This month, the Mill Creek community welcomes a new yoga studio called Yoga in the Center at 15310 Main St. The owner, Carrie Wallace, has a goal to provide a variety of classes and services that would serve the needs and goals of everyone. There would be “something for everyone,” she said. We asked Wallace a few questions to better understand her vision for the studio and the community.

SYN: Why did you decide to open a yoga studio?

Wallace: Quite simply put, yoga is a practice that changed my life. In the beginning, I was attracted to the physical aspect of yoga. I loved how strong yet flexible my body became. But what I didn’t notice, but my family and friends did, was that I was calmer, less reactive and more at ease. And this, more than anything else, is the gift of yoga. And it’s the gift my husband Bruce and I want to share with the community by opening Yoga in the Center. We both credit yoga for changing our relationship and our life for the better and we wholeheartedly believe that everyone would benefit with a little yoga in their life. We wanted to create a studio that anyone could enter and feel welcome, a studio that is free from association of any religion. From our spa-like interiors, to our brilliant knowledgeable teachers, a multitude of classes for any fitness level, along with services to support an overall sense of well-being, and integration of mind, body and soul. Yoga is the practice that takes me back to my center, my heart, whether I am on my mat or off. And when I am in this place there is peace. This peace is what I want to share with our community and with the world.

SYN: What kind of classes will you be offering?

Wallace: Something for everyone! Yoga Basics, Hatha, Hatha Flow, Vinyasa, Baptist Power, Slow Flow, Oh~So~Mellow Flow, Yin/Restore, Pre Natal, Post Natal/Mom and Baby, Kids, private yoga sessions, and meditation. Services to include: Reiki/Massage, tuning forks, Ayurveda counseling, sound bowl healing, Shirodhara, Astrology.

We also offer Reiki certification classes and first year and second year mentorship programs. There will be teacher trainings, dream workshops, yoga & journaling workshops to come later in the spring and fall, and a mentorship program for new yoga teachers.

SYN: What are your vision/goals for the studio/the community?

Wallace: My vision actually came from a dream. Very much like the movie Field of Dreams but I’ll spare you the details. In a nutshell, there were people gathered of all ages, races, religions, and needs. Some needed physical healing, others emotional. There were teachers giving instruction and people receiving instruction. But all were there because they wanted/needed a place to gather in a community that could support them in whatever need they had. I called my dear friend, CJ, a brilliant dream weaver, and told her of the dream. She guided me through it all and then came her last question: “What would you name this dream?” I replied, “If you build it they will come.” Bruce and I want to build a studio where people of all walks of life can come, practice, heal whatever needs healing and make new friends or connect with old. A place where teachers can be free to teach what they love, and new teachers can feel supported and nurtured as they develop.

SYN: Why Mill Creek?

Wallace: We love the Mill Creek community. We raised our children here and volunteered our time to their schools and sports. We have met so many wonderful people and have made beautiful friendships as a result. One evening, late August, we attended a summer concert held in the Mill Creek town center. I looked around and saw so many people I knew, neighbors and old friends from when our kids were young, current friends. We were all brought together through a love of music. This was community, I thought to myself. On the physical level, every person was so very different and unique. But they were united by the magic of music, dancing, laughter and sharing it all with friends, with their community. Yoga has that same kind of magic and I knew that the Mill Creek Town Center was where we should share that magic.

SYN: Anything else you’d like to add?

Wallace: This life is so focused on getting somewhere, doing, achieving, faster, faster faster! We can’t sustain that. All of life can’t be effort. Pushing through can’t be the only way to make change or create success. You have to go in to get out! It’s a simple as that. You need time each day to go inside the mind and just be in your body. When you return to this practice day in and day out, you begin to feel more at ease with yourself and less reactive to stressful situations. The ease and steadiness you learn to find on your mat becomes more of who you are when you are off it. Yoga gives us the tools that allow us to step away from the noise and connect to the gift of living from our center. When you live from your heart’s center, your light just naturally shines.

[Photo by Gilly Walker – CC BY]

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