Denisha Burns

I started taking yoga classes because I had very tight leg muscles from being a runner. I’d run both cross country and track during high school but never took the stretching piece of team practices seriously. After high school, running multiple 5Ks, 10Ks, 10 milers, and a half marathon gave me great running achievements but my tight calves, quads, and hamstrings felt like I was always fighting against a limited range of motion. So, I walked into my first yoga class at a Vinyasa Yoga studio in Chicago and kept going for the next few years.

What I loved about the classes were the physical asana challenges, gaining better balance, moving with control & intention, and increasing my flexibility in less boring ways 😉

Currently, my practice has evolved from just looking for a good deep stretch to learning how to connect my breath to my movements while being mindful of all things in the process. I’m still very competitive but I now value a holistic balance of all things rather than mastery of a few.

After about 6 years of practicing both Vinyasa and Bikram yoga, deciding to teach came from a growing need to know the “why” behind everything. Why this asana and why in this form? Why are there so many ways to breathe? Why is the spirituality piece so popular? Why is my yoga teacher so perfect? Why is this class so hot? Why cannot my body twist/bend like that? Why do I not feel or look like a “yogi”? The 2023 YTT training aligned perfectly with my schedule and has answered many of my “why” questions.

Even though I will forever be a student on my journey, I am passionate about guiding other students on their own journeys, providing an answer (when possible) to their “why” questions, holding space for the many ways in which their practice may unfold, and cultivating a curiosity for what their body, breathe, and mind can bring forth. We are all learning healthy ways in which to stretch ourselves. Just look at me! I came to yoga looking for a good stretch but found so much more than I could have imagined 💜