Twenty years ago, Tammy Lyons and her husband, Marc, opened up a yoga studio in Lakewood. Despite the somewhat unfamiliar territory — and with a baby on the way — she just knew they would succeed. Since then, she’s been mastering the art of taking a deep breath — and running a business.
“It does feel like a feat,” Lyons says.
With locations now in Westlake and Rocky River, the team of 17 teachers and students practice Vinyasa yoga, which focuses on a combination of movement and breathwork. This “dance with the breath,” says Lyons, is a simple practice that can “change everything.”
But it wasn’t always a part of her life.
Lyons grew up swimming competitively and running cross-country. Today, she keeps up that endurance by challenging herself on the mat and in her mind. “That competitive athlete still lives in me,” she says. “I think it’s kind of built into the fabric of my system.”
The challenge is that the desire for excellence can evolve into a constant storm of self-critique. After 15 years of internal war, Lyons found that yoga was one of the ways she could quell the competing narratives of health and perfection. “I had this ongoing search for a way to be in my body that would allow me to make friends with it,” she says. This immersion into the psychological aspects of yoga is what inspired Lyons to open Inner Bliss.
Now, every morning, Lyons finds new ways to reframe narratives through the seven daily practices she calls The Experience, which she credits with helping her, among other things, defeat negative body image.
But the path to peace has had its challenges.
In 2016, Inner Bliss opened a new location in downtown Cleveland. With a cool urban feel and boasting a juice bar, Lyons says it was an exciting move for the business. Between the ballooning overhead costs of the downtown location, limited parking availability and competition from other businesses, the location closed in March of 2019. “In the end, I just had to make a business decision that if we hung in there, we could’ve ended up losing everything.”
And then the pandemic. The initial challenges faced at Inner Bliss were similar to most other businesses two years ago, ranging from having to pivot very quickly as far as basic operations go to finding ways to meet client and team needs. One way Inner Bliss has adapted is by offering classes over Zoom as well as in-person.
“In order to fully relax and allow yourself to be in a state of receiving the practice, you do have to feel safe,” says Lyons. “So we put a lot of time and attention and energy and love into just creating a space that would feel safe for people.”
Lyons’ mission on and off the mat is about being guided by inner wisdom. And she believes when we get quiet enough to hear our own needs, we become our own guide.
To thank everyone who has supported her the past two decades, Lyons has designated Feb. 27 as “Give Back” day and her studios will offer all-day free classes. New students are welcome, too, to see what yoga is all about.
“I do feel that our yoga practice on the mat is really the ultimate expression of how we’re showing up in the world,” says Lyons. “To me, yoga is breath and movement, of course, but it is also a source of information of choosing the path you want to walk."