Welcome, friends! I'm so excited to be launching this space for all things yoga. I'm deeply grateful that you're here.

I'm looking forward to connecting with you on this platform through yoga classes (live and recordings), yoga teacher mentorship, group meetups, book clubs, blogs and more! Thanks for coming along on this adventure.

My name is Jamie Marion. I have two amazing kids and a supportive, loving and kind partner as well as dear friends all of whom I'm so grateful for. I've been teaching yoga in the Grand Rapids, MI area since 2023. I started practicing yoga around 1999. My first teacher was my Aunt Cindy who introduced yoga to me through her practice and as our high school track coach. I originally was only interested in the physical aspects of yoga (yoga asana). At the time I'm not sure I recognized that there was more to yoga than a physical practice that left my body feeling great and felt like coming home in a way. The poses of yoga have always felt like they fit in my body. It wasn't until later in my yoga life that I became interested in the other 8 limbs of yoga (ethics, self-care practices, breath work, meditation). I have an especially deep love and appreciation of the yama and niyama. Hang around here long enough and you'll certainly hear all about those beautiful and rich yoga principles.

Yoga has supported me through pregnancies and miscarriages, through motherhood and marriage, through mental health challenges and the beginnings and endings of relationships. Yoga was a tool during many challenging and difficult moments in my life. Yoga has also helped me be more authentically "me" and be fully present through the many amazing times I've been lucky enough to experience.

Yoga is a practice of union. Of uniting different aspects of ourselves and uniting all people together as one. Yoga is not a practice of attainment but of awareness. We are already whole. We are already enough. And through challenging self-inquiry, service to others and love we can come to understand that on a deep level. The Yoga Upanishads say that by coming to know one thing made of clay, we come to know all things made of clay. By getting to know myself, I am able to better understand all the beautiful people I come in contact with.

Yoga doesn't promise us a life that's perfect or free from pain. The Yoga Sutras tell us that we can limit future suffering through the work we do today, but to be human is to experience pain. My hope is not to spiritually bypass our pain or promote "good vibes only", but to live and study and practice yoga in an authentic way that helps us to realize our unity and divinity.

Thank you for being here and for being you.

Om shanti, shanti, shanti,

Jamie