My Story and the Heart Behind Rose Temple Yoga School.

Because Yoga Is Meant for Every Body

I did not begin yoga as a young, flexible, confident person.

I found yoga in my forties while living with multiple health challenges. I was insecure, deeply self-conscious, and unsure whether my body belonged in a yoga studio. I could not do many of the poses I saw others doing, and I often carried a quiet sense of shame about everything my body could not do.

Still, something within me kept returning to the practice.

Yoga gave me more than movement. It gave me moments of peace. It helped me breathe more deeply, listen to my body, and begin rebuilding a connection with myself. Through gentle yoga, chair yoga, yin yoga, meditation, and spiritual practice, I began to understand that yoga was not about performing the most advanced posture. It was about learning to be present in the body I had.

After practicing at one studio for four years, I gathered the courage to apply for its yoga teacher training program. I knew I could not do every pose, but I also knew I loved the spiritual teachings of yoga. I wanted to learn how to share the gentle, accessible practices that had helped me.

I was denied admission.

I was told I was too sick to become a yoga teacher.

I cried. I felt humiliated, defeated, and convinced that perhaps they were right. For a few hours, I allowed myself to believe that yoga teaching was only for younger, healthier, more flexible people.

Then something inside me changed.

Instead of giving up, I went online and began searching for another path. That search led me to White Crow Yoga in Nashville and to its owner, Mary Irby.

When I spoke with Mary, she told me about the lineage she taught: Thirumoolar’s Ashtanga Therapeutic Yoga. She explained that this approach to yoga was therapeutic, inclusive, spiritual, and created to help people understand their own bodies. It was not about forcing every person into the same pose. It was about adapting the practice to meet the individual.

It was a tradition that recognized yoga as a path of healing, self-awareness, breath, meditation, spiritual connection, and compassionate service.

For the first time, I felt that there might be a place for me.

I enrolled in the in-person intensive training and drove two hours to Nashville and two hours home after working nine-hour days as a college instructor. Because I was teaching full time, I completed the intensive program during my summer break.

I cried almost every day that summer.

The training challenged me physically, emotionally, spiritually, and academically. It was one of the hardest things I had ever chosen to do, but it was also one of the most meaningful and fulfilling.

At the beginning of the training, I still worried that I would never be a “real” yoga teacher. I could not do headstands. I could not move like the younger women around me. I could not make my body perform every pose in the way it was traditionally pictured.

By the end of the training, I understood something that changed my life:

The world does not need every yoga teacher to look, move, teach, or practice the same way.

The world needs teachers who represent different bodies, ages, abilities, experiences, and life journeys.

It needs teachers who understand what it feels like to be afraid to enter a yoga studio.

It needs teachers who know how to offer a chair, a bed, a wall, a prop, a pause, or a different way of practicing.

It needs teachers who can look at a student and say, “You belong here.”

That realization became the seed of Rose Temple Yoga School.

Why Rose Temple Yoga School Is Different

Rose Temple Yoga School was created for people who may not see themselves represented in traditional yoga teacher training.

This school welcomes older adults, beginners, people with larger bodies, people with disabilities or limited mobility, people living with chronic health concerns, and anyone who has ever wondered whether they are flexible, strong, young, thin, or experienced enough to practice yoga.

You do not need to perform advanced poses to begin.

You do not need to prove that your body is capable of fitting into someone else’s image of yoga.

You do not need to become a different person before you belong.

You will be encouraged to learn your own body, honor your limitations, recognize your strengths, and develop a practice that supports your physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Our training includes accessible approaches such as gentle yoga, chair yoga, restorative yoga, yin yoga, yoga nidra, meditation, breathwork, somatic awareness, and spiritual reflection. Students learn how to create supportive practices for a wide variety of bodies and abilities.

This is not a school built around perfection.

It is a school built around presence, compassion, accessibility, wisdom, and inclusion.

You Do Not Have to Become a Yoga Teacher

Rose Temple Yoga School is not only for people who want to teach professionally.

Some students feel called to lead classes, support their communities, or become inclusive yoga teachers. Others feel called to study yoga as a personal or spiritual path.

Both are honored here.

For that reason, the school offers two pathways.

The Yoga Teacher Training Path

This path is for students who want to develop the knowledge, skills, confidence, and experience needed to guide others.

Students will explore yoga philosophy, ethics, anatomy, accessible movement, meditation, breathwork, class planning, teaching skills, and supportive approaches for working with diverse populations.

You will not be expected to become the most advanced person in the room. You will be encouraged to become a thoughtful, compassionate, well-prepared teacher who knows how to meet students where they are.

The Spiritual Yoga Studies Path

This path is for students who want to deepen their personal practice without becoming professional yoga teachers.

You may feel called to study yoga philosophy, meditation, breathwork, spiritual connection, self-awareness, subtle energy, sacred movement, and the deeper meaning of yoga.

Yoga is much more than physical postures.

The poses are only one part of a much larger tradition. Yoga can also include meditation, ethical living, breath awareness, self-study, devotion, concentration, spiritual inquiry, and connection with the Divine.

This pathway allows you to experience yoga as a personal journey of healing, reflection, and spiritual growth.

You may complete the training simply because you want to understand yourself more deeply, create a meaningful daily practice, or bring the wisdom of yoga into your own life.

You Are Not Too Old, Too Sick, Too Inflexible, or Too Different

I created Rose Temple Yoga School because I know what it feels like to be told that your body disqualifies you from your dream.

I also know the power of finding one person, one teacher, or one tradition that sees possibility where others only saw limitations.

My life changed because I did not allow one rejection to become the final answer.

Now, I want to create the kind of training I needed when I began.

A training where you can ask questions.

A training where modifications are normal.

A training where rest is respected.

A training where spiritual depth matters as much as physical movement.

A training where people of different ages, sizes, backgrounds, health conditions, and abilities learn together.

A training where you are not asked to leave your body behind in order to belong.

Whether you dream of becoming a yoga teacher or simply want to deepen your relationship with yoga, you are welcome here.

You do not have to do a headstand to be a real yogi.

You do not have to perform the most complicated pose to become a meaningful teacher.

You do not have to wait until your body changes.

Your experience matters.

Your wisdom matters.

Your presence matters.

And there is a place for you at Rose Temple Yoga School.

Gentle, Inclusive Yoga and Sacred Movement for Every Body.