As we make our way into the new year, many of us may include a resolution or two and often that includes fitness. To make the resolution stick, it helps to find something you enjoy. If you’re looking for low impact, you may find that a yoga practice could be just what you’re looking for.
Georgia Lynn is the owner of the new Total Practice Yoga, located in the Plaza de Sol Shopping Center in Chamblee. “It’s an old train station, so it’s been around for a long time,” Georgia says, as she describes the space. “The ceilings are really high with exposed wood beams, brick walls, and hardwood floors, and natural light. It’s amazing.”
Georgia started out as a runner, but after a knee injury, she found herself looking for something that was low impact so she could move her body and workout while her injury healed. That’s when she found yoga. “I fell in love with it,” she says. “I started practicing it every day and I never turned back.”
She explains that it started out about the workout, but as her yoga practice matured, it became more than just a workout. “It became more about the meditative benefits and about connecting with my breath, and what I was feeling in my body,” she says. “Really the mind-body connection is what it’s grown into, so that’s been the journey.” And she says since starting, she’s practiced yoga most every day.
That was about 15 years ago, and since then, Georgia says she has more than 1,000 hours of certification in different forms of yoga. “I’m a forever lifelong learner,” she says. “So I dove in really deep around eight years ago.” That was also about the time she says she started thinking about owning her own studio at some point.
Georgia, who is a former elementary school teacher, taught yoga for different studios in the metro Atlanta area where she learned the business side of things. From there she went on her own to work with corporations that wanted to bring mindfulness to their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. She says it was when she moved to Chamblee, she started looking at different spaces for a studio of her own. “I really felt called to create something for the community where we could come together and breathe and move and do something healthy for our bodies and connect,” she says.
The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit word, yuj, and means to unify. Georgia says it’s about the connection with yourself between the mind and body and spirit, but it’s also about connecting with each other. “We’re in crazy times,” she says. “There’s a lot of disconnection. There’s a lot of separation. And there’s a lot of stress and fear and worry and doubt and uncertainty, but there’s also a lot of space to come together and to love. And that’s a big reason for the studio.”
Georgia named her studio Total Practice Yoga because she says it’s not just a workout, but the total practice of yoga. “So the mindfulness, the breath, and the meditation, and the community is a huge part of who we are,” she says.
Classes at Total Practice Yoga are all Vinyasa style yoga – stringing postures together moving from one to the other using the breath. Georgia explains that during a class she starts with some centering to transition from day-to-day tasks, taking a few moments to notice what’s happening inside, and then she moves on to a mindful moving meditation that she says is similar to a dance with your breath. Every class is beginner friendly and limited to eight people so everyone can get the support that they need.
The benefits of yoga are many. Georgia says a yoga practice can help with strength and flexibility, and reduce tension, increase feelings of vitality, increase energy, and it’s been shown to help ease symptoms of chronic conditions. “Because it’s working with the central nervous system, it can help with healing and injuries,” she adds. The Vinyasa style that Georgia teaches at Total Practice Yoga can get the heart rate going and people can burn anywhere from 150 to 300 calories in a class. “You’re definitely getting a workout along with all the other benefits too,” she says. “It’s a really great low-impact exercise.”
If you’re looking to try a yoga practice, Georgia says you can start by making small intentional movements and breathing a part of your everyday activities. “Finding a moment each day to connect with your body and move your body with intention will help that consistency,” she says. And she says to try more than one class to find one that works for you.
For more information about Total Yoga Practice, visit totalpracticeyoga.com.
"I really felt called to create something for the community..." Georgia Lynn, owner of Total Practice Yoga
"It’s about the connection with yourself between the mind and body and spirit, but it’s also about connecting with each other." Georgia Lynn, owner of Total Practice Yoga