Joe

When I was about 18, I started riding bikes long distance and would stretch before hand and afterward. Years later I would learn that a lot of the stretches I was doing were yoga poses. 

I had taken a yoga class or two at a gym or a recreation center, but it wasn’t until I stepped into Doug & Agata’s studio in St. Charles that I started to develop a regular practice. 

The first class I went to (reluctantly - “HOT yoga!? no thanks “) was with my wife, and I didn’t know what I thought after the class. I kinda just let it be, feeling that something special had quietly occurred. So I gave it a second try, and then a third. 10 years into it now and I know it will be a part of my lifestyle for good.

While I have a respectful appreciation and an ever expanding curiosity for the history of yoga, I try to teach my classes in a common, relatable language with a sense of understanding for the different levels of ability that are naturally going to be in a class full of yogis.

When I come into the yoga studio whether to teach or to practice, I enter both a building and a state of mind. For me the practice is a kind of withdrawal, a brief departure from the regularity of any day in life - inward, focus, growth, expansion...