Is Yoga the Gateway to Self-Love?

I wake up to an alarm—my least favorite thing on a Saturday morning. I roll out of bed, get dressed in leggings and a sports bra, and eat my most favorite thing—yogurt, blueberries, and granola. 

After making my bed and brushing my teeth, I grab my yoga mat and block, happy to see that the new studio I’m checking out is only five minutes away. I arrive at the Consigliere Group on East 38th St.—a building I swore was a bank. 

I walk in with my friend, Hannah, who met me here and we’re greeted by a comforting and beautifully designed waiting room. It doesn’t take long to notice the smiling face. She’s happy we’re here and shows us to the Wellness Room where our class will take place. 

It’s a moderately-lit room with wood flooring and big, bright murals looking back at us. There are already a few people taking up space on their mats. We hang our coats and join them on the floor. 

Photo credit: Sacred Energy Yoga Website

I take a child’s pose, tune into my breath, and stretch my neck from side-to-side, preparing for class to begin. Once some more people trickle in, I hear her voice again. This time, it’s a little softer, and I become comfortable shutting my eyes.

In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth.

The woman leading us is no other than Mary Lou Atkinson—founder, owner, and instructor of Sacred Energy Yoga. She has a gentle aura surrounding her, with movement cues that promote clarity and ease. 

Atkinson’s own journey with yoga began about 15 years ago, when she was looking to shred some baby weight. She began with free, virtual classes on YouTube, and had no idea the impact yoga would have on her life. 

“If you had met me 10 to 15 years ago, I would have been a completely different person,” Atkinson admitted. “I was married at the time, and it was not a healthy marriage. I wasn’t confident in myself or willing to speak up for myself.”

Yoga helped her do all these things and begin to trust herself again. “I took my kids and left my husband one day, leaving all of our belongings behind, and I rebuilt everything,” Atkinson said. 

To say her life has changed in many ways is an understatement. Atkinson is no longer afraid to take up space or speak her truth, and yoga gave her the permission to stop acting small. 

In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth.

When it comes to yoga postures specifically, these have influenced her ability to be resilient. “If you fall out of a balancing posture, you get back into it, you don't just give up and walk away,” Atkinson said. “So it has just built that resilience, self-confidence, and even self-love because I appreciate how my body moves on the mat, and I can feel it off the mat.”

Atkinson believes yoga is a beautiful way to get in tune with your body, and I have to agree. Throughout her class, I felt myself listening to my breath and what my body was saying to me with every movement. 

“Our body is a union of all these different systems, all working together to keep us alive,” Atkinson said. “I've developed an appreciation for that, and how my brain works and how my lungs work, and all of those things because I'm listening to it.”

This listening to herself on the mat has also impacted how Atkinson copes with her anxiety and depression off the mat. 

“My depression is pretty much very well managed, and my anxiety is down to a minimum,” she said. “Yoga has taught me a lot of different ways to cope with life, to cope with things that are upsetting—things that aren't going as planned.”

In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth.

Atkinson’s favorite thing about yoga is how each class brings you something completely different. “I think you take what you need from the class at that moment and if you take a class next week, you’ll walk away with a different feeling because it’s so internal,” she said. 

Even though Atkinson got her start with virtual yoga, she believes that in-person classes are important for creating community. And what first started as a retirement plan, serendipitously became her present focus. 

“At some point in my yoga practice, it just kind of shifted to, ‘Oh, this might be a good retirement plan for myself. I'll retire from social work and open a yoga studio,’” she said. “And then, about two years ago, I saw an ad on Facebook for yoga teacher training.”

Sacred Energy came to be within just a few months, and its biggest focus is providing a nurturing and inclusive space where people can practice yoga. 

“I am a mom, and I'm a mom of a trans kid,” Atkinson shared. “I want nothing more than for him to feel safe in the world. And even if it's just in a yoga space or in my home, I need it to be inclusive of all people.”

In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth.

With its first official class in October, Sacred Energy has already taken steps to make it a sanctuary for personal transformation. 

“I really want to keep it focused on when it's class time, we're in class, and it's a safe space,” Atkinson said. “It's our space to practice together, to breathe together, and just make it as comfortable and as peaceful as I can.”

As for Sacred Energy’s location on the Eastside of Erie, it was intentional. Atkinson grew up on the Eastside, and still lives there today. 

“When I was doing some research about opening a studio and I Googled yoga studios near me, it's all on the Westside,” she said. “So that was definitely a driving part of my feeling like this was the perfect space.” 

Atkinson has spent the past couple months focusing on Sacred Energy’s two current class offerings—Slow Flow Yoga on Tuesdays at 6pm, and Vinyasa Yoga on Saturdays at 9am—but she has lots of ideas for the future like children’s yoga, mindfulness workshops, and Reiki sessions. 

In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth.

Whether you’re exploring yoga for the first time or engage in a regular practice, Sacred Energy is nothing short of special. If there’s anything I learned from Mary Lou’s class or my discussion with her, it’s that yoga is not only the gateway to self-love but the practice of it entirely. 

Visit Sacred Energy Yoga at 1915 East 38th St., Erie, PA and use code BUTTERFLY for a free first class!