Lisa was born in Brooklyn, New York and as many practitioners began asana at a young age with Lilias Folan by watching “Lilias! Yoga and You”. Over 20 years later she found her first teacher Nancy LaNasa; this is where the seed of compassion and devotion were forever planted through the practice of Jivamukti Yoga.

Nancy urged her to study yoga at the Satchidananda Ashram lovingly known as Yogaville. It was there that she was blessed to sit at the holy feet of Sri Swami Satchidananda who she reverently refers to as Sri Gurudev and upon completion of Integral Yoga TT came the birth of My Yoga Spirit; Norfolk’s first spiritually based yoga center.

Lisa was blessed to attend the 2005 Jivamukti Yoga TT where she sat at the holy feet of David Life and Sharon Gannon. This is where she met a teacher that spoke to her heart on the deepest level through the love of Sanskrit, dearly loved Manorama-ji who is reverently called Guru Ma as well as her mentor today and always beloved Lady Ruth Lauer-Manenti. Love for her teachers runs deep; she accredits them for everything she is today and devotes all to them. Every one of those teachers is in the room with her when she guides a class. 

In Lisa's class you will find emphasis on strength and breath to cultivate the spiritual warrior within as well as a hip hop vibe drawing from her old Brooklyn roots.

Lisa has been married to Mike Rapp for over 20 years and has 3 beautiful children, Dominic (24), Andrew (20), and Angel (18).
Mike and Lisa now live on the beautiful beaches of the North Shore of Hawaii where she hopes to build a new satsang and spread the teachings of Jivamukti Yoga.

My dearest teacher Sharon-ji in the movie “What is Yoga?” said, “The first thing that we do when we come into this life is we inhale, the last thing that we will do before leaving this life is to exhale. In between that first inhale and the last exhale is our life”. This quote forever impacted me to make better choices and live for others. I hope I remain mindful of how to live…