Meet Stephanie Lavender | Yoga teacher, Yoga Student, Yoga Studio Owner and Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Stephanie Lavender and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie, what habits do you feel helped you succeed?
I have been practicing yoga for 30 years and this practice continues to be the foundation of my life. It is the first tool I use with injury, hardship, grief, and loss.
Other habits I lean on daily are writing in my journal each day, pranayama (breath work), walking my dogs, and taking time to rest. I also take a weekly hip-hop dance class which keeps me laughing!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I studied fashion design for undergrad and have my MFA in Textile Design and during graduate school I worked at various yoga studios in San Francisco to pay for my yoga practice. I always loved fashion and worked in the fashion industry for 15 years and then I took some time off to raise my young daughter. My education taught me to understand business and I always had a dream to run my own yoga studio one day.

I began teaching at Yoga Arts 6 years ago and loved the community. We are a neighborhood yoga studio with highly trained teachers who care about their students. 2 years ago the opportunity to take over ownership at Yoga Arts came my way and I jumped on the opportunity.

Our studio teaches in the style of Iyengar yoga which means our teachers are some of the highest trained teachers in San Diego.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
ooh love this question!
Ok here you go:

Favorite places to eat
Tribute Pizza
Puesto
Thanh Tinh Chay
Tacotarian
Kindred

Definitely go to Baja’s Valle de Guadalupe for 1-2 days for wine tasting

Spend a day at Tourmaline Beach

Take a day trip on the train to Las Angeles for food and shopping

Watch the Woman’s soccer team The Wave play a match

See a show at Humphreys

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would love to thank the Iyengar family for creating such a deeply profound method of yoga for me to practice and teach and share with the world. Without this classical yoga form, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Website: https://yogaarts.co

Instagram: yogaartspl

Yelp: yoga arts

Image Credits
Lisa Loftus