We Celebrate Erin Wood as she Continues her Journey of Personal Growth by Becoming a HoopYogini™ Instructor

How did you discover hooping?

I discovered hooping through my dear friend Cadence Feeley, an amazing hooper and even more amazing photographer. I was swooning the first time I saw her hoop photos and videos. Shortly after that I saw a few images she posted from a photo shoot with Jocelyn Gordon, founder of HoopYogini™. The radiance and beauty conveyed through the photos had me hooked. I picked up my first adult hoop roughly 7 years ago fully inspired by the grace of so many hoopers who came before me.

What do you love about hooping and what has it meant for you?

I love hooping as a form of self expression. I love that my hoop is my dance partner (I now feel naked out on the dance floor without a hoop). Hooping puts me in a meditative state, focusing fully on the music and the moment–an opportunity to get lost in the flow of life, even if for just a moment. There have been times within the hoop that I feel lost and found at the same time. It’s a magic hard to explain to anyone who’s never experienced it. Within the hoop there are real, raw emotions moving through my body and its the most incredibly calming, thrilling and healing experience. It allows me to get “out of the mind and into the body” and gives me an outlet for play and spontaneity.

What do you love about HoopYogini™?

I love HoopYogini™ since it combines my two favorite movement medicines– hooping and yoga. Hooping connects me with my feminine flow while yoga gives me masculine structure. In yoga this is the principle of sthira (lightness and ease) and sukha (strength and power). HoopYogini™ is a beautiful practice that provides balance of movement, stillness and breath. The entire practice is built on a foundation of mindfulness and it draws me even deeper into my hoop dance flow.

What do you love most about teaching?

Wow, its hard to say what I love the most! I simply love to facilitate the experience of peace and mindfulness for my practitioners. It’s so overwhelmingly beautiful to see a sense of calm and peace from my students. Being able to provide people with that gives me a sense of purpose and I am truly honored to share this practice with people from different walks of life.

Give us a sense of your background or approach with teaching.

I have learned through much refinement to allow my practitioners to have their own unique experience, to assist them in coming fully into the present moment, and to quiet the mind so that their inner truth can be heard. There is no advice I can give that would impact them greater than to simply guide them to and through the breath. I have found as an instructor that it is far more powerful to simply guide them to their own answers, wisdom, and truth than to true to share mine. I want each student to feel the practice connects them deeply to themselves.

Share your message, values, and aspirations as a teacher and hooper.

My message is simple: Whatever answer you seek is already inside. I believe that HoopYogini™ can be a transformative practice, but that has nothing to do with me as an instructor! The practitioners are showing up to do the work, to honor their bodies, minds, spirits and emotions. I am simply facilitating the experience, guiding them through motions and connecting the motions with the breath. I am so excited to share HoopYogini™ at the Wanderlust 108 Event in San Diego and hope to bring HoopYogini™ to as many conscious gatherings and festivals as possible in 2017! My main aspiration as a hooper is to carry the joy, peace and bliss from hooping throughout every aspect of my life.

Personal Quote:

“You have permission to see the beauty in and around you. Please look for it in every minute, every day. Please, open your eyes. Please, turn your face to the light. And please know that if you seek, you will find.”