Who We Are
Setting the standard for yoga in Utah since 1999
With each heart at our core, Centered City Yoga is well-known for it’s incredibly talented, professional, and devoted teachers, none of whom take themselves too seriously. They all genuinely love teaching authentic breath-based yoga, where the truth of yoga is discovered through presence, regardless of the strange shape you might find yourself in during yoga practice–or the challenging situation while living your daily life. In our Shala, you do become fit and flexible through your daily practice, yet we understand these are blessed by-products of your mindful yoga practice. Centered City Yoga instructors are first and foremost “regular people.” Dads and moms, musicians and mechanics, doctors and dancers, artists and attorneys. They teach yoga not to define their lives, but because they have seen the good it brings to their busy and full lives. They wish purely to share those benefits with you.
Meet Rachel and Eric, the Husband and Wife Behind the Centered City Yoga Vision
Rachel
Rachel is the Owner of Centered City Yoga, in Salt Lake City, Rachel was raised primarily in the Mojave Desert of St. George, Utah. Rachel’s yoga journey started at the age of five.
She dedicated herself as a student of yoga at the age of 18, while attending the University of Utah. Rachel’s main path is Ashtanga yoga.
Her gurus are Manju Jois and Srivatsa Ramaswami. Other insightful yoga teachers are Michael Gannon, Arun Deva, Sondra Fraleigh, Jeff Silverstein, Stephen Brown, Peter Francyk, and D’ana Baptiste.
Rachel continuously teaches and inspires all to learn what it truly means to live a fulfilling life of joy. Her wish is to influence every student of yoga to manifest their own human potential and live a life of authentic truth.
She enjoys being a mother, to her son and greatest teacher, Canyon. She integrates yogic philosophy and practices into her other life passions as an elite runner, cyclist and endurance coach at www.newageathlete.com
Rachel is registered with the Yoga Alliance as a 500-hour E-RYT, is a certified Yoga Therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists (C-IAYT) and holds a B.S. in Exercise Sport Science from the University of Utah. She is also certified to teach the primary and intermediate series of Ashtanga Yoga through Manju Jois.
Eric
Eric Martin is the Managing Partner of Centered City Yoga and an example of a highly successful businessman living a balanced yogic lifestyle. He holds a B.S. in computer science, with an MBA in finance. He has spent 30+ years assisting the turn-around of distressed businesses in many industries.
In 2003, Eric met Manju Jois, and has studied with him ever since. Eric was changed by Manju’s powerful and authentic teaching ability. Manju is the pure and true lineage of Ashtanga since his father Pattabhi Jois passed away in 2009. He is certified to teach the primary and intermediate series of Ashtanga Yoga and is a Yoga Alliance E-RYT 500, YACEP.
He teaches a simple, profound practice that sets Eric and anyone whom dedicates to learning under him apart from all who teach an incomplete yoga style. Eric teaches yoga with the spirit of Manju in his heart. He stays close to roots of lineage, with perfect adjustments and a humble, yet empowering voice.
Eric is also a student of Srivatsa Ramaswami, learning Vinyasa Krama since 2018. Srivatsa is a humble, yet powerful yogi, of deep lineage, and holds true to the teachings of his teacher, T. Krishnamacharya. Since meeting Sri, Eric’s teaching has evolved to blend in the strength, and depth of both of his teachers in a beautiful way.
6 Reasons to Practice Yoga with Us
Community
Humans carry a vibrational energy similar to the company they keep. Through Centered City Yoga, raise your vibration in the midst of kind and beautiful energy surrounding you. The energy cultivated with your yoga community will give you strength, peace and a sense of lightness to take with you everywhere you go.
Connection
Through your Centered City Yoga practice, learn to "yoke" or connect your breath to your mind, body and soul. Through this connection arising from within you, you will then find it easier to connect to nature, and with family and good friends, old and new.
Collaboration
The ultimate goal of yoga is to discover and become one with the true nature of ourselves--pure consciousness. We call this, purusha. All of the action and non-action it takes to embody this deep inner state is called, prakriti. Your Centered City Yoga community collaborates together to create the space for all to rise to our greatest potentials!
Compassion
At Centered City Yoga, we practice according to classical yoga, learned from our teachers through deep Indian lineages. The practice is breath-based, and focused on cultivating that which we wish to shine onto this world, first on the inside. This energy then naturally moves from within, to our outer world, to touch with compassion and deep service, all sentient beings.
Cohesive Energy
Humans are said to need food, water, shelter and LOVE as primary factors in living a light-filled life. Similar to cohesive energy talked about with crystals in physics, learning from Centered City Yoga teachers, we each can work individually, and together, with a sense of strong cohesion, as a way to shine as a united wholesome state of humanity.
Mindfulness
A quality yoga practice is always approached moment to moment with mindfulness. At Centered City Yoga, we "practice" yoga mindfully as a way to calm the central nervous system, while bringing mind, body and spirit to balance. Students then take this practice out into their daily lives. Powerful indeed!