When I started yoga, I was overweight, in between contract assignments and depressed. I started classes at a very large yoga studio in town but lost money because of their unfriendly time restrictions. I took my first Bikram class from Teresa at Yogagroove and it changed my life!

I attended 9 classes my first week and class every day for 40 days without stopping. I lost 45lbs over the course of 6 months, my muscles began to grow longer and leaner and I gained a new focus. I’m slowly building my arches from completely flat feet, I’m standing taller and straighter and my metabolism has increased.

I went to Bikram Teacher Training in the Fall of 2002 to learn more About Bikram and about myself. I teach Bikram Yoga because seeing others change and improve like I have is a gift. I know the benefits of Bikram Yoga and I know that everyone who does this yoga can make a difference with their own body and mind.

My massage practice and studio ownership are part of my continued progress and understanding of the human condition. This is my tiny way of doing what I can to help others. None of this is "easy," but since I started teaching yoga and doing massage full time, I haven't "worked" a single day.

As a business owner, I am interested in promoting my path to others who might be interested in lasting healing, weight loss or a more intense workout. I can't tell people about my inner challenges or how this yoga will help their inner feelings because I can't know that what I experienced is true for everyone. Bikram Yoga requires a lifestyle change. It's not easy to continue along the same path while maintaining a Bikram Yoga practice. It takes a lot more than just coming to yoga once a day to have a beautiful life, but maintaining my Bikram Yoga practice is certainly a beautiful start. Namaste.

5/23/08 - I sometimes wonder how I came to be where I am today. I'm reminded constantly of a random quote I heard once: "You're born, you live and you die. You make your choices and you live with them. Then you are those choices." I went from my college degree in Anthropology to working in high tech, sometimes traveling for 6 weeks at a time, to teaching yoga, giving massage and owning a yoga studio. Sure, there was a lot of time to that story but here I am.

My most recent chapter of this story is as I begin the expansion of my North Austin yoga studio, Yogagroove. Yogagroove has been a Bikram Yoga studio since 2001. I purchased it in 2005. Since then, the regular students have tripled and almost all of the class times are to capacity as we proceed through the week. I thought in college that I might someday continue in academia and use the adage "publish or perish" to grow my career. In the business world, it's more along the lines of fighting entropy, growth or destruction. I've seen many companies destroyed from within for numerous reasons as I have been easily laid off at least 5 times, sometimes by the same company more than once and then rehired by a different division. The decisions made by management never made much sense at my participation level and I learned through time that freedom for me would be to be free of others making decisions for my livelihood. I went from employee to contractor to consultant with the same results. Now, I know that control is an illusion and that effort and really great timing makes a successful business and not entitlement or investment.

Last year, when I though it was time to expand, I researched opening a second studio in south Austin. I found what I thought was the perfect location in a new building in a populated area on William Cannon. It seemed like a great place but it just didn't fit. My communications with the building owner were off and in the end I couldn't possibly make the parking work to bring in 50+ students per class. During this process, though, I learned about the banks and what they look for when giving a loan. They aren't very friendly, and actually condescending, when they don't understand what you do. I learned the basics of negotiating a lease and how important a lawyer is to make sure my interests are protected. A landlord will write all kinds of unbelievable things into a lease and although the owner's agent says that he represents both parties, I learned quickly that this wasn't true. It just didn't work, so although I was disappointed, I waited.

On Thursday, May 22nd, I signed an 7 year lease to expand Yogagroove into the space next door. This will allow us to provide showers, 4 massage rooms, a second yoga room to allow overlapping classes and a full-scale clothing boutique and a juice bar to our students. I had an excellent commercial realtor who was my go-between with the owner's agent, the same superb lawyer and I'm working with an architect (Anthony DiGrazia of noble Savage Design-Build http://noblesavagedesignbuild.com). The intended completion will be for The Austin Free Day of Yoga on September 1st.