My Journey to Toasty Asana

I was born and raised in Carlisle, PA, and while my career took me from NYC architecture to federal service in DC, I always knew my path had to circle back to something that directly improved people’s lives.

After years in NYC focusing on retail architectural environments, I moved to North Carolina to join the EPA in 2018.  My work at EPA was challenging yet fulfilling -  I was proud to serve the public, but I craved more creativity and to have a direct impact on people’s wellness.

Parallel to this was my journey with yoga.  I started attending yoga classes in NYC, and continued after moving to NC.  I loved the movement, but often felt out of place – self-conscious in spaces that felt more like a uniformed clique than a welcoming community.  

When I moved to DC for work, I tried once again to connect with a yoga studio – but now with different objectives.   I realized I needed a community – familiar, friendly faces I could count on.  I found a new hot yoga studio opening near my apartment and figured ‘why not try it?’   There are a couple important notes about my first few months at this studio.  First, I loved the variety of students attending classes from the first moment I stepped foot into the studio.  All shapes and sizes, ages, ethnicities – it was revolutionarily different from any other studio I had ever attended.  Immediately I felt safe, I felt emboldened, and I felt accepted. Secondly, I’ll note my first few months at the studio I only attended the cooler temperature classes. 

After a few months, I got a bit cocky and figured “hey, I’m doing ok in these cooler classes, let’s dive into a hot class.”  That fateful Friday evening I walked in feeling confident and took my usual spot in the back row.  Then the heat hit me and as the class began, I was rapidly humbled.  I was not as flexible as I had thought, I was slipping on my own sweat and I couldn’t even grab my foot for a simple quad stretch. 

I was also rapidly filled with joy.  Everyone around me was dripping in sweat as they waged a challenge only against themselves.  No one even noticed me and my struggles.  The humor of finding freedom within some ridiculous failures had me beaming as I left class.  I was proud of myself for being pushed to my limit and not giving up. I stuck with it, went back, and I kept grinning and giggling and finding joy on my mat.  At a time when work was leaving me drained, and the world felt heavy, yoga gave me permission to breathe, laugh, and start again.  Sticking with yoga improved my health, lifted my energy, and connected me to a community I leaned on.

That consistency also led me to completing my yoga teaching certificate.   After 10+ years of practicing yoga I finally learned the philosophy behind it all.   Teacher training didn’t just deepen my practice – it planted the seed that I could someday create a space like the one that transformed me. The seed grew each time I rolled out my mat, until it became clear: I wanted to create a home for others, just as I had found one.

My transformative change with yoga coincided with a change in my government work.  My frustrations with my work were growing, and a new more inspiring path had appeared.  My federal work was one piece of a larger public mission and similarly yoga showed me that individual practice can ripple into a stronger community. I began to spend my time daydreaming about a community centered around kindness, acceptance and (of course) hot yoga.  I dreamed of Friday night flows ending with popsicles, milestone yoga mats signed with pride, and workshops that could bring my hometown community together in joy.   

I decided now was the time to act – and I did.  I moved home to Carlisle, a place I have always come back to for grounding – it felt right that this would also be the place where I’d help others find theirs.  I shared with family and friends that I wanted to give back something I had found and loved to a community that I already deeply cared about, but that I also know deserves a space like Toasty.  Toasty Asana is here to give Carlisle a hot yoga studio that focused on community – how we embrace, lift up and celebrate one another.  We’ll be celebrating student milestones, laughing at the scenarios Toasty and his friends get into, nominating community members for scholarships and a whole lot more as this studio grows.  If Toasty has a message to deliver it’s ‘from your first class to your 750^th, there’s a place for you here.’

So, if you’re curious about hot yoga – or about building something new in Carlisle – I’d love for you to be part of the Toasty story.  Bring your mat, bring your curiosity, and come get toasty with us.