Yoga studio breathes new life into Court Street alley

Would anyone expect to find mental clarity in an alley?

Michelle Stobart is banking on it after opening Inhale Yoga Studios five months ago in the alley next to Pita Pit. She has created not just a place for stretching enthusiasts to get their yoga fix; her studio operates with a message. Just as the practice of yoga is not just a typical exercise hobby, Stobart has created a business wrapped around a lifestyle.

"I kind of practice my life from an ecological perspective, before it was ever the trend," Stobart said. "I was doing that with my practice, so there was never an option for this not to be an ecological space."

Inhale Yoga Studio is part of the Green Yoga Association, a group of yoga teachers and businesses that promote a conscious intention to honor and care for the Earth as part of yoga, according to the group's Web site. Stobart said she uses her studio and yoga as a classroom for teaching about ecologically responsible decision-making, a sentiment shared by her staff.

"Most of my work has been in outdoor education," said Anna Seno, an Inhale instructor and 2002 Ohio University graduate. "My life has always been revolved around the outdoors."

Stobart sets an ecological stage with her studio. She transformed the former Cell-U store from gray walls and primary green-painted concrete flooring into a comforting garden-level space. Who doesn't like to lie stretching and look up at white, fluffy clouds as one can inside Inhale Yoga?

After walking down the small staircase off North Court Street, all a prospective yoga student must do is take his or her shoes off at the door and walk down to the spongy cork floor surrounded by newly non-BOC painted walls to inhale the vibe. Patches of brick stick out of the walls. Sunlight pours through the room and feeds the plants on what Stobart said is her greenhouse.

"They don't allow for that many plants to be in my apartment," Stobart said. "All of the furniture is recycled, either from my old studio, other business or Reuse (Industries). It's designed to be a safe space for fugitives, not literal fugitives, but just for people to come here to unfold and to find themselves."

The studio's layout was her vision, Stobart said, but not a vision she would have had more than 10 years ago when she had a brief stint at OU.

"When I left here, I said I would never come back," Stobart said with a laugh. "It was too big of a school for me. I had issues when I got to college, being called in roll call as a number instead of a name."

After graduating from Alexander High School in western Athens County, Stobart earned her paralegal certification and worked that profession in West Virginia. She went to OU for a few quarters before transferring to Marietta College. She earned her B.A. in psychology there, but felt like that was not enough. She said she needed to clear her head and rearrange her priorities, so she went to Hawaii for a month.

"I did a lot of yoga," Stobart said. "I laid on the beach a lot, and I wrote a fair bit. I really just kind of went through a lot of peeling of layers."

That was when Stobart decided two things that would put her where she is today. Family became number one on her priority list, so southeast Ohio became her destination, and yoga was what she wanted to do.

Even though prospective yoga instructors can get their training in Ohio, Stobart said she wanted a special experience. Searching the Internet for yoga studios, she came across the Greenpath Yoga Studio's Web site and it spoke to her, literarily. When opening the site, a voice chanted in the background "Om shanti, shanti, shanti," which means peace, peace, peace.

Stobart went to the San Francisco studio and studied for a month with Hindu instructors (yoga is one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy). Greenpath also shared the message of ecological responsibility that Stobart has incorporated into her lifestyle.

After getting her certification, Stobart came back and opened a studio in Marietta where she taught along with other locations around southeast Ohio, including in Athens. She decided to move to Athens fulltime when the work increased here and decreased in Marietta.

At first, she taught at the Ping Center, the Athens Community Center and ARTS/West, moving onto Court Street last March. Now, she works both at Ping and at her studio, which she hopes will continue to grow incrementally each quarter. During the spring, the average class size was between 8-12 students, with an equal balance between students and non-students.

As of now, there are seven instructors teaching at Inhale Yoga studio, with classes for beginners and advanced yoga students as well as a teacher-training course that begins in September. For more information and the fall class schedule, visit www.inhaleyoga.org.