LOVE SPOTLIGHT: YOBK

LOVE SPOTLIGHT: YOBK

LOVE SPOTLIGHT: YOBK

PROFILES

BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL
To celebrate the release of our print issue themed LOVE, we reached out to our amazing community to share with us a few thoughts on love. This week we celebrate YO BK Hot Yoga + Pilates studio in NYC and Miami and Kate Durand owner and teacher. Kate is also co-owner of Novela Cafe Social and U Omakase. Pick up your free copy of Yoga Love Magazine at YO BK Hot Yoga today!

Share with us what you love about what you do:
I opened YO BK in 2015 in Williamsburg, New York as a place for students to take refuge, go inwards and lean into community. I wanted to provide to others what yoga brought to me. Through fun, varied classes and the incredible students and teachers that came through our doors, the community boomed and within a couple of years, we were bursting at the seams. I opened our second location in Greenpoint in 2018 and was able to keep the studios afloat during the pandemic through the belief that students needed movement, breath and community more than ever. During that time, we offered outdoor, online and on-demand classes. We expanded to Wynwood, Miami in 2021. The reach of my work is so much bigger than I could have imagined, and my greatest passion is to bring people together through a wide variety of programming, from classes to workshops, from Teacher Trainings to retreats (I am writing now from our retreat in Amorgos, Greece). I also feel very fulfilled placing people in roles where they flourish, and am proud to have six full-time employees in New York and Miami.

Share with us what you have learned about LOVE:
Love is letting go of preconceived notions and meeting people where they are in all their glory. Love is learning from other ways of being; it is expanding consciousness. I struggled against this in my twenties as a young business owner and am now very grateful to work alongside people who bring different strengths to our community. Romantic and platonic love are compromise, clear communication and listening. We learn from love.

What inspired you to support Yoga Love Magazine?
I chose to support Yoga Love Magazine because of the support it has shown our community and teachers. I appreciate the celebration of teachers from all backgrounds and the topics covered. Yoga has been built into a glamorous, fashionable hobby by the media when really it goes so much deeper and should be accessible to all people of all backgrounds — Yoga Love Magazine is one of the few publications that celebrates this truth.

BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL
BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL
COME TO LIFE YOGA

COME TO LIFE YOGA

PARTNER

COME TO LIFE YOGA

cometolifeyoga.com

Come To Life Yoga is open seven days a week for classes to help cultivate physical, mental, and emotional health. When you include a holistic approach to your wellness journey, it can empower you to have an active role in your health at Come To Life Yoga; we strive to offer a clean, safe, inclusive, and compassionate environment to all who walk through the door. Each teacher brings a specialized approach and valuable insight into the yoga practice. Our services include various types of yoga, Nidra yoga, sound healing, breath work, workshops, and special events. We also offer a yoga teacher and sound healing practitioner training.

COME TO LIFE YOGA

12713 Mcgregor Boulevard
Unit 1 Fort Myers
Florida 33919

12713 Mcgregor Boulevard
Unit 1
Fort Myers, Florida
33919

cometolifeyoga@gmail.com

About The Owner

Kimberly has been practicing Yoga since 2009. She is an E-RYT 200/ RYT 500 yoga teacher and a certified sound healer. She has a passion for teaching as yoga saved her life. She shares her story frequently. She found yoga is a great way to improve endurance in other physical activities. Before or after any workout, yoga will help your body relax while stretching, strengthening, and lengthening the muscles. Kimberly chose to become a teacher and open Come To Life Yoga in Fort Myers , Florida in 2014 so others can enjoy the amazing benefits and overall health through yoga. She takes pride in small group sessions and individual sessions to make sure the students get full knowledge of the yoga benefits and how to maintain overall health. The Hatha/Vinyasa yoga combination she teaches is for all levels and beginners. She also teaches power, heated vinyasa, Yoga Nidra, restorative yoga, yin yoga , adaptive yoga, chair yoga and sound bowl classes . She has a registered yoga school with the Yoga Alliance and teaches a 200 hour yoga teacher training and an YACEP sound healing course. She also focuses on helping other local small businesses by doing events together, yoga retreats and teaches at other yoga studios while she travels . OMShanti
Dancing Lion Studio
Dancing Lion Studio
Dancing Lion Studio

LOVE SPOTLIGHT: Come to Life Yoga

PROFILES

BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL
To celebrate the release of our print issue themed LOVE, we reached out to our amazing community to share with us a few thoughts on love. This week we celebrate Come to Life Yoga  located in Fort Myers, FLA and founder Kimberly: “Kimberly has been practicing Yoga since 2009. She is an E-RYT 200/ RYT 500 yoga teacher and a certified sound healer. She has a passion for teaching as yoga saved her life. She shares her story frequently. She found yoga is a great way to improve endurance in other physical activities. Before or after any workout, yoga will help your body relax while stretching, strengthening, and lengthening the muscles. Kimberly chose to become a teacher and open Come To Life Yoga in Fort Myers, Florida in 2014 so others can enjoy the amazing benefits and overall health through yoga. She takes pride in small group sessions and individual sessions to make sure the students get full knowledge of the yoga benefits and how to maintain overall health. The Hatha/Vinyasa yoga combination she teaches is for all levels and beginners. She also teaches power, heated vinyasa, Yoga Nidra, restorative yoga, yin yoga , adaptive yoga, chair yoga and sound bowl classes. She has a registered yoga  school with the Yoga Alliance and teaches a 200 hour yoga teacher training and an YACEP sound healing course. She also focuses on helping other local small businesses by doing events together, yoga retreats and teaches at other yoga studios while she travels.” Pick up your free copy of Yoga Love Magazine at Come to Life Yoga today!

Share with us what you love about what you do:
When I opened in 2014, it was to share love with others through the practice of yoga. You will see signs everywhere in the studio about love as reminders. It is because of the love and support of yogis that Come To Life Yoga and Sound Healing still exists after a pandemic and two major hurricanes that damaged the studio. I tell students to remember to love who they are first so they can love others. We find in yoga that it is a union of love. I have learned that unity and community provides us love. 

Share with us what you have learned about LOVE:
Love is everything and everyone. If you love everything and everyone it brings you peace and fulfillment.

What inspired you to support Yoga Love Magazine?
When I found Yoga Love Magazine and was told the issue was about love, I knew I had to join it and help them reach others too. I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful cause.  to grow together.  

BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: TILLAGE CLOTHING

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: TILLAGE CLOTHING

PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: TILLAGE CLOTHING

Edited by Tashya Knight

PROFILES

LOVE PROFILE: Red Tail Power Yoga
LOVE PROFILE: Red Tail Power Yoga

We are so grateful to Abby Farr and her company Tillage Clothing for joining us as a partner for our LOVE issue launching this June: “Founded in 2015, this company’s mission is to connect the socially conscious consumer to clothing that delivers incredible comfort and impeccable style while using the highest quality fabrics. We encourage and empower both ethical and philanthropic shopping. All of our apparel is made in small batches in the U.S.A. A portion of the company’s profit is eagerly given to global organizations that fight on the front lines to end human trafficking.”

Check out the excerpt from our IG live chat with her on International Women’s day!

Iana
Welcome Abby, thank you for joining us. If you could introduce yourself…

Abby
I’m the owner of Tillage Clothing where I design sustainable apparel to help give back and fight human trafficking. I launched it in Southern California seven years ago. Then I moved back to the Midwest, to Cincinnati to help take care of my parents, and I went on a three year hiatus and shelved it for a few years. So I feel like I’ve relaunched it in the past year and a half.

Iana
I feel like many businesses have had to do that in the last few years because the pandemic changed so much. I saw that you’re doing men’s clothing, is that new?

Abby
We just launched the men’s line in December 2022. So that’s been a long time coming and it’s taking off great! I’m really pleased to finally add that to our collection.

Iana
Your company donates to organizations like The Aruna Project and Alabaster Jar Project. How do you choose the ones to work with? There are so many out there. How did you narrow it down to the ones that you want?

Abby
They’re just so many and they’re all doing such amazing work, so it’s not an easy decision. Because I am a small business and I want to really hone in the maximum bang for my buck, I try to collaborate locally because the vibe of my brand is very grassroots. I try to collaborate with organizations wherever I am, so when I was in San Diego, I partnered with an organization out in San Diego. Now that I’m Cincinnati based, there are a couple of different organizations here locally. Every life matters, so I focus on making a dent in one life, rather than getting overwhelmed by the vastness of the issue. I found that not only can we give back financially when you’re local, you actually can volunteer and collaborate with them in a more intimate way.

Iana
And what drew you to this cause?

Abby
I saw a film in Mumbai, India, where young women were living in a brothel, just not doing anything else with their life, not even seeing the light of day, and it got me. I haven’t had a lot of personal, first hand experience, thank God, with the issue. But it just compelled me, and I’m a very passionate person about freedom and each person’s individual freedom. I knew as an entrepreneur, whatever business I would start down the road, that would be the cause we connected to.

Iana
It’s so interesting that you say that you work locally, because it’s not something that I would tend to think of as a local problem, or as something that still happens in this country. So the education part of it is what’s fascinating to me, because you don’t think, oh, Cincinnati is a big source of human trafficking. But it is…

Abby
Both San Diego and Cincinnati happened to be the top ten cities in the US, and there are a variety of reasons why. On my blog, I do posts to be more informative and educational on the issue, so I won’t dive too deep into that right now. But because of exactly what you said, it’s such an intense issue, and a lot of people don’t want to dig too deep. It’s easier to just know that it exists, but kind of pretend like it doesn’t. 

And so I thought, what better way than to slow down fashion (which, human trafficking runs rampant in that environment anyway) and become part of the slow fashion movement, where we watch piece by piece being made right here in the United States. Where everyone’s getting paid a fair wage and then full cycle, give back to the cause. For some people whose hearts are still compelled toward the cause, yet they don’t have the time to volunteer or get more invested, they can shop that way and they’re giving back.

In addition to clothing, I’m passionate about writing and meditation, so I want to incorporate a beautiful journal to accompany it. So just a few other things at my sleeve that are in the works. But I think it will all fall under the umbrella of Tillage.

Iana
So what’s surprised you the most about owning a small business? 

Abby
There has been more than one thing, but I would say, as with everyone, no one could have predicted the Pandemic to come along. So that forced further creativity, but also just the organization. I love that personal connection with people that are potential customers and the education piece. So to realize how organized you have to be as an entrepreneur and small business owner and really maximize every single moment, you have to pour into the business in an efficient manner.

Iana
Organization, that’s a key word for me as well, because if you’re not organized, it’s going to cause a lot of problems down the line. It definitely makes things a lot easier when you’re doing it. So today is International Women’s Day. Is there anyone that you want to shout out today? 

Abby
My mom has been a huge influence for me. She ran an entire nonprofit before in her younger years, where she housed 200 marginalized women in society that would be homeless otherwise. So just to have such a badass mom to watch growing up, who at a time when a lot of moms are stay at home in my community, really showed me what grit looks like in a tangible way. So I’m going to go ahead and give one to my mom right now! But there’s so many women out there! I just say, be brave and go for whatever is inside of you…whether it’s small, it doesn’t have to be an entire business, but just whatever is speaking to you right now.

Iana
Abby, thank you so much for joining us today. And thank you for supporting our next issue. It’s only because of people like you that we can actually create our magazine. So thank you so much for being a part of it.

Abby
Forward to, like thanks so much for having me. Happy national women’s day. You too.

Festival Spotlight: Bend Yoga Festival

Festival Spotlight: Bend Yoga Festival

Festival Spotlight: Bend Yoga Festival

By iana velez

PROFILES

Bend Yoga Festival - Group Photo
Looking for something to do this summer? We are thrilled yoga festivals are back and can’t wait to check out all the amazing events taking place around the world. This week we had a chance to connect with Angela Liesching, the founder and festival director of Bend Yoga

Festival in Bend, Oregon coming up June 8-11, 2023

Passes are on sale now for the 2023 event at BendYogaFestival.com with the lowest possible price for the 4-day full fest pass. Special thanks to Angela for offering an exclusive promo code for our community: BYFLOVE for 20% off!

What inspired you to create a yoga festival?

More than ever, we need opportunities to connect in real-time, face to face with others — no screens! Safe spaces that focus on authentic connection are necessary in order for healing to happen, and we believe that the need to heal is a universal condition of life. It’s our mission and our passion to create these safe spaces for authentic connection, joy, and unity through yoga.

What makes your festival unique?

Our location! Bend, Oregon, is an outdoor adventure wonderland, as well as a thriving and exciting mountain town, so our fest-goers get to paddle board, learn to mountain bike, take breath-taking hikes, explore a phenomenal food scene, and even learn to climb at world-class places like Smith Rock. The opportunities are endless, making our fest a perfect vacation or retreat experience!

What offering/presenter or class are you most excited about for this year’s event?

I’m most excited about the possibility of Janet Stone headlining our festival in 2023, but all of our presenters are exceptional — any one of them could headline any festival in the world!

Learn more:
@bendyogafestival
bendyogafestival.com


SPECIAL OFFER:
BYFLOVE for an additional 20% off!

Yoga Love Magazine - McKenzie Riepen - bio pic
Bend Yoga Festival - Logo
Bend Yoga Festival - Mountain Biking
SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL: FLOW JAM FESTIVAL

SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL: FLOW JAM FESTIVAL

SPOTLIGHT FESTIVAL: FLOW JAM FESTIVAL

June 8-11, 2023
Rixeyville, VA

FESTIVALS

BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL

❤️ Yoga Love Magazine readers can use the code
isawthesign
for 5% off your ticket purchase ❤️

Looking for something to do this June? We are thrilled yoga festivals are back and can’t wait to check out all the amazing events taking place around the world. This week we had a chance to connect with Meredith Walsh, Festival Producer and Founder of Flow Jam Festival in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia who we are thrilled to partner with! You will be able to get complimentary copies of our magazine at this festival! 

What inspired you to create a festival?
I was inspired after traveling and volunteering in Tanzania, where I taught yoga at a small village school that was started in its founder’s backyard. Our festival started as a fundraiser for this school, the Ikirwa School, outside of Arusha, Tanzania. We are so excited that this year we will be bringing the founder of the school to the United States for the first time and he will be joining us this year!

What makes your festival unique?
It’s the first of its kind. We are not just music, or healing classes, but a combination of everything with a mix of Burner culture with theme camps and art cars. It is a unique setting to get incredible music on a gorgeous property while submerging yourself into the healing arts. There is nothing else like it on the East Coast.

What offering/presenter or class are you most excited about for this year’s event?
All of it! I did all the booking this year, so I know it will be our best year yet!


Learn More:

flowjamfestival.com
Instagram: @flowjamfestival
Facebook: flowjamfestival

BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL
BIG BEAR YOGA FESTIVAL