I had the pleasure of sitting down with the owner of UP Yoga, Lindsay Grabb. UP Yoga is a heated power vinyasa studio in South Minneapolis. Along with their more physically-challenging classes, they offer foundational and non-heated classes, Yin Yoga, sound baths, workshops in a range of topics, and a 200-Hour Empowerment Teacher Training.
Betsy: Hi, Lindsay! I am so looking forward to learning about what inspired you to open a yoga studio. Tell me a bit about how you came to yoga?
Lindsay: I moved to Minneapolis after graduating college in Indiana in 2000. I worked at Target Corporation in their buying department. I took my first yoga class in 2009. I loved the community aspect of yoga. About a year later, I fell in love with the heated vinyasa practice. In 2012, I attended a Baron Baptiste program, and that was my first experience with a yoga program meant for transformation. That was my introduction to meditation and the real inquiry work of yoga. That same year I completed my 200-Hour Yoga Teacher certification, quit my corporate job, started teaching yoga, and moved to Singapore. We moved back to Minneapolis in 2015, and I switched gears a bit and became a birth doula, which was my first experience running my own business.
B: What was your inspiration taking you from immersing yourself in yoga to running a studio?
L: In 2016, I assisted at a Baron Baptiste training in Sedona, Arizona. I loved being of service in a way where I saw what it took to run a bigger yoga program and the impact it could make on the students. I noticed people wanted to be seen. I came home inspired by the work of doing that self-discovery. I journaled on the plane home and wrote, “I will open a studio.” South Minneapolis didn’t really have a heated yoga studio. I don’t think I was home a week before we had a broker and started looking for the right space to open. Everything about it felt like I was supposed to be where I was.
B: What is the mission of UP Yoga?
L: To empower you to generate connections, take action, and be a leader in your own life. Our core values are connection, growth, integrity, empowerment, inclusion, and leadership. We are mainly a heated power vinyasa studio, but I want people to know the power is meant for you to discover your own power. We offer foundation classes in which all levels of practitioner are welcome, and we have people of all ages and all sizes.
B: Part of our conversation was about integration and noticing when you feel off balance. Can you say more about this?
L: When things are siloed, you tend to feel a heaviness; I feel as if I’m stagnant or rigid versus being in a state of flow. I like that energetic flow as it relates to everything in life. This leads me to think about the ideas of abundance and scarcity. When I lean into abundance, it flows, and it’s the same with my time. Time is really the only currency, isn’t it? When I feel like I don’t have time with my kids or I don’t have time to get it all done, I get stressed.
B: The theme of this issue is all about balance. What does balance mean to you?
L: I come back to joy, laughter, and community. I have a deep sense of wanting to be joyful and wanting love, and in the practice there’s a clarity of being able to ask the question, “Is what I’m doing bringing me closer to those things or is it not?” When I’m feeling love and joy, I feel balanced because I think that’s a true version of myself and who I want to be. When I’m worried and judgmental, I feel off balance, and I know I want to practice getting back to where I want to be.
B: How has UP Yoga embraced the BIPOC community?
L: UP Yoga has always been welcoming and inclusive. The last couple of years opened my eyes to what more we can do. How do we make sure people of all colors, genders, and sizes feel comfortable coming in? We have a diversity expert on our team, and she leads a workshop once a year for the teacher trainees and the staff. We also offer scholarships through a program we created called Uplift the Community.
UP Yoga is located at 4325 Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis
Website – upyogamn.com
A dedicated teacher, guide, and humble student, Betsy Weiner has been working and learning in the spaces of yoga, meditation, Yoga Nidra and spiritual life coaching for over 20 years. She believes we already have everything we need within, and that each one of us is whole and complete, exactly as we are. Betsy moonlights as a back-up singer in a cover band and thinks laughing might truly be the best medicine.
