Fuel for the body. Fire for the soul.

  When I first stepped onto a yoga mat, I thought I was just looking for a good stretch. I wanted to ease the tightness that had built up from years of moving too fast and giving too much of myself to everything else. Over time, the practice began to shift how I viewed myself and the world around me. I started questioning what spirituality meant to me and what my true purpose in life was. That is when I realized yoga was more than just postures. It was a path toward understanding who I am.

  I have always been a people person. For years, I worked in customer service, helping others in small ways every day. When I discovered that I could use those same social skills to help people through yoga, not just to move their bodies but to connect to something deeper, I knew there was no going back. What I realized in that shift was confidence, a knowing that I had finally found my life’s purpose. Teaching this practice allows me to help others find strength, clarity, and connection within themselves.

One day after class, a student looked at me and said, “When you open your own studio, I want to know, because I am going to be your first member.” That sentence stayed with me. It planted a seed that kept growing quietly at first, then stronger, until I could no longer ignore it.

  When I first moved to Edgewood almost twenty years ago, there was an old 1960s gas station just down the road. It was a familiar sight I passed every day. Back then it had already begun its second life as Blooming Mad, a quirky little garden center with a greenhouse wrapped around the side. I did not know it then, but that building would someday become part of my story. Once I began teaching yoga, I would drive past Blooming Mad and imagine what it would look like transformed into a studio,  how I would fill that space with movement, light, and community.

  Years later, that dream became real. Turning that weathered building into The Body Shop Yoga was not easy. There were long days of sanding, painting, and moments of wondering if I had taken on too much. But little by little, it came to life. The walls went from red to matte black, the echoes turned into laughter and breath, and the space began to hum with energy and warmth once again.

What once fueled cars now fuels connection. What once grew plants now grows people.

  Every time I unlock the doors, I take a moment to breathe it all in, the space, the energy, and the people who fill it. What began as an idea to teach yoga has become something much bigger: a home for movement, stillness, and belonging. The Body Shop Yoga is not about perfection. It is about showing up, breathing through the work, and realizing that transformation, just like this building, is always possible.