Hello YogaStraong Family!

I wanted to check in with you and find out how you are doing and let you know what’s going on at YogaStrong. I also wanted to share with you the story behind YogaStrong and why I decided to open the studio.

As some of you may already know, I experienced trauma in my early adulthood. I do not typically talk about that trauma; however, I feel the universe is calling me to finally share my story.

First, I want to check in with you all! How are you all doing? Is there anything that you need? Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you need anything. I will help anyway I can. All my contact information is on the website.

Second, we are still offering all our services, they have simply moved online for now. As of now, we plan to reopen our physical location on May 1st. I am doing everything in my power to keep the studio going for you all.

Finally, I want to share my story with you. How ironic is it that I am going public with my story on the anniversary of the kidnapping? When I was in my early 20’s I was kidnapped. I was working in home health care as a CNA here in Houston. I was on my way home from work one night and I stopped by a fast food drive through as I always did. Nothing different. I had the same routine every night. I was living in a gated community, so I buzzed myself into the gate and pulled into my detached garage. After grabbing my bag of food from the passenger seat I turned to get out of my car. As soon as I put my left foot on the garage floor, I felt something cold on my head. It was a gun. My glasses were knocked off my face and now in the floorboard. I was in shock. The first thing I thought was, this has to be a joke. This can’t be real. I then heard a voice staying get back in the car. Out of instinct I held my keys up, keeping my head down so I would not see his face. If I saw his face, he would for sure kill me, right? As I held my keys up, I told him to just take my keys and take my car. I was driving an expensive car at the time so that must be what he wanted, right? No. It is not what they wanted. I then heard a second voice ask, where is your purse? I then realized that there was more than one of them. I put my foot back in the car as I was instructed. One of them got in the back seat and sat right behind me with a gun to the back of my head. The other sat in the passenger’s seat with a gun to my right temple. I was instructed to drive. I am going to stop there but I will say that after crime stoppers reached out to the community, they were in custody within two weeks and they were sentenced to prison.

What does my story have to do with the studio? A LOT! After the kidnapping I developed anxiety, depression, agoraphobia, and PTSD. I then decided I wanted to help others in a different way. I loved working in health care, but I changed my major to Psychology.

While in school I started practicing yoga and meditation to help with the symptoms from the mental health disorders I developed. I found that yoga and meditation lessened all my symptoms.

After earning my AA-Psychology, BS-Psychology, BS-Anthropology, and attending grad school for clinical social work I decided to open the studio so that I could help others. This is also the reason I became a life coach.

From the bottom of my heart, Thank you to every single one of you  who has chosen to continue supporting us and our studio by signing up for our online workshops and keeping your memberships active and taking advantage of our online services.

YogaStrong is my world where I can live my passion of helping others and you are all more than just clients to me, you are family!

Love & Light!                                                                                                                   Krysten Mabry BS., LCDC-I