I've been practicing what I thought was yoga for years. In college my conceptions of the practice were formed by heated classes that moved all too quickly and left me feeling nothing more than sweaty, pumped up, and well versed on all the new pop radio songs. And for years I have also been an anxious person, a quality that runs in my family but was somehow never quite addressed in my younger years. It wasn’t until two years ago, when a new studio opened in my neighborhood of Venice Beach, that I encountered a form of yoga that could in fact relieve stress and anxiety rather than induce it. Enter Love Yoga.

The airy, sun-bathed studio smells of palo santo and is filled with minimal but deeply thoughtful details (including Sian's dog Isa's water bowl, and a blue-green floor that evokes ocean and sky in equal measure). Both Kyle and Sian, who co-founded the studio in 2010, are truly magic teachers and after my first class in the studio I was completely addicted. Never before had I left a class feeling as if I'd just had a full body massage. I walked away relaxed to the core, and wanting a green tea instead of a beer. I can truly say that Kyle, Sian, and Love Yoga changed my life. Unlike other classes I'd experienced in the past, their focus on meditative breathing and touching every part of the body as a form of maintenance is something that you not only believe when you are there, but see the immediate effects of in your day-to-day life. In their classes you breathe, sweat, move, meditate, oxygenate, and just FEEL GOOD. The classes have a distinctly community feel, the music is good… the list of positive attributes is endless.

I feel so lucky to feature Kyle and Sian here on the Journal as they inspire me daily, even when I'm not in class. Their outlook and teachings give me perspective and keep my mind focused in a way that I might not have thought possible just a few years ago. We shared the most beautiful day in Malibu, fantasizing about sharing a communal beach house, and laughing at their hilarious best-friend banter.

– PD