Susan Hlibchuk-Gregory

Co-Owner PYC Etobicoke

I began teaching fitness classes almost by accident when my first son was born 13 years ago.  It was a nice way for me to stay active and explore a healthy lifestyle and nutrition while raising my two sons.  I started to take a yoga teacher training 7 years ago. Although I knew that I loved yoga and had a huge desire to train and learn more, I discontinued my study. Something with that particular yoga training didn't inspire me and didn't give me the tools to make a shift in my being.  I was still stuck in the patterns that were eroding my life. 

I began my teacher training with Kinndli while in the midst of a very difficult, toxic separation.  When I took her classes I was either crying in frog or finding myself ever so grateful in corspe pose.  I knew that I found what I was so longing for, real tools to become authentic and powerful in my own life.  I did not try anymore!  I started doing!

So off I went to my level 1 Baptiste training.  (something out a character for me and my lifestyle).  I loved it. I stopped looking for the answers outside of myself, I started to look inside, I just needed to crack myself open and here within me was everything that I I needed to be happy and content.

I am moving into the future fully responsible for where I am, thereby giving me the power to create my dream life. Baptiste Yoga has transformed my life which is the best gift that I can give myself, give my two beautiful boys and the others I love in my life.

With forty around the corner I am teaching yoga at PYC and so excited to see the community growing.  

Leandra Antonutti

Co-Owner PYC Etobicoke

   I was introduced to yoga four years ago when I started working at
lululemon. Growing up as a dancer and being extremely involved in the
CrossFit community, yoga always seemed quite boring to me. If I didn’t
feel like my heart was going to beat out of my chest and if I wasn’t
sweating a lot, I had no interest in it.
       Shortly after, I met Pauline whom introduced me to Power Yoga
Canada. Pauline is my mentor, dear friend and inspiration. From the
moment I hit my mat in my first class at PYC, I knew this wasn’t just
yoga, but rather a way of life.
       Pauline recommended I do my Teacher Training Level 1 Bootcamp in
Catskills, NY with Baron Baptiste that summer. It was the most
powerful week I’ve ever experienced. I went to simply better my
practice and had no intention of teaching. By the end of this journey,
I experienced a total mind, body, and soul transformation both on my
mat and in my life. I left inspired to teach and felt challenged and
ready to take action in my life. As both a student and teacher, I feel
the importance of inspiring others to step up to their growing edge
and live a life they love. Baron Baptiste, Pauline and Kinndli have
each taught me the significance of being BIG in my life and living
with passion and purpose, a lesson I am forever grateful for.
       I look forward to creating a community at Power Yoga Canada
Etobicoke and I'm very excited for this new adventure!! See you on
your mat!

John Fortin

Co-Owner PYC Etobicoke

My passion for yoga started as an unexpected coincidence. Two years ago I was training for endurance events and thought yoga would be a safe and effective way to stop me from physically breaking under the stress of tight muscles and hours of training. The physicality of the practice taught me about my body and how I had imposed physical limitations on myself. After a short while of practicing in the physical realm, unaware of it, my mind joined me in my practice. I quickly discovered that by allowing my mind to be present on my practice, it was able to open up to bigger things.

Last summer I was fortunate to continue to learn how strong your practice can be. Pauline encourage me to go to a Baptiste Boot Camp to go deeper into my practice and where it could bring me. After my week at boot camp I left lit up and open to all of the possibilities that were ahead.

Yoga has allowed me to set personal best in endurance events, push myself mentally beyond the limits i had set on myself. I am now living the dream! Being a part of Power Yoga Canada and opening the Etobicoke location is a long term goal realized years ahead of schedule. An opporunity to build my own practice, be a bigger part of the community that PYC creates and share my passion with others.

Thank you Pauline and Kinndli for introducing me possibility of possibilities.

Darlene Berg

I attended my first yoga class in 2002, shortly after the birth of my second child. I was highly stressed, and looking to get some “me” time outside the house. By the second class, I was completely hooked on yoga as I felt the immediate release of tension in my body.

By 2007, I decided I wanted to know more about yoga, I knew I was only scratching the surface in my practice. I registered in my first 200 hour yoga teacher training in Hatha yoga.  Afterwards, I started to teach Hatha yoga at Yoga by Sarah in St Catharines.

In February 2009, Kinndli came to teach weekend workshops at my home studio, introducing me to Baptiste Power Vinyasa. My mind was blown away. I had never been more connected to myself or my mat, and I knew I wanted to have the lightness I saw in Kinndli, and I wanted to bring that energy to my students in my classes. Needless to say, I signed up for a level 1, Baptiste Power Vinyasa teacher training in August 2009, completed Level 2 in May 2010 and I am currently an associate Baptiste teacher and working on my certification.  

I’ll be honest- I had gone to dozens of different types of practitioners looking for answers to “fix” what was “wrong” with me.  I was looking for the easy answer or quick fix, but what I really needed to do was to connect with myself. I realized my problem - I was looking for answers from the outside world when the answers were always inside me. Through my trainings I have learned to let go of past experiences that I was letting shape my life. I now know I am responsible for where I am in my life and where I am going. Hitting my mat everyday keeps this connection alive so I can let the past dissolve and live in the present moment.

I feel empowered and want to share the lightness I have found within, to those who come to my class. Anything is possible in your life, the sky is the limit! Go big with your dreams and your life! Carpe Diem

Denise Desrochers

 

I would have to say that I really didn’t ‘find’ yoga but rather it found me. I started doing Power Yoga because a friend had suggested that it would really help my back. I had been struggling with this injury for quite some time, going to physiotherapy three times a week, countless massages, you name it.  My days as a gymnast, a professional dancer and teacher were taking its toll and nothing seemed to be working. So I took the class and came out saying “What just happened?!” Little did I know how life altering that class would be. This class shook me up. I loved it but I wasn’t sure what do to next. All I knew is that I wanted and needed more. I soon discovered that my practice was not only about the physicality and how amazing my body felt but rather the total rinsing and clearing of my mind and spirit. I was learning to deal with difficult circumstances with peace and acceptance and letting go of relationships that were not beneficial in my life. That was the care that I truly needed.  

Power Yoga has given me so much more than just a ‘healed’ back. It has placed a mirror in front of my face and has led me to make positive changes in every aspect of my life. I got a small taste of this while attending Baron Baptiste’s Level 1 Bootcamp. I realised that I have been ignoring my gut, my intuition for years and that my fear has led me to play it safe. I came back with a sense of urgency and commitment greater than before. I immediately started assisting and am now teaching and it is completely unreal to me….I don’t know how I got here!! What I do know is that I want to share this passion, this love, this fire with as many people as I can so that they too can awake from their sleep. I am thrilled to be teaching at PYC and am so grateful to be a part of this positive community.  

"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.”  

Marianne Williamson

Monica Mallo

My spiritual journey started many years before I started the physical practice of yoga, until then I knew there was always something missing. There was a shift I needed to create and I wasn’t doing anything to change. On May 10^th 2006, that first shift happened; I gave birth to my two beautiful daughters. Becoming a mother changed my life, more then I could have imagined. And it wasn’t the sleepless nights or the handing over of my body and my time to these two babies, it was my necessity to be the best person I could be, to love them the purest I could and I could only do this by loving myself authentically. That same year, new challenges forced me to look outside of what I knew, in order to heal and most importantly to find self love. 

As soon as I took my first yoga class, it felt like I had made it home. That last piece of the puzzle had been found. After only one class I knew that my practice of yoga was that piece that I needed to align my mind, body and spirit. Soon after I knew that I wanted to share this joy, this peace.

In 2008, I began a teacher training with Kinndli and I could honestly say that is the moment I started to transform my mind, my body and my life. Things I have always depended on have started to dissolve and I am finding my real ‘self’, I am beginning to heal and I look forward to do the same for others through my teaching. 

The huge transformations in my life have been as a result of coming on my mat day in and out and being around Kinndli and the Power Yoga community. I am challenged every time I am at the studio and I am challenged everyday as a mother but most importantly I am inspired to find my inner power and strength and inspired to do the same for others by teaching.

Jaclyn Logripo

Growing up, if you met me, I’d proudly tell you my name, and that I was a dancer. The title became ingrained in who I was, part of my identity. So when I stopped dancing to attend university, and could no longer call myself a dancer, I was lost, and on a good day, felt mediocre. If I wasn’t a dancer, who was I?

Starting yoga at this time not only brought creativity, movement and passion back into my life, but made me realize that by defining and identifying myself as a dancer, I lost who I was along the way. I now realize that defining who you are by a title, or what you own is dangerous, because at any second it can be taken away from you. I am so proud to say that I truly believe that all that is good and necessary is inside of me. This yoga practice has helped me peel away the layers, come back to center, and feel confident when introducing myself as Jaclyn, period! 

One thing I know for sure is that this practice works for you however you want or need it to. Anything you are searching for in your life can be found during your practice on your mat, you just have to be open to receive it! I strive to let students reveal parts of themselves through their yoga practice by encouraging them to step up to their physical and emotional edge.  

I most thank Kinndli McCollum for introducing and training me in Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga, where I was guided through a spiritual and motivational flow like no other, leading me to new awakenings, mostly that I am destined to inspire and shine bright! 

 Andrea Aymer

Growing up, if you met me, I’d proudly tell you my name, and that I was a dancer. The title became ingrained in who I was, part of my identity. So when I stopped dancing to attend university, and could no longer call myself a dancer, I was lost, and on a good day, felt mediocre. If I wasn’t a dancer, who was I?

 

Starting yoga at this time not only brought creativity, movement and passion back into my life, but made me realize that by defining and identifying myself as a dancer, I lost who I was along the way. I now realize that defining who you are by a title, or what you own is dangerous, because at any second it can be taken away from you. I am so proud to say that I truly believe that all that is good and necessary is inside of me. This yoga practice has helped me peel away the layers, come back to center, and feel confident when introducing myself as Jaclyn, period! 

 

One thing I know for sure is that this practice works for you however you want or need it to. Anything you are searching for in your life can be found during your practice on your mat, you just have to be open to receive it! I strive to let students reveal parts of themselves through their yoga practice by encouraging them to step up to their physical and emotional edge.  

 

I most thank Kinndli McCollum for introducing and training me in Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga, where I was guided through a spiritual and motivational flow like no other, leading me to new awakenings, mostly that I am destined to inspire and shine bright!