Life-changing position

Lynne Begier jumped off the couch and rushed into one of the many practice rooms at Back Bay Yoga Studio as soon as she heard a student participating in an intense yoga class crying, in need of consolation. Begier told her it was OK to cry and to release all of the emotions she was feeling.

Begier knew what the student was feeling. She has had moments like this herself - moments that helped her change her life.

"When someone's broken down and crying and there's pain, I've been there," Begier said. "I've been through the release."

For Begier, 32, finding releases to emotional trauma through yoga began after she was hospitalized during college for anorexia, bulimia and depression as a result of being abused as a youth. Several years later, she made her first trip to the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox - one of the leading yoga programs in the United States - and spent a month at the center for teacher training in 2001.

At the time, Begier was working as an analyst in corporate real estate at Fidelity Investments in Boston.

"It was a good job, but it wasn't my dream job," she said.

She took a month off for the teacher training because she needed a break, not because she intended to teach. But after posting flyers and advertising on yoga websites, Begier found there was a lot of interest for a yoga studio in the Back Bay.

She spent the next few months getting some money together and finding a location for a studio, which opened in January 2002.

"I didn't really have a grand scheme," Begier said, adding that she figured she would move out of her apartment and into the space she leased for the studio if things didn't work out.

But word spread and the studio's membership grew.

That October, Begier was one of thousands of employees laid off from Fidelity and given a severance package.

"Pretty much when that happened, it was my moment of glory," she said.

She moved into her sister's apartment to save money and invested the entire severance package in the business, in her yoga practice and in helping others with their practices.

"I made a choice that I didn't want to be on that corporate path because I wanted to keep listening to myself and dealing with things," Begier said. "There was a voice inside of me that said, 'There's more to life.'"

STRETCHING AWAY STRESS

Around the time Begier opened the studio, she met Ana Forrest, a yoga teacher from Santa Monica, Calif. who invented an intense body-to-mind version of yoga as a way to deal with her past experiences of abuse and addiction.

"The physical body can only heal so far before dealing with the emotions," Begier said, explaining the basis of her mentor's methods.

More simply, Begier said the process can be explained as, "How do I take the crap out of my body to take the pain out of it?"

Begier met up with Forrest at workshops throughout the country and learned how to get rid of the "sludge" in her body - emotional issues that were affecting her physically.

"I learned to work on a level of healing beyond going to therapy and eating right," said Begier, who had worked on healing her body from the physical effects of eating disorders but still had emotional issues to deal with.

The connection between body and mind occurs on the mat, when posing in different positions, Begier said. The longer a person breathes deeply and focuses to be able to hold a pose, the better he or she will be prepared to breathe deeply and get through a stressful situation in life. Similarly, she said, it is important for a person to recognize the point at which he or she can no longer hold a pose and needs to take a break - or needs to get out of a stressful situation.

"Yoga is all about trusting yourself and it happens on the mat," Begier said. "The work on the mat is a metaphor for the work in life."

As she got more deeply involved in yoga, Begier was able to stop taking medication for her depression, but she still sees a therapist once a week.

"Sometimes you need to have a voice to work through issues that come up," she said, adding that the combination of working with her inner voice during yoga and talking to a therapist helps her most.

UNION BEYOND THE PHYSICAL

Just as working with Forrest has impacted Begier, she has made deep connections with some of her students, including Winifred Wang and Wang's fiancé Steven Coon. Wang and Coon have attended Begier's classes for over a year and recently asked her to officiate their wedding.

"We don't belong to any organized religion and for our wedding we wanted it to be meaningful and someone who knew us," Wang said, noting that the couple does not socialize with Begier outside of class but feels connected to her because "yoga practice is so personal."

She said Begier's constant reminders during class to "be present in the moment" have helped her and Coon live their lives more in the moment and they want to take their vows with this mindset.

"For our wedding, ... we want to people to celebrate the moment and leave everything else behind," Wang said.

IN POSITION FOR SUCCESS

Currently, Begier lives alone in Jamaica Plain, arriving at the studio at 6 a.m. six days a week - teaching five group classes, about five private sessions and two classes at Simmons College each week - and returning home exhausted and ready for her daily bath to relax at the end of the day. Although she loves animals and often takes care of friends' dogs, she does not feel she has enough time to devote to owning one of her own.

She squirms a little when asked about dating and says there are many other things she would rather do.

"Everyone sort of has their time when they need to work on themselves and get to where they want to be," she said.

For now, she is content teaching, running the business and continuing to go deeper into her own yoga practice.

"I feel very complete with what I do," she said. "It would be a good thing, eventually, for me to get a dog and settle down, but right now I'm where I want to be."