Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan Danner.
Hi Megan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I am a wellness enthusiast and a passionate activist for helping people be well in mind, body, and spirit. It’s been a dream of mine for over a decade to open a center for whole-body wellness tied together with creative expression. Those two things – wellness and creativity – may not seem initially connected, but I believe that when we are at our best, most whole selves, we are naturally creative beings. I’ve seen some of the most creative outputs of my life come out of periods of the pursuit of overall wellness; I’ve also seen this be the case for those around me. Love Well Yoga, the yoga community I help curate, is one part of the original vision, but not nearly all of it. The vision is to create a Love Well Yoga Collective – a community of yoga and wellness enthusiasts who are passionate about introducing a variety of mental, physical, and spiritual practices to help deepen the connection between body, mind, and spirit.
For now, I’ve been working on building Love Well Yoga. Launched in September 2021, Love Well is a community founded on the idea that love is both a noun and a verb – it’s both something you have within you as well as something you display in your life. I dream of a place where people can love and be loved well, and also discover the deep well of love that exists for them from others in our community.
I am particularly passionate about introducing the practice of yoga to people who have never practiced before. Brand new yogis. It has been an absolute pleasure taking people who have zero yoga experience and helping them become more and more confident in their bodies and minds.
As I mentioned, I do have dreams of this yoga community becoming more than it is currently. I became a yoga teacher not only because I wanted to learn more about the history, philosophy, and anatomy of yoga, but also because I wanted to help people live their best lives and be the best, whole versions of themselves. I did my teacher training through Breathe for Change, an organization that is on a mission to transform the educational system by teaching educators to implement mind-body wellness programs in their schools. At the time, I was working in higher education and wanted to learn how to help the people around me – students, faculty, and staff – become the best versions of themselves. I no longer work in higher education, but haven’t lost the passion for guiding teachers in cultivating their own wellbeing in order that they can be better available for the students they teach.
I am trained to offer an entire year’s worth of trainings to teachers at any level of the educational system and that is part of where I see Love Well Yoga going. Yes, I want to continue offering regular yoga classes for our community, and I also want to expand our offerings to encompass so much more than a few classes a week. I want to find the principals, administrators, and teachers who need what I can offer and walk with them toward whole-body wellbeing for themselves AND for their students.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My story has been anything but smooth.
“When we give ourselves compassion, we are opening our hearts in a way that can transform our lives.”
Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” In the case of offering compassion to others, it’s not going into the pain with them… instead, it’s shining the light of love into their darkness. For so many years growing up, I pretended to have it all together. I faked it really well. I perfected faking it. That lasted until I was in my late 20s. Then I fell apart. What happened? Quite simply, I didn’t love myself. I always came up lacking. Compassion, I learned, is not self-pity, but rather learning to offer the light of love into my own darkness.
In my darkness, my world got turned upside down. In January of 2013, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a medical condition marked by periods of extreme depression followed by periods of extreme mania. Sure, everyone experiences ups and downs in life, but I describe bipolar disorder as those swings having much more pronounced and significant swings in both directions. I was admitted into an inpatient hospital twice that same spring – once for mania and once for depression. What goes up does come down and that was certainly the case for me. During that remarkably intense experience, I learned about my new diagnosis, was cared for by a robust team of professionals, and my eyes were opened to what it means to embrace whole-body wellness.
Bipolar disorder has strong genetic links and, as it turns out, I was predisposed to it because of family history. The sliver lining of having genetic links to someone else with the same diagnosis is that we had a higher likelihood of getting the medicine right from the start due to similar neurochemical structures that run in the family. While it did take a bit of time to get my “cocktail” fine-tuned, today my dad and I take the same three medications to manage the chemical components to this diagnosis.
I am deeply grateful for the struggles along the way, because it has been through these struggles that I’ve learned to trust that God has got me, that he is in control, and that all I have to do is trust that in all things God is providing.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Love Well Yoga is based a few key intentions: community, transformation, flow, and breath.
Community
“Build the type of community you want to be a part of.” My whole life, I’ve been obsessed with forging community wherever I go – whatever I do. From as long as I can remember, I have been a natural connector of people, ideas, passions, friendships, and even whole-body wellness. I long for Love Well Yoga to be a *yoga community*, not just a yoga business. Regardless of the length of their practice when they first come to a class, I want to really know my clients, understand their passions, form deep friendships, and walk beside them through their yoga journey as it grows and evolves. I want to build a community of passionate people, who are committed to their own wellness, and who invest in the unity and wellbeing of the community around them. That is the kind of community I want to be a part of.
Transform
“Yoga is about seeking and exploring truth.” I started practicing yoga in 2008 while I was in graduate school. At first, I enjoyed it for the stress relief and physical benefits that I received. As I grew in my practice, I began to realize that the physical practice of yoga – asana, as it is called – is a gateway into a much deeper and more connected experience of being alive. Asana is like technology for our spirits and minds that enables us to be more connected to the world around us and to God within us. Greater awareness leads to greater change. Yoga is about seeking and exploring truth.
Flow
“Go with the flow of the heart.” This is the phrase that has helped me say “yes” to life again and again. My heart led me to where I am today and continues to lead me to where I want to go. To this place. At this time. I like to think of wellness in terms of “True Self Care” – nourishing the part of me that is truer than true. This is what the world needs of me… to be fully alive. More than that, this is what I need of me. I need to follow where my heart is leading – flowing. Go with the flow of the heart.
Breathe
“Show me, don’t tell me.” This is the first advice I received when I started writing poetry. I recently heard a Buddhist monk speak about a mantra in his community (“mantra” literally means tool of the mind): it doesn’t matter what you say, or what you think… what matters is what you do. That is, actions truly do speak louder than words. Love Well Yoga is about helping people (as well as myself) live with deep integrity, which I define as our actions being aligned with our words. This is how we live out our yoga practice with our lives. Show me you practice yoga, don’t just tell me you do.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love being outdoors and jump at the chance to go hiking, so I love all the greenspaces around here. Being in nature gives me fresh perspective every time I spend time outside. That is part of why I love teaching yoga outdoors. We’re a nomadic community who practices out in the community – parks, trails, open fields. Being in the fresh air allows us to reconnect with our bodies on each inhale and, in turn, we nourish the plants and trees with every exhale. Beautiful how connected it all is, huh?
I also really love live music, so it seems I live in a good place for that. 🙂 My only complaint is that my favorite band – Mingo Fishtrap – doesn’t tour enough, despite them being based here in Austin. Roger, if by chance they read this, pretty please play a gig again soon. I’ll be up in the front dancing my heart out!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lovewellyoga.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lovewellyoga/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovewellyoga
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