Teacher Feature: Mo
At the Yoga Center of Columbia, we strive to cultivate a space where students and instructors feel a sense of community and belonging for all abilities, all bodies, and all ages. Today we’re honoring our teachers, who use their knowledge and expertise to adapt their leadership to meet the needs of all students, providing a welcoming and inclusive experience for everyone.
Meet Maureen (Mo) Rosenbloom: E-RYT 200 and EMYoga® (Energy Medicine Yoga) Instructor, Qigong Instructor, Integrative Reflexologist, Reiki Level II, and Sound Bath Practitioner! Mo has been a dedicated practitioner for over a decade, and has taught at the Yoga Center of Columbia for over seven years.
Mo loves finding and sharing the throughline amongst ancient energy practices with her students in classes and workshops. “Energy is a force that animates our body,” she notes. “The body’s energies are a coordinated constellation: we are electrical, chemical, magnetic, energetic and we have fields. Energy moves in patterns that correspond with the body’s structure –meridians; fascia layers; chakras along the spine; aura reflects structure of the physical body–it layers the body radiating outward. Our energies seek health, balance. Energy can form habits that resist change, even when the need for those habits no longer exists. Healthy energy habits can be reinforced, and harmful ones re-patterned.” This support and re-patterning are much of what Mo focuses on in her classes and workshops. “When we increase coherence in our energy, it brings more coherence to our mental, emotional, relational lives. Coherence stabilizes. We practice being steady to share that stability out into the world.”
Mo teaches Extra Gentle Yoga, Gentle Yoga, and Qigong; hosts Sound Immersion workshops; and co-hosts student favorite Restoratives, Reiki, and Reflexology workshops! Read on to discover more about Mo and her experience and relationship to yoga and to our studio.
What have you learned or how have you grown since becoming a YCC instructor?
I found my path of teaching yoga midway through life after caregiving for family members experiencing debilitating mental illness. Pivoting away from an IT career, the layers of yoga unfurled as a resource, a respite, a renewal, a remembering, a focus that joyfully called me back to my body as home base. I’m motivated to share yoga with caregivers of all kinds to honor and prioritize ourselves, to beckon us back to being playful and present.
What are your most memorable trips or experiences relating to your yoga, Pilates, meditation and/or qigong practices?
YCC 2017 Hallowood Retreat led by Kathy Donnelly. IMCW Silent Women's Retreat 2020. Being a Seva (volunteer) at Himalayan Institute 2023. Walking the Camino 2024. New Year's Kripalu retreat 2024/25. Silent New Year's retreat Yogaville 2025/26.
Do you have any current areas of independent focus/study/interest related to these practices and what are they?
I’ve always found inspiration in stepping out of the flow of life to participate in spiritual and yoga retreats. I started leading retreats in 2025 and most recently was a presenter at an international retreat in Costa Rica. I’m preparing to lead Gentle Yoga with weights and participated in a 14 week advanced Yoga Philosophy course at YCC.
Do you have some favorite quotes or mantras? What are they?
Thicht Nhat Hanh: "Breathing in I calm my body; breathing out I calm my mind"
Do you have any current favorite books, philosophies, or teachers in your area of focus and what or who are they?
Sally Kempton’s Meditation for the Love of It; also her book Awakening Shakti. Christopher Wallis’s Tantra Illuminated.
What is your favorite part of being part of the YCC family?
The YCC community is home - a place of belonging, & acceptance; a place to keep learning and expanding; a place to deepen understanding of myself and have company on the path.
Do you have a profession or hobby outside of the yoga studio?
I love to be in nature and walk frequently in the woods near my house. I enjoy traveling and lived in New Zealand for 18 years. I also have a Beagle/Dachshund rescue named Sarge.
The Yoga Center of Columbia has been supporting our community's health and well-being since 1992. We offer yoga, Pilates, meditation, and qigong in four classrooms in Columbia, Maryland: in-person and online. Click for details or to register for our 100+ weekly Classes and our specialty Workshops !
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