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.