When I took my first training in 2007, my teacher trainer posed the question, “Is yoga enough?” In the traditional Ashtanga practice of Mysore, a 6-days-a-week practice of the same sequence every single day, would that be enough to keep the body balanced, strong, capable, and mobile?

Someone recently said that my upcoming Montana retreat looks like the vacation they need from their vacation. I know that feeling. Some trips come with a flurry of planes, trains, and automobiles so that you can get the most out of where you are in the shortest amount of time. There is certainly a time and place for vacations like that. But when you’re ready for a getaway that leaves you more rejuvenated than ragged, I think a retreat-style trip is hands down the way to go.

It seems we all come to our mats for different reasons initially. After my first real yoga practice in 2003, I decided that I hated yoga. I couldn’t touch my toes. I felt like an imposter. I didn’t know the weird language they were speaking. And I had zero body awareness. All in all, I didn’t feel “good” at it.

I completed my first 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training in 2007 at Yogaview in Chicago. I was 22 at the time, fresh out of college, and so fortunate to have a job as a graphic designer at a boutique ad agency down in River North. I was also completely disinterested in agency life and while my original vision was for me to be Helen Hunt from What Women Want, I knew that my feet liked to be bare more than they liked to be in heels and my time on my mat was much preferred over time in strategy meetings. As one does at the ripe age of 22, I prematurely quit my job and walked right into the world of teaching yoga.