After many years of practicing and instructing yoga, Beth Mackowiak of Okemos knew how she wanted to make yoga more accessible to the average person when she opened her first studio,
Sanctuary Yoga in Downtown Okemos in August of last year.
"I was trained in a very traditional way," says Mackowiak, "with longer classes, and you commit to studying with that teacher for a long time. I've noticed as we've gotten busier and busier, people can't fit that into their lives.
"I dearly love the longer classes, but I'm really aiming for convenience. We have very quality yoga, but we're offering shorter classes at an affordable rate."
Mackowiak, a former bookkeeper, offers alignment-based and vinyasa forms of Hatha yoga at her 1,000-square foot studio on Hamilton road in Okemos. Her hope in offering a more convenient yoga format was to build an active yoga community right in the heart of the downtown. Just a few months in, it seems to be working.
"I've had such a personal, heartfelt response form the community," she says. "People who drive by every day have stopped in and come in, I have students who who walk here, and they are excited to have a yoga studio in the neighborhood."
Sanctuary Yoga employs five part-time instructors in addition to Mackowiak. In addition to building her own business, Mackowiak is also working with a group of area yoga studios on events and projects to promote yoga.
Photo - Lindsay Wilkinson Photography
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