Check Out Hannah Avdek’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Avdek

Hi Hannah, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I’m assuming Kim sent you my way for my yoga story? Or maybe the farm? I’ll try to figure out how to tie it all in.

I was raised in Whitehall Michigan and grew up thinking the only way to thrive, was to leave and never come back. My Dad was a DNR officer and my was a nurse practitioner. I was raised close to the Earth and instilled learned how to be compassionate and deeply empathetic.

When I was 16 I found myself in a local yoga studio that no longer exists for three reasons:
1) I was trying to reconnect to a spiritual practice after deciding I wasn’t really aligning with my religious upbringing.
2) I wanted some other form of movement because my dance teacher told me that running was building the “wrong” muscles.
3) I had googled “natural remedies for depression”.

I was hooked. The owner of that studio suggested I take teacher training. I was rather disinterested. I went on to take yoga in community college while pursing my basic credits to get into homebirth midwifery school. My professor there also suggested I take teacher training… I again denied it until she offered to cover all costs except my books. I still don’t know where the money came from, but I took the training. I taught for a year and then moved for midwifery school. I stopped teaching to focus on school and my own personal practice.

I moved back to Michigan after a couple years and a lot of life under my belt. This was 2018. I started teaching again at the studio I originally practiced at. There were so many full circle moments to come in my life.

In 2019 I decided I would see about committing to “being a yoga teacher” and took a local 200hr training. It wasn’t until 2022 that I, mentally, committed to teaching and now it’s my “full time” gig.

The farm: In the meantime, when I was 15 or so a neighbor of ours that I had worked for starting at age 12 passed away. She left her house and property, including 400 blueberry bushes, to my family. With a lot of time, so much thought, and a few other adventures that would be whole stories themselves, in between, my husband and I decided to purchase the property from my parents. We now have Kin Farm, a quarter of a mile down the road from where I grew up, somewhere I swore never to return to. We run a small homestead here that we have grand visions for in the future including going off grid and being mostly self sustaining. It’s a daily full circle as we the lands I also worked when I was younger.

Not exactly sure what you’d like to pull from or focus on here. I now teach yoga, including prenatal, attend births as a doula every once in awhile, and tend to the farm.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I wonder if anyone ever says yes?

It’s been smooth in the way that I see how life happens and it’s up to us to figure out what we want to do with it.

I’d say a few major obstacles in my path have been coming from a rather strict and, at times, confusing childhood, struggling with mental illness as a young person and knowing I wanted to take an “alternative” path to healing in a household and culture that wasn’t familiar with those ways, and making peace with some things in my past that weren’t ideal for a human spirit.

I’ve always been a visionary. I have always daydreamed and I am so thankful for that gift, it has brought me out of some really dark times being able to see something different.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I now teach yoga and plan to continue to expand my work with people on the motherhood/parenthood journey. Currently I offer prenatal yoga and another workshop called preconception conversation which is for folks who are thinking about conceiving someday. That workshop was created to bring an often taboo conversation out of the dark. We talk about when and why and why not to conceive and it’s set up to be a neutral space for folks to come and be heard in all of their thoughts and feeling about starting or adding to a family.

In my teaching of yoga I really try to emphasize the philosophy portions of the practice. Yoga at its roots goes beyond the physical postures and into what the physical practice can teach us. I always say “your mat is a microcosm of the world. You can shrink really huge concepts down to practice them within the safety of your mat, and then when you go out there, your body remembers, and all you have to do is breathe to reconnect.”

I am most proud of truly living life full on. I’m not afraid of life and I am not afraid of the fact that nothing is for certain, and I personally love that mystery. What I talk about in class is what I am myself contemplating. So while it may seem “sure” because my teaching voice is confident, I am only speaking from experience or as I am experiencing something in the moment. I think that’s sometimes what sets me apart from just other folks in general, I am not afraid of admitting I am in the middle of an experience I have yet to make sense of. I really genuinely, enjoy experiencing life.

I also just recently started “Yoga Guides of West Michigan” for yoga teachers (and people who might be interested in what yoga guides are talking about) to connect, learn and grow.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
You don’t have to go to a class to experience yoga. Life in its constant change offers movement, and yoga begins when we pay attention. If you’re paying attention and letting that experience touch you, you’ve done yoga.

The physical practice of yoga to me just helps us build our ability to withstand the discomfort that comes with growth and “build our muscles” to use toward right action. When we are touched by something, it moves us to make changes.

Another thought: We’ve only been on the farm for two years but we have some community visions for this space. We do host an annual celebration here called Honey Fest, this year it’s July 18th. Kim Funk will be here for that. More details can be found on our facebook @kinfarm or on instagram @kinfarmsocial.

Also, you can definitely thrive in your hometown and actually so many small towns need their young people to hang around or come back.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahjayave/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannahjurcich/