Yoga opens new opportunities in Danville for New England transplant

A bit of encouragement from her husband prompted Amy Morin to take a leap and open her own wellness studio.
“One day, my husband said, ‘will you just follow your dream?’” she said with a smile.
Morin and her husband moved to Garrard County in 2010 from northern New England, partially to get away from the 100 inches of snow a year, she said with a smile.
Last April, she opened Essence Yoga & Wellness in Danville.
“We are a yoga and wellness studio, we are not a gym. Going to the gym is fine, but we are a very different atmosphere here: it’s very peaceful, it’s very tranquil,” she said.
Essence Yoga & Wellness is designed to help those who enter the facility find relaxation, Morin said.
“It’s all about them when they come in the door,” she said.
Locally blended teas are served all day, including one created specifically for the studio. The music is tranquil, and the atmosphere is calming.
There are five teachers currently at the facility, four of which are health-care practitioners. Yoga and meditation are offered in group and individual classes, as well as Reiki and Reflexology sessions.
There is a monthly tea and meditation session and the opportunity to take belly dancing classes.
The boutique at Essence Yoga & Wellness offers a line of essentials oils, sprays and scrubs to purchase. Morin, a clinical aromatherapist who is certified by the National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy, takes that aspect  seriously. Aromatherapy is highly regulated, requiring classes and testing to become certified.
“It’s a very interesting healing modality because you are playing with somebody’s blood chemistry,” she explained.
Now, she integrates the essentials oils into yoga practices. Morin, who also has a bachelor’s degree in applied health and fitness and a master’s degree in business administration, said it was during her studies when she first contemplated the idea of Essence Yoga & Wellness.
“I had been doing yoga for years, and when I was in grad school, you had to come up with a business plan … I didn’t really want to do a business model on a construction business; I had been there and done that,” she said, laughing.
Morin and her husband owned a construction business for 22 years; however, opening a wellness studio had always been something she had dreamed about doing. When they settled in this region, she decided to give it a try in Danville.
Part of the interest Morin had in opening a wellness studio comes from the ability to enhance health. She shared that this understanding of yoga, and ultimately the other aspects offered at the studio, comes from her mom, who was encouraged to participate in yoga classes during her battle with cancer.
“In addition to her regular chemotherapy regimen, they offered yoga. At that same time, I was going to school,” she said. “I thought, ‘what a great way to help someone going through a difficult time in their life.’ That was kind of the seed.”
It gave Morin a desire to use yoga to help others battling the terrible disease. She soon will start a program to learn how exactly to do that, expanding her opportunity to help others.
“At a time in people’s lives where they feel like they’ve lost control, yoga gives them the sense of having that control back,” she said.
She has led a meditation support group for patients. Morin also has branched into helping those in the medical profession, by giving talks to staff at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington.
“We have done 15 minutes of chair yoga, which is just a ton of fun. It can be more challenging than you think,” she said. Morin also has met with individuals at Heritage Hospice, teaching them similar yoga practices.
“There’s a lot of research out there of the benefits of doing three 15-minute intervals of chair yoga a day at your workstation,” she said. “They are so busy caring for others that 15 minutes here and there, I think, is a lot easier to be able to fit that in to care for themselves.”
She explained that another favorable aspect of yoga is its ability to open individuals up to new opportunities. For her, this came by way of a horse. Morin’s mother always had been afraid of horses, forbidding her to be near them as a child. After her mother died, Morin determined that she would not let that fear continue and decided to learn how to ride a horse. That’s when she realized just how perfectly yoga and horse riding go together.
“I tell people, yoga teaches you to live moment to moment. How I learned that was on the back of a horse. Because that’s how horses think, moment to moment,” she said. “They hold no resentment. Yoga also teaches us not to be angry, not to hold that.”
Opening themselves up to new opportunities is something Morin is encouraging senior adults to do, by creating the Wisdom Warriors class in Boyle, Garrard, Lincoln and Mercer counties.
The free classes are offered at the respective senior centers and give individuals the opportunity to add the wellness element to their lives, she explained.
Yoga also has enabled Morin to branch into writing. She began working with Health & Wellness, a magazine based in Lexington.
“I was reading that magazine, and it just happened to dawn on me that there was a health and wellness magazine and there was nothing about yoga in there,” she said with a smile.
So, Morin decided to contact the magazine and ask if it would be interested in having someone write with a yoga perspective. The editor was more than happy for Morin to contribute.
She has now written for the magazine on multiple occasions, always tackling the subjects, which range from heart health to diabetes, by approaching with the benefits of yoga in mind and explaining how it can affect those diseases.
This is the beauty of practicing yoga, according to Morin. It can be applied to any life and any person, no matter their level of athletic skill or flexibility.
“You don’t have to have any experience, you don’t have to be an athlete, you don’t have to be able to touch your toes to come to yoga,” Morin said with a smile. “Yoga is suitable for all, because it meets you where you’re at.”
Modifications can be made for individuals, and they will learn through the classes to realize and work within their own limitations. If necessary, someone requiring modifications can participate in an individual class, during which they will work with the instructor privately.
“You work with what you have. And you teach people to work with their limitations, too,” she said.

Amy Morin can be found at Essence Yoga & Wellness, 201 W. Walnut St.; on Facebook at www.facebook.com/essenceyogawellness; or at www.essenceyogawellness.com. On the website, visitors can learn more about the classes and services offered. Morin also sends out weekly and monthly updates via the website.