which most Western lineages have been derived, including the 20th century styles we call Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Viniyoga, Yin, etc.
After the birth of my third child, I dedicated myself to a daily practice, diving more solidly into daily meditation, studying yoga philosophy and pranayama (breath extension) techniques.
In 2011, I completed a 200 hour teaching program through 8 Limbs Yoga Center in Seattle, and started teaching small groups ever since.
As a “householder yogi”, I have also pursued a successful career in the pharmaceutical industry, and I've had the great honor to study anatomy, physiology and medicines across many body systems, from digestive and cardiovascular to central nervous system, infectious disease, and rare solid organ and hematologic cancers.
My fascination with the human body (and spirit) grows daily!
I founded Side Effects Yoga in 2011, as a reminder that whether it is human developed medicines, garden grown vegetables, water, air, or energetic vibrations, everything we ingest, imbibe, inhale and imbue alters our consciousness, our frequency, our microbiome and ultimately the superorganism we call ourself.
As such, we are reminded that the side effects of yoga practice include, but are not limited to:
⁎ increased flexibility
⁎ balance and physical strength
⁎ mindful awareness
⁎ a general sense of ease, energy and well being
Long term benefits extend to self compassion, equanimity, loving kindness and spontaneous joy.
I wish you all of these things and hope to welcome you at a retreat, class or workshop in the near future.
Namaste,
Kristin
Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.
-Rumi (1207-1293)
