St. Louis Corporate Yoga developed out of 15 years of regular yoga practice, yoga studio ownership and ongoing corporate yoga classes. Throughout this time, as the owner of Clayton Yoga, I faced many up’s and down’s. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, I learned early on how to take the job seriously and made every effort to make daily improvements as both a business leader and a community role model.
I attribute my success to many people who offered their supportive coaching and encouraging words to me. I also cherish the everyday small experiences and step by step approach I went through to get to where I am now. I remember teaching just one yoga class each week and agonizing over it. I would spend weeks thinking about the meaning of life, and being obsessed with developing my own style of unique voice. I could think of nothing else!
After taking hundreds of classes from many great yoga teachers, I decided it was time to begin my own yoga studio. Yoga was an incredibly humbling experience. I was so passionate about finding yoga and what yoga could do, I just taught purely from instinct and as much positive energy as I could gather. After three years, fate intervened and I met Jonny Kest who would shape her yoga practice and style forever. Mr. Kest taught me to go within and really listen to my own unique edge, quieting my mind, and be authentic. His style is described as eccentric.
As a child prodigy of tennis, perhaps I relate to his childhood upbringing in yoga as well. Athletes are so competitive, that even when teachers were trying to be soothing and comforting, I still picked up competition energy. When I studied with Jonny, for the first time, I felt free to my wild, to be myself, to celebrate the tools I already had, rather than trying to perfect a pose, Jonny encouraged me really to listen to my breath.
I remember he would tell jokes, wear blue jeans and sponsor yearly national conferences which featured the best yoga teachers from around the world. I attended a Midwest Yoga Conference every year for 8 years and traveled to his studio 800 miles away twice to study for extended period of time. Yoga was not about following certain postures, or teachers, but rather allowing the postures to support and nurture compassion. Yoga began to take hold into my everyday life and I wanted to expand the business further.
I began offering corporate yoga classes after one of my students in 2001 recommended that I bring yoga to her workplace at Wachovia. Now I now train other teachers to teach corporate onsite wellness yoga classes.
Clayton Yoga and St. Louis Corporate Yoga has grown now from offering just 4 yoga classes per week to 11 weekly classes. And we plan to expand to 22 classes with the next year!
With over a decade of teaching, I have instructed over 2,000 on-site yoga classes and servicing well over 800 yoga students. My business was featured in the St. Louis Business Weekly newspaper for creating a successful business yoga niche locally. (http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2010/02/08/story13.html).
I want to continue inspiring both yoga teacher and yoga students to live their truth. Life is challenging. Each moment presents an opportunity to be reactive, fearful, or calm, peaceful. The choice is up to us. Yoga can show the way!
Please call us at 314-630-1677 to explore the possibilities of offering onsite yoga wellness programs! You are welcome to send us a message through the message box to the right side of this webpage. We will connect with you soon.
Namaste!
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