Today we’d like to introduce you to Amy Bradley.
Amy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was a registered nurse and mom of four, living on the roller coaster of life we’re all riding, and I sought out yoga as a means of trying to soothe the chronic stress and the anxiety that was keeping me awake at night. I was too nervous to go to a big studio, scared of being corrected or looking stupid, and so I started with a DVD and a mat in my living room. And, I was hooked.
After a year, I knew I wanted to take my practice further, so I swallowed a lot of nerves and ignored the loud voice in my head that was telling me it was a stupid idea, and I entered a yoga teacher training, having no intention of ever teaching another human being.
The training was transformative for me, and I came out of it realizing, as a nurse, that there really isn’t any place for regular people to go and do yoga. The general population of people. The elderly, the anxious, the middle-aged moms who haven’t lost their baby weight, the forty-year-old men with aching backs and the people living with chronic illness or injury. My parents, My cousin who was going through breast cancer treatment. My friend with Lupus and my other friend with Lyme disease. People who have a history of trauma or depression. These people need the benefits of yoga but feel they have no access to it.
And, that began my story. I knew that was what I had to do. Teaching yoga was just another way for me to be a nurse. I could help people feel better, with yoga. No matter what it was that was keeping them from feeling their best, yoga could help.
I opened Feel Better With Yoga, three years ago, in collaboration with two friends, and we created The Restorative Center for mind, body, spirit, bringing yoga, nutrition, personal fitness, psychotherapy, and counseling together under one roof. And, in the new year, we are expanding and bringing in therapeutic massage!
It’s been a dream, and I am so grateful every day to hear people leave the studio every day, remarking how much better they feel.
Has it been a smooth road?
Having never been a business owner, it wasn’t always the smoothest road. Inspections and legal documents, an illuminated exit sign and I have to go where to get fire extinguishers??
But, the biggest obstacle was figuring out how to get people to find us. Advertising is expensive and nobody on social media knows you’re out there. So, that was tough, but with time and a lot of patience, word of mouth was our greatest advertiser. People told their friends, who told their friends, and we built a solid base of loyal clients.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Feel Better With Yoga story. Tell us more about the business.
Feel Better With Yoga is a small, boutique style yoga studio, offering private, semi-private and small group yoga to anyone and everyone. I’ll teach any kind of yoga to anyone who wants it, whatever they want, but I specialize in beginners, prenatal, seniors, restorative, and people who never saw themselves setting foot on a yoga mat.
I teach pregnant and postpartum women, and people with hip replacements and autoimmune disease, cancer and diabetes, high blood pressure and arthritis. I also teach stressed-out executives who aren’t in great shape and athletes who are in great shape but need the stretching and the mindfulness and breathing of yoga.
As a nurse, I have a great understanding of the body and the physiology of disease as well as the mental health benefits that yoga brings. Because of this, I am able to teach yoga to the whole person, taking all their limitations and needs into consideration and designing a yoga practice that best helps them.
It’s a rare thing to find a yoga teacher who is also a nurse and who understands your symptoms, your medication side effects, the disease process and what your body needs, even if you’re healthy,, and I’m grateful that I have found myself on this path.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Yoga and mindfulness are finally starting to get the attention it deserves as medical research is proving its benefits. The medical community is now seeing the direct link between chronic stress and health, understanding that living with chronic stress can worsen, if not cause, disease states.
Yoga and meditation are even being used at Houstons’ own M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to help patients recover and have a greater quality of life during and after their treatment.
I think this trend, now started, will continue until yoga and meditation are a prevalent and standard complementary therapy to traditional medicine, as well as an accepted tool for preventive wellness.
Pricing:
- Single class $25
- 5 Class Package $115
- 10 Class Package $200
- Private session (one hour) $50
Contact Info:
- Address: 14015 Southwest Freeway, Building 6
Sugar Land, Texas 77478 - Website: www.feelbetterwithyoga.com
- Phone: 713-458-8698
- Email: amy@feelbetterwithyoga.com
- Instagram: amybradleyyoga
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amybradleyyoga/?ref=bookmarks
- Other: http://blog.feelbetterwithyoga.com
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
