SPOTLIGHT
STUDIO SPOTLIGHT:
TULA YOGA and Wellness
BY REEVE KLATT (SHE/HER)
T
ula Yoga and Wellness is located in the Merriam Park East neighborhood on Snelling Avenue. Celebrating their tenth year in business, owners Ann and Dan Blackburn are both Certified Yoga Therapists through the IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapists), as well as faculty and teachers of the Yoga North SomaYoga Teaching Training, often hosted in their studio. The goal of Tula Yoga is to make yoga accessible to everyone, because the Blackburns know just how lifechanging yoga can be. Ann found yoga when she was 19 and in a difficult life season. “I felt so much better that I just kept practicing,” she says. Receiving her first teacher certification in
“By using a holistic method, the entire person is addressed in their classes — the physical and energetic body, as well as the mind and emotions.”
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2009, Ann fell in love with teaching and never looked back. While Dan discovered yoga in the early 90s, it wasn’t until he met Ann that yoga became a huge part of his life, and ultimately their business. “Once I started teaching, I realized that [yoga] wasn’t accessible to everyone,” Ann explains. “Whether that was physical or financial. The only way I could offer yoga at a flexible price was to open our own studio.”
somatics focuses on slow, gentle exercises that re-train the nervous system and bring healing by allowing tight muscles to release. The Greek word Soma refers to the entire body being perceived from within; in Sanskrit, soma is the name of a Hindu moon god that radiates kindness and gentleness.
“We teach people first to release tension in the body so that they can find their deep strength and stability within.”
To create a yoga studio centered around accessibility, the Blackburns focused on yoga therapy, moving their classes beyond the Western-focused “push through the pain” exercise mentality. At the foundation of the Blackburn’s yoga therapy is SomaYoga — a system created by Ann Maxwell and Molly McManus of North Yoga. The key to
Ann describes their approach as taking the tools of yoga and Ayurveda, and blending in somatics and breath science. “We use those tools to design practices for individuals in a holistic way: through meditation, mindfulness and philosophy, movement, breath, and Ayurvedic self-care practices.” By using a holistic method, the entire person is addressed in their classes — the physical and energetic body, as well as the mind and emotions. “Yoga therapy is about creating awareness in the body,” Dan adds. This therapy is vital to the executive coaching they provide for organizations
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