This morning as I’m getting ready for work, a text comes in and it’s from Lauralyn Sullivan. Lauralyn is a yoga teacher that I met not even a year ago. We were at a vision board and yin yoga class on Jacki Carr’s front porch in Evergreen, Colorado. I remember feeling like I might have shocked this woman when I said that I intended on having a sexy season, and disclosed how long it had been (for the record, the sexy season so did not happen).

The next time Lauralyn and I crossed paths was in Salida for Jacki’s Novel Grapes Book Camp. In a book exchange circle Lauralyn and I connected on the fact that we had read and loved all of the same books! That night at Amicas Pizza we connected even more on all things yoga and naturally, the moon.

That fall, I attended one of Lauralyn’s first moon circles that she held in her Denver home: an intimate gathering of women around the new moon, followed by a Nidra practice. Lauralyn’s moon circles have gotten so popular that she started incorporating a circle around the full moon too, and she can foresee a time in the near future where she will start having two offerings per each new and full moon phase! Her offerings have even evolved to be a collaboration effort; I recently attended one which she co-led with Macy Graham of Hungryoga to talk about the feminine relationship with food.

This fall we are in talks to do a collaboration around Ayurveda cleansing, perhaps with a kitchari cooking component. Stay tuned!

This full moon gathering in May will be focused around mental health, as May is Mental Health Awareness Month — and it is the reason Lauralynsent me the text. She writes, “Something this morning is guiding me to reach out to you. I want to check in to see how you are doing … I also wanted to invite you to be my guest for tonight’s Full Moon Yoga Nidra Event.”

Her text is intuitive on so many levels. For one, she does not know that my piece I pitched about her is due as I write this (after several deadline extensions which I needed because I haven’t been feeling like myself lately) … which brings me to the second reason her reaching out is intuitive: she is a healer.

One time, I asked Lauralyn what is her purpose, or as she states it, her primary intention, and this is what she said with clarity and conviction: “I am here to transform suffering into compassion.”

I am here to transform suffering into compassion.

And I believe her.

Every step Lauralyn has been taking has been intentionally leading her towards being a vessel for that mission. She first recognized her primary intention when she went through her second Yoga Nidra training that was held in Denver by the Amrit Yoga Institute. Lauralyn was learning about Nidra from teachers like Kamini Desai, John Vosler and Priti Chanda Klco, teachers at the forefront of Yoga Nidra.

Her first Yoga Nidra training was led by Jeremy Wolf. Lauralyn took this training knowing that she would be leaving her full time job at the Tennyson Center for Children in Denver to teach yoga full time.

And nowadays that keeps her quite busy! She teaches a total of nine classes at The River Yoga Studio (at both of their locations, click here for more info on the schedule), she teaches an adaptive yoga class at Samadhi and she even teaches at Oasis Yoga too.

If that wasn’t enough, in February Lauralyn joined Guided by Humanity, which is “a non-profit organization that offers accessible, inclusive and compassionate mindfulness programming to Colorado residents that traditionally lack access to health and wellness resources.” In April she led an accessible yoga flow that was part of a fundraising effort and if you were not able to make the event, you can still make a difference by donating to Guided by Humanity, an organization truly making a difference in Colorado.

Recently Lauralyn faced her samskara around perfection. She realized she sometimes would hold back from doing big thing because she believed she wasn’t ready. But she overcame this fear when she submitted a recorded nidra meditation to the Insight Timer App. The morning that she got the notification that her recording would be going live was very exciting, and to this day it has over 2,000 plays! You can find it here.

So this full moon, I will take Lauralyn up on her offer to come to her moon circle. To talk about mental health, and to bask in this woman’s glow. The woman who is here to transform suffering into compassion. I’m so thankful to know her, and if you’d like to as well you can follow along on all the social avenues (hint, Lauralyn often posts her schedule in her Instagram stories, and if you DM her she might be able to give you a buddy pass to come try one of her classes).

Check her out on Facebook and Instagram.

Photo by Jes Kimak Photography.