Evergreen Yoga Center

A community-focused yoga center in the heart of Memphis. Leah Nichols started Evergreen Yoga Center in 2006 with the hope of creating a friendly, accepting and welcoming place for anyone to experience yoga. "At first, I taught all the regular classes myself, and Laura Allen taught the prenatal classes. Now we have 5 teachers including myself: Tedrah Smothers, Erin Williams, Susanne Bulington & Theresa O'Toole. Practicing yoga transformed my life in all areas. Yoga helped me get stronger & more flexible. And the unexpected benefit was that I found a way to deal with my life! I wanted to share that with other people. Practicing Iyengar Yoga (from patient and skilled teachers) taught me ways to deal with my life. In the first year of yoga classes, I did not have very high hopes. I just came to class because I looked forward to the final relaxation, and felt better afterward. Gradually (and with practice), I became physically stronger, more flexible. Then more centered. None of it happened quickly, but it over time small changes led to bigger ones. In 2001, I had the opportunity to teach yoga and jumped right in. I have been teaching and furthering my training ever since. In 2006, I leased 1,500 square feet of a 100-year-old building. I named the studio after our beloved neighborhood: Evergreen Historic District. I called it "Evergreen Yoga Center" to emphasize how yoga helps me to center myself. The day after I signed the lease, the ceiling fell down. So I took out a loan, got my work jeans on, climbed a ladder and started a renovation. I taught the first class here on November 5, 2006. I'm lucky I get to wear yoga pants to work, but you might see me holding a mop, hunkered over something in need of fixing, or up on that same ladder wielding a wrench. Had I known that my yoga-teacher education would require building-repair and renovation, I may have reconsidered. But not really! I love yoga and want to share this practice with anyone who wants to learn -- and a little physical labor never hurt anyone. I'm still practicing. Although time has changed things -- from my hopeful 20's, my hard-work 30's, and now moving toward middle age. I cannot imagine life without it." - Leah Nichols