Existing Without Expectation

Love Your Body: Yoga for Women class instructors: Morgan Howell, Billie Carroll, Izzy Shurte, and Kisha Hughes

Every Sunday at the PYR studio, women* in Richmond come to do something truly revolutionary: love their bodies. Despite all the negative messages they receive about how their bodies should look and how they should behave in them, women step into a safe place where treating your body with acceptance and loving-kindness is paramount.

PYR Ambassador Izzy Shurte created the Love Your Body: Yoga for Women class in 2016. “It is a radical act for a woman to proclaim love for her body,” she reflects. “I wanted to hold space for healing and reclamation to take place.”

As a therapist who specializes in eating disorders and as someone in recovery from an eating disorder herself, Izzy is intimately acquainted with women who feel at odds with their bodies.

She reached out to three other PYR Ambassadors: Billie Carroll, Morgan Howell, and Kisha Hughes to teach the class with her. “It’s lovely that even though we’re four different teachers there’s a similar energy and intention we all bring,” Morgan says. “What’s created through this class is larger than one particular instructor.”

Kisha places a special focus on making each class inviting, safe, and warm. She intends to “give students the opportunity to focus on simply existing without expectation.”

Billie also teaches Y12SR (Yoga for 12 Step Recovery) at the PYR studio and at Chesterfield County Jail. “I’ve had many women attend Y12SR class or Yoga of Recovery series to address their addictions, most saying that the Love Your Body class was the catalyst,” she says.

Billie often shares her own struggles with body dysmorphia in class. “I have heard other women my size say they can’t do yoga. I teach how to work with ‘our blessings.’”

Come see for yourself! Love Your Body: Yoga for Women meets every Sunday from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at the PYR studio (6517 Dickens Pl.). We invite you to come, be, and heal.

*Project Yoga Richmond is a trans and gender non-conforming inclusive space.