Meghan Stegemann

I was new to yoga and hesitant at first, but after a few weeks I began to really notice a difference in how my body felt and how calm my mind was after each class.  I continued to practice yoga while at Indiana University where I studied Secondary English/Language Arts Education, but my practice slowly came to a stop after graduation when I moved to a new state to begin my career as a classroom teacher and I got caught up in the general “busyness” of the real-world.   Fast forward to 2012 – I was back in Chicago working as a Program Director of a large educational nonprofit.  I worked long-hours trying to prove myself; my eating habits were unhealthy and my sleep patterns irregular.  I was also 70+ pounds overweight and truly unhappy and frustrated with my life.  I reconnected with yoga at first as a physical practice, but overtime I noticed how yoga helped to quiet and diminish some of the negative thought patterns I had created around my career and my body.  The breathing, meditation and affirmation tools I learned on my yoga mat slowly seeped into my everyday life off the mat and I felt really good, physically and mentally, for the first time in a long time! I was inspired by the physical practice and its benefits and was called to complete my 200-hour teacher training in 2013. I journeyed to Tuscany, Italy in 2014 where I completed my Family and Community Yoga 320-hour Specialization Teacher Training.  In addition to teaching adult and pre/postnatal yoga classes I also teach kids’ yoga, Bootcamp-style circuit workouts, and Yoga Sculpt with weights. I bring a very lighthearted approach to my classes and find an immense joy in sharing my love for yoga with students of all ages. My teaching style is based on creating a strong, stable core to support students’ movements on and off the mat.  I teach a flow-based class where students use their breath to guide their movement to create a true mind-body connection.