Today we’d like to introduce you to Adrienne White.
Hi Adrienne, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started my yoga journey way back when I was 18 years old! I thought of yoga as exercise at that time and didn’t start to see yoga as a philosphical/life embetterment practice until my 20’s when I realized doing the postures and especialy the breathing, made my life so much better and gave me the energy to do everything I wanted to do… including dancing with my friends until 2 a.m. on some nights.
That started my real dive into learning more about yoga and lit the spark for me wanting to share this practice with others. As I progressed into my 30’s, I realized that there are many ways to to this practice, not just the physical, but also something called Karma Yoga. This is a practice of selfless service and I wanted to explore that.
I joined a project called Off the Mat Into the World in 2011 to raise funds for post-earthquake Haiti. This started a year long service/leadership project where I attempted to raise $20,000 for the program… and I did! One of the ways I raised that money was through a yoga festival called Karma Yoga Fest. We are now in our 15th year of holding a day of yoga and meditation as our annual giveback. We now focus on donating funds on a more local level so we really know how that money is impacting our community.
I am now a studio owner in my 10th year and have had so many wonderful experiences through yoga, meditation, and more recently Sacred Sound. Using instruments to create relaxation and meditation has been the most profound way to share these practice to date. It is accessible to everyone and the experiences I’ve witnessed are truly amazing! We now travel the country sharing these healing sound journeys at festivals, yoga studios, and private events- as well as, of course, our own studio here in Benton Harbor, MI.
Here is a bit about me, my experience and my bio: Adrienne White is the founder of Yoga Muse- Custom Yoga, Karma Yoga Fest, and co- owner of The Collective. She is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (ERYT-500) with Yoga Alliance. She is also a YCEP (Continuing Education Provider) through Yoga Alliance, and certifies students in: 200-hr YTT, 300-hr YTT, Yoga Nidra, Restorative Yoga, Stand Up Paddle Board Yoga, Yin Yoga, Trauma Informed Yoga, Sacred Sound, and Aerial Yoga. Adrienne also provides personal coaching through yogic philosophy and practice, meditation, and fasting protocols. No matter what she is teaching, true radiant health, vitality, and beautiful movement is emphasized during practice- paired always with conscious breath and meditation.
Adrienne has traveled all over the world to study with some amazing teachers and she can’t wait to share what she has learned over her past 30 years of practice and 2,000+ hours of training she herself has undertaken. She specializes in Tantric Hatha and Meditation (600-hours of Yoga and Meditation training w/ Zuna Yoga), (170-hours of Tantra w/Rod Stryker, Sound Therapy and Sound Baths, Vinyasa (continuing ed w/Seane Corn & Tejas Yoga), Pranayama, Chakra Study (w/Anodea Judith), Restorative Yoga, Yoga Nidra (Certification w/Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra & Rod Stryker), Aerial Yoga, SUP+Yoga, Anatomy (Training w/Ray Long), Kundalini, Yin Yoga (certification with Bernie Clark), The Fire Practice (Yoga for detoxification and hormone health), Meditation in Motion (Level II Certification w/Heather Eirling), and Level II Tantra (100-hrs) training in women’s health and sexuality w/Psalm Isadora. Adrienne has led ten 200/300-HR Yoga Teacher Trainings + domestic/international retreats and she is excited to help guide you on your yoga journey!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Is the road of a small business owner ever smooth? Heck no!
This journey has been the ultimate learning process and development as a human being. Juggling motherhood, work, personal growth and study- well it’s hard!
I have managed to continue my own education and development, my children are now out in the world, I’ve kept the studio going through personal challenges, world challenged, financial challenges, and am here 10 years later to tell the tale. This is to date, the hardest and most rewarding “job” I’ve ever done. This year, I also managed to fit in a sabatical, and that is an experience I would now highly recommend, especially to women who have spent 20+ years raising children, and then those children fly the coop. It’s time to reconnect and figure out- who am I now, and what do I really want?
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a true believer in creating a conscious life. What does that mean? Well, you are not reacting to the outside world around you, as it inevitably comes at you, but responding from your truth, your purpose, and who deep internal knowing. The life that you create, can become your greatest work of art when you live life consciously and beautifully.
In yoga, we call our life’s work/purpose, Dharma. One of the things I specialize in is helping people understand what their true purpose is. According to yoga, this is something that we are born with, and it can be fulfilled in multiple ways. Through practice and self-study, we can understand what we need to be living in our purpose, and that’s when people really start to weave this beautiful life.
I teach many styles of yoga (flow, kundalini, yin, restorative, aerial, yoga on paddle boards) and there truely is a yoga for everyone! People will often say to me: I can’t do yoga. I’m not flexible, I can’t get on the floor, etc- and it’s one of my true joys as a teacher to be able to help each one find a yoga that they can do. This inclusive and gentle style of teaching is something I am know for as we find more and more studios only teaching very physical yoga styles and ingnoring this huge gap we have in making sure people know there is a yoga for everyone.
I also have continued over all these years to develop myself as a yogi, a teacher, and a human being. I take time for contining education, to try new and different styles/practices of yoga and meditation. My next training coming up in February will marry two of my passions: yoga and horses. It may sound strange, but equine therapy has been around for a long time (in fact Karma Yoga Fest donated years ago to an equine therapy facility) and I am very excited to add this to my skill set.
In the end, my proudest accomplishment is the beautiful life and community I have built through these years of hard work. The pinacle of this is my relationship with my two boys, and my life-partner who shares and supports me in all of the passion of this life work.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
This is a very big question. Yoga as an “industry” is not something I’m particularly excited about. Instead of looing into the crystal ball of the future, I’ll say what I would like to see:
Small, personal, independantly run studios, that share and practice yoga from the heart- not as a “ring the cash register” industry.
Obviously we all need to make money from the work we do so we can live and pay our bills. Yoga teachers deserve to be paid as well. Many yoga studios now though as just doing short, often very hot, single sequence classes that don’t take into account the individual needs of each student. Personally, I love all yoga. I enjoy taking these classes myself from time to time. The body is often the first place we need to start on the path. We also need to consider each person as an individual and the “one size fits all” classes just can’t do that.
Yoga is a practice with many parts. In classical yoga there are eight limbs on the yoga tree, and physical practice is just one of them. I hope to see more studios embracing those other seven limbs, embracing all ages and all levels of students in the interest of their personal development as a human being. At its heart, that’s what yoga is: a philosophical system to make you stronger, more powerful, and more connected to your divine, peaceful nature.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.rebelco-op.com/
- Instagram: @adriyogamuse
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aawhite1/
