Garden Street Yoga - Shaun Schlager

On the corner of 6^th and Garden in downtown Coeur d’Alene, there’s a brick building that use to be one of the first schools in the area.  Now it’s a two story building with 8 studios rented out to small businesses. One of them being Garden Street Yoga.

Garden Street Yoga is a dedicated Anusara Yoga studio opened in 20001 by Karen Sprute-Francovich.

Anusara Yoga is a style of Hatha Yoga created by John Friend and integrates the art of internal energetic movement with precise principles of alignment, a high degree of mindfulness and spiritual intention and a joyful expression of the spirit.

You can enjoy workshops, retreats, teacher training, immersion programs and studio classes at Garden Street Yoga.

I had the pleasure of photographing and interviewing Terri Simmons. She has been an instructor at Garden Street Yoga since 2006 and has also taught yoga at North Idaho College since 2007.

I asked Terri how she got started doing yoga. Terri told me her counselor said Terri needed something in her life that would nurture her and take care of her. Terri told her counselor she always wanted to try yoga. The next day Karen came to the building Terri worked at as a preschool teacher. Karen was looking for a place to have her yoga studio. Karen has been Terri’s mentor for 11 years now.

When I asked why she loved yoga so much, Terri responded, “What I love most about yoga is that it gets me into alignment with my own inner strength and radiance! I feel stronger and more confident. I feel less pain in my body. I feel more open with people and with difficult circumstances that happen in my life. I feel more like my true self. Yoga rocks!”

Being a wholehearted student of Anusara Yoga, Terri is currently in the process of working towards becoming an Anusara Certified Teacher.