Hello, my name is Jocelyn. I grew up in western Cook County and have been movement oriented my entire life. I began swimming and gymnastics very early, but spent the majority of my childhood in a Shuri-Ryu Karatedo Dojo, owned by a good friend of the family. I continued to train there while swimming, running, and cycling in high school. During these years I had two lateral IT band releases, one on each leg, to “relieve” the arthritis developing on the underside of my knee caps. I was then threatened that if I continued the activities I loved that I would need two total knee replacements within five years. All this got me searching for more therapeutic movement and exercise, a means for me to heal myself. I tried every kind of health club yoga, stretching, pilates, weights classes that you could imagine, but something was always missing, it just never felt quite right. At the time I was completely unaware of the fact that this goal I had set for myself, this promise, would completely change the path of my life.

Bikram Yoga found me as a front desk receptionist at an upscale health club, working my way to a B.S. in Environmental Management. After over-hearing so many fabulous, therapeutic benefits from the personal trainers I was working with, some of which had completely abandoned their former workouts for this yoga class because “you just don’t need it if you’re doing this yoga, it works EVERTHING.” To say the least it got my attention, and I found myself walking into Bikram Yoga Naperville on April 12, 2005 for my first class. I was instantly hooked. It was like nothing else I had ever experienced, and somehow, it just made me whole. On my second visit I signed up for a recurring monthly, which turned into front desk work trade, and inevitably teacher training.

Bikram Yoga has changed the shape, direction, and quality of my life completely. This yoga has so much to offer, you really have no idea until you give it a try for yourself, with an open mind and an open heart. There is a wonderful community of teachers and students in this studio and there is so much we can all learn from each other. This reminds me of a quote Brie thoughtfully shared with me a few years back:

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. CHECK YOUR ROAD, and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.” - Ayn Rand