Marie Hengesbach

Yoga has saved me and changed my life three separate times!  About 12 years ago I fell while jogging. I wound up with a bulging disc in my back. This was very hard for me since the pain kept me from running (which I did daily) and even carrying out my day to day activities. I went to a pain clinic and physical therapy.  Neither of those things helped me. I decided to buy a yoga book and start practicing. It was the only thing I did that eased my pain. This was when I fell in love with yoga. The next time was when I was going through a very difficult emotional time in my life.  I needed something to pull me out of my despair. I decided to take hot yoga classes at a yoga studio in Kalamazoo. It was amazing. I typically went 5-6 days per week. It helped my frame of mind and put me in a much better place. The third time was when I started coming to GLY. My hubby actually built me a hot yoga room in our previous house. But after moving, I missed hot yoga. It was then when I started attending classes at GLY and I LOVE it. So much so that I completed my 200 hour RYT training in August and am so happy to be teaching here. I was looking for a purpose after I retired and now I have found it.

RYT 200, LifePower Yoga, 2018

Kitty Hercliff

I started my yoga journey in January 2019. I was newly starting the process of infertility, and was looking for ways to reduce stress. I began practicing along with YouTube videos at home. A few months later I experienced a loss, and decided to jump wholeheartedly as a way of healing. I began practicing at GLY, and found a passion in the practice. I look forward to seeing where this journey takes me physically, mentally, and emotionally. 

Katie Kelly

My life tends to be busy with a family and a demanding professional life.  But 8 years of teaching yoga and 10 years of practicing have helped me realize that we are all exactly where we’re supposed to be.  When I step on my mat it heals and when the sweet sweaty mess begins to clear I find a better version of myself.

E-RYT 200, CENTER FOR YOGA, 2010

Rachel Langeneker

Vinyasa and Slowburn became a way of letting go of my day. I started the process of detoxifying my mind and releasing negative thoughts and attitudes. Yin helped me to just be. ‘Breath in, breath out,’ was a new motto, both on and off the mat. 

I hope to teach students of all ages – to spread the love. Yoga is not just stretching. It is getting deep inside yourself and getting comfortable with you. It’s not about the pose. You learn to trust yourself more and more. Each breathe is a new beginning. Yoga provides an opportunity to become a better version of yourself every time you step onto that beautiful mat. Yoga is a way of life, a way of happiness, compassion and healing for yourself and the ones around you.

“On sunny days or rainy days, there is always space to grow.” This is one of my favorite quotes in the world. It connects so deeply with yoga. When you walk onto your mat the possibilities are endless. You can have many new and wonderful sensations, uncomfortable feelings, affections, emotions and a sense of being free to be one of a kind YOU.

RYT 200, Center For Yoga, 2018

Molly Lixey

Yoga found me during a very dark time in my life. I was overworked, lonely, and I felt like a caged animal running over with emotions. I was working long hours in an ER, which meant I was coming home full of other people’s anguish and to top it all off I wasn’t allowed to talk about those feelings. I was bound by patient protection. 

The first yoga class I took was incredible. I wasn’t particularly good at it and I messed up the moves a lot, but I left lighter and it was enough to bring me back. Eventually I realized every time I felt overwhelmed in my life I immediately wanted to go to yoga. That’s when I realized this wasn’t about my body, not that I wasn’t getting stronger, but this had become about my soul. I was healing. I was finding peace. 

The following year I made a way in my life to take a month intensive teacher training and I’ve never looked back. My only hope when you leave my class is that you felt safe for one hour and maybe just a bit lighter.

RYT 200, Lifepower Yoga, 2019

Amanda Slezsak

I was first introduced to yoga in 2013, through a research and graduate school prep program that I was involved in while working on my bachelor’s degree. The goal of the program is to get first generation, low income, and minority students into PhD program fully funded. The basis of the program was more as to prepare for research and graduate school, however and additional goal is to expose students to various opportunities to maintain a healthy mind and body during the rigors of their education. One of these opportunities was yoga.

I started going on and off for the next several years. But it wasn’t until fall of 2017 that I was able to find a consistency in my practice. It began more as a way to help de-stress from the chaos of finishing my master’s degree, taking classes, applying to graduate programs, and working full-time. But at the start of the New Year it became more a journey of healing and strength. Since then I have gained not only strength but confidence as well as self-growth.