Michelle El Khoury and YogaMazia
Michelle El Khoury is not only a wellness entrepreneur with a PhD and over twenty years of healthcare experience, but she’s also a wife and mother to three beautiful daughters.
Her journey took her from Trinidad to the U.S, where she climbed the corporate ladder in a successful career as a pharmaceutical executive. All the while, becoming more aware as she grew up in America, how our society here is less of a creole melting pot and more like a segregated tiffin box.
During her second pregnancy, she felt a strong desire to find a natural, therapeutic, way to make her birthing experience more pleasant, which led her at five months pregnant to step into her first yoga class (which coincidentally happened to be Ashtanga) at the YMCA.
As she describes, “I asked the instructor if yoga was appropriate for me to try while I was pregnant. And she asked, “Can you breathe?”
“Yes” I replied.
“Well, then you are already doing yoga,” she responded. And I never forgot that.”
From that moment on, something deep within Michelle changed. She began to experience the transformative effects of the practice, which inspired her to dedicate her life to sharing these teachings, and seven years later, she opened a healing space dedicated to bringing yoga to pregnant persons, children, and families.
YogaMazia serves as a sanctuary for students to embrace their feminine energies and realize their inherent peace through the practice of yoga and their values of G.R.A.C.E - gratitude, respect, authenticity, community and equity.
Michelle was named, along with Harmony and two other teachers, as Ambassador of the Year in 2022 for their work with Yoga Gives Back.
Michelle also serves as a wellness educator with Integrative Health at Children’s Health of Philadelphia, and is a collaborating author of the book “We Rise in Power: Amplifying Women of Color and Her Voices for Change,” which will be released in March 2023.
The Finding Harmony Podcast is hosted, edited and produced by Harmony Slater and co-hosted by Russell Case.
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Opening and closing music compliments of my dear friend teaching Ashtanga yoga in Eindhoven, Nick Evans, with his band “dawnSong” from the album “for Morgan.” Listen to the entire album on Spotify - Click Here.
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