Own Your Life with OM Your Life

by Gabrielle S. Martin

OM Your Life Yoga and Pilates is a virtual wellness studio created by co-founders Margot Brodie and Susan Doherty with the goal of helping women over the age of 45 feel their best through movement and self-exploration while practicing in the comfort of their own homes, on their own schedules.

About

It all began in 2014, when Margot and Susan found themselves celebrating another trip around the sun: "Turning 50 was a big-eye opener," says Susan. "How did we blink and at middle-aged?"

Margot and Susan decided to celebrate by taking a trip together; they travelled to a yoga training retreat in Mexico with a group called One Yoga Global. "It was the beginning of true growth for both of us!"

After having such a positive experience, the friends booked another retreat through One Yoga Global: this time, it was a seminar on Finding Your Bliss with teachings from Dr. Deb Kern from Austin, Texas. "We knew very little, if anything, about her, but we wanted to go to Costa Rica [where Finding Your Bliss was set], so we signed up."

After arriving at their destination, the two felt they had made a terrible mistake. They share, "All 40 women there seemed to know each other already! Overhearing conversations led us to realize that this retreat was all about feminine energy and dancing. We immediately thought, 'Heck, no! I don't dance when people are watching, and who are these women?'"

"We, as New Englanders, tend to be a bit standoffish at first, but that didn't stop the ladies from Texas from trying to get us to loosen up! They got a good laugh out of the two Yankee stiffs," Susan recalls fondly.

After forcing themselves to participate for a full week, Margot and Susan watched as the women they were there with danced, practiced yoga, and reclaimed the parts of themselves that had been lost along the way. "We never once heard 'I'm too fat to dance,' 'I'm too old to move like that,' or 'I will look ridiculous.' The women were so comfortable in their skin, and all actively working to get back to a life of heart-centered living. It was inspiring."

By the end of the retreat, neither Margot nor Susan wanted to leave. "We didn't to part with this group of fun, active, open woman and return to our hometowns, where things felt a little less easy. Both of us felt a significant shift in how we viewed ourselves, our communities, and how wonderful it feels to be authentic; we wanted to share this feeling with other women our age!"

From that point on, both Margot and Susan adapted their teaching focus, shifting from leading every power yoga class they were offered to selectively engaging with women of their own age: "We started to cultivate a community of like-minded women who wanted to feel their own power and return to a state of bliss. We noticed that with support and guidance, all women could tap into the feeling that we had in Costa Rica!"

Following the Bliss retreat in 2015, Margot and Susan have traveled with the same group of women, living, loving, and learning. “These experiences and these women inspire us daily. When COVID made it impossible for our annual trip to reconnect with them, OM Your Life was born.”

OM Your Life was created as an opportunity to allow and encourage women over 45 to practice Yoga and Pilates at a level that meets their needs: “Movement is so important as we age. We struggled before COVID to find classes that didn't leave us depleted and exposed to injury because we are not 25 anymore; we knew there were so many women like us looking for an accessible, affordable, and comfortable place to move their bodies, to challenge themselves, and to feel supported by other women in similar stages of life.”

Drop-Ins

OM Your Life welcomes drop-in students to their classes. Here’s how to participate: create a free account on Namastream to attend OM Your Life's live Zoom classes. Choose the class, pay the drop-in fee, follow the link, and you're ready to go! 

Note: You will not receive a Zoom link as their platform is seamless.

Monthly Memberships

Alternatively, you can opt to become a monthly subscriber for $29.00. To do so, you will still need to create an account with Namastream but you will choose the "Subscribe" option.

Here's what's included with an OM Your Life monthly membership:

• 3 LIVE Zoom classes;
• Access to Private Facebook Group to connect with like-minded women and build your community;
• LIVE Yoga Nidra once a month;
• Receive our monthly newsletter full of yoga tips, thoughts on strong aging, recipes. 
• Newly-recorded content each month;
• Short instructional videos to learn the basic practices of Yoga, understand core alignment, and Pilates from the ground-up;
• Short meditations to help stay balanced, calm, and focused;
• Unlimited viewing of videos.

Your OM Your Life monthly membership doesn’t require a contract, so you can cancel at any time and will still have access to the videos until the end of your current payment period.

Additional Offerings

• Discounted DoTerra essential oils;
• Early access to their retreats (there’s one scheduled for September 2021 in the Berkshires!);
• Private Yoga and Pilates in-person classes or via Zoom;
• Reiki Healing.

Additional rates on above vary.