Today we’d like to introduce you to Morgan O’Hare, Carter Miles
Hi Morgan O’Hare, Carter Miles, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We both, Carter and Morgan, got into yoga purely out of our love for the practice. We’d both been deeply passionate about movement and health, and both were immediately hooked when we found yoga.
I (Morgan) took the more traditional path, attending university and pursuing a corporate career while teaching yoga and building up my yoga retreat company. I (Carter) knew that I didn’t want to do anything else. We met in Austin about two years ago teaching at another studio and felt a deep camaraderie in our love for yoga. We had a feeling our relationship would be something special, but we didn’t know what.
Morgan was leading Half Day Retreats in Austin when she brought Carter on to co-create an even better experience. We learned quickly what a great synergy we have holding space together. From there, Carter started co-leading on Morgan’s 8-day retreats and the idea of creating a yoga home for our community in Austin started blossoming. When we found the space, we knew it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to take the leap and go for it.
Here we are now – we’ve opened a studio. Not because we wanted to be “studio owners” per se, but because we wanted to create what we saw was lacking in the yoga market and needed in our community. A studio that is able to express and cultivate the traditional idea of “yoga” in a modern and accessible way, by people who seriously love the practice. We see yoga as a way of being, not just something we do on the mat. We created a yoga home to ground and grow with community, and it’s been so beautiful to watch it unfold.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No road is smooth, but it hasn’t been that bumpy either. Yoga has always been a major (if not the major) priority for us, as such other things have fallen aside. We’ve made and continue to make micro and macro decisions that let us pour our energy into our practices, classes and trainings. Yoga is what enables us to withstand the trials and tribulations of opening and running a business with more grace and trust.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
hOM is a new yoga studio on Congress ave, in Downtown Austin, TX – founded and operated by two deeply passionate and very involved yogis, Carter Miles and Morgan O’Hare.
hOM is a blend of old school, new school and no school. Our teachers are trained in more traditional yoga styles, modern health and movement practices, and given freedom to teach creatively to the students in front of them.
More than anything else we are focused on the experience – helping students go deeper into their bodies, their breath, their emotions, their unique present moment. We use the “yoga practices” to tap in, feel, heal and expand the person having the experience.
What matters most to you? Why?
The experience and the community.
We don’t believe yoga is about the practices per se, we believe it is about the practitioner, the person who is having the experience. The practices are to help us connect more deeply into ourselves, feel what we’re feeling, heal what’s hurting and grow what’s powerful and alive within us.
Community is vitally important, both to help us ground and provide accountability as we “do the work,” but also because it’s a joyous experience to connect with people on a really deep level. The community that grows around yoga is unlike any other community we’ve been a part of, that’s why we’re so eager and willing to invest in it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://yogahomaustin.com
- Instagram: @yogahomaustin.com
Image Credits
Bill Miles, photographer
