Amanda (Pender) Mandehr RYT200

My mom introduced me to yoga as an angsty adolescent because she had seen the benefits of yoga in her own life and thought it could help me, too. I practiced here and there through my teen years, but yoga came back to me in college.  I was a high-achieving student and putting way too much pressure on myself to get the grades and figure out my life/career path. Plus, I was trying to find where I belonged in a new place.
I started going to yoga classes at the campus fitness center and they were hard! As a high-achiever, I loved it. It was gratifying to get through a physically demanding, power-type class. But the more I practiced, the more I found compassion in the practice. I gained awareness around what was serving me and what was not.
I learned that sometimes self growth means doing more, but it often means doing less.
I started teaching yoga to connect with the community and to create space for people to explore what serves them (and what doesn’t). This helps create the space to practice compassion, and find balance.