Megan: I've always been a high energy, "type A", go, go, go person. As a kid my parents quickly enrolled me in lots of sports. I loved it. I loved working hard. I loved seeing progress. My first "serious" sport was gymnastics. I wanted to be the next Mary Lou Retton. I must have been four years old when she swept gold at the Olympics. The problem with me and gymnastics was that 1) I’ve always been tall, and 2) I am not naturally flexible (as a child, I remember it being very hard to touch my toes!). My mom recognized that I was working my butt off, but destined to not make much progress. I distinctly remember in the third grade when she told me... "Megan, you know you can quit, right?"... quitting had never even occurred to me as an option. Once she put it out there (don't mamas always know what we need), it made sense to my little brain. I quit the next week. My smart mama knew that sitting around the house was not something that would be good for me, so she suggested a different sport — swimming. I did an intro camp and was easily hooked — it was something I was good at, something that worked for me, and something that I could work toward and see progress.
I had a successful swimming career — unfortunately, my shoulder did not like all of the repetitive motion. After I was told I either needed to have extensive rotator cuff surgery of not swim in college, I stopped. However, that desire to keep moving stayed with me — at the University of Wisconsin, I rowed crew, I joined the water polo team, and I worked as a lifeguard and a supervisor. I loved being around movement. I started getting into yoga after college, when I moved to Hawaii. I spent three years soaking up Oahu and while I was there, I joined a Gold’s Gym. They offered a ashtanga yoga class, which I did three times a week. I moved, I worked up a sweat, and I even gained some flexibility. My yoga practice to a short break when I moved to Milwaukee, where the styles of yoga being offered were very slow — my active mind and body couldn’t slow down that much!
Fast forward to 2011. I was pregnant with my son — and my husband and I made the decision to move to Madison. I had a traumatic childbirth, and my postpartum period was the darkest part of my life so far. I was alone, in a new city, with a new baby, and I had also decided to leave my job in Milwaukee, unable to justify a commute. It was in this dark place that I came back to yoga. Dragonfly Hot Yoga has just opened in Fitchburg — they had a Groupon and childcare on-site. I finally found something I was so desperate for, something that made me feel good. A year after my son was born, we found out we were pregnant with our second child, and to say I was feeling overwhelmed was an extreme understatement. My incredible OB, Dr. Laura Berghahn, was fully on-board with my hot yoga practice. I felt strong and balance through my second pregnancy.
After getting through the newborn stage with my second child, I found out about the yoga teacher training at Dragonfly. I loved yoga and figured at the very least, I could get a job at Prairie Athletic Club, the gym I loved to go to. I graduated from teacher training in 2015 and started leading yoga classes at Dragonfly’s brand-new Sun Prairie located and for the new hot yoga studio at Prairie Athletic Club. It wasn’t my intention to have a yoga career, but I found myself feeling so good every time I taught. I loved seeing my students strong – seeing them do things with joy that they didn’t think were possible. And now, Haumea. I’m so excited about this next step in my journey.
It was so hard to see the light when I was at my lowest. Yoga gave me that — and I can’t wait to bring it to others!
Kristin: In 2006, I was in my first year of teaching early childhood special education in San Diego. I had just run a marathon and felt I was at my best, mentally and physically. I then suffered a debilitating back injury on a hike and my physical therapist recommended yoga work for strengthening my core. I fell in love with yoga at a small studio in Oceanside, California — and ended up getting a part-time job at the front desk! I continued to practice at this studio the rest of the time I lived in California.
In 2012, family brought me back to Madison and I found myself a part-time job at a local studio and took my first class before I had even slept in my new apartment. The studio’s owner was my biggest cheerleader and saw potential in me, both as a yoga instructor and my ability to play a larger role in the Madison yoga community. Eventually, I left the education field and pursued furthering my yoga training in 2014. Yoga has been a part of my life for the last 3 years, and it was the contemplation and reflection that I found on my yoga mat that has led me to where I am today: working with Megan to create the Haumea community.
