Not Another Yoga Studio

THIS.

“This is what I want for my life - and for everyone. This way of connecting and feeling: unarmored, playful, deep, curious. Not something saved for a retreat once a year, but something alive in the everyday.”

It was March of 2023. I remember sitting across from Peter in our little bungalow in the Guatemalan sky, the night vibrant with possibility. I had just led a weeklong retreat that felt like heaven on earth. By day we practiced and shared meals; by night we gathered for games, storytelling, and unfiltered conversation. We laughed until tears rolled, and we cried tears that felt like liberation. Patterns loosened. Masks slipped away. We fell in love with life - and with each other.

For that week, we weren’t strangers on retreat. We were a true community. Dreams spilled out. Friendships rooted. Even love stories sparked. The best of each of us came forward. And I kept thinking: THIS. I want this possibility every single day.

So I turned to Peter and spoke the seed of a vision I had been carrying quietly in my back pocket:
A local sanctuary in our everyday lives. An urban home for movement, mindfulness, and connection. A place where tea and mocktails replace bar tabs, where wholesome bites nourish instead of deplete, where the nervous system is cared for instead of overstimulated. A gathering space that feels like medicine—playful medicine, soulful medicine.

I had always said I’d never open a yoga studio. The system felt broken, and to do it with full integrity felt too big. But in that moment, looking at him, I said the words anyway: “If I’m going to do this, I can’t do it alone. If you’re in, I’m in.”

He didn’t even blink.
“This has been one of the best weeks of my life,” he said. “If we can create even a fraction of this back home—how could we not? I’m in.”

And that was it. The seed planted. The beginning of something that felt bigger than us, yet born from us.

That’s where Haumbody Sanctuary began - not another yoga studio, but a sanctuary. A whole new way of gathering.