We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ayako DeRuby a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Ayako, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
Alchemy is defined as the process of taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary, sometimes in a way that cannot be explained. An Alchemist is someone who transforms things for the better, real or imagined, like turning lead into gold through transmutation, a change of an essential element into a superior form.
Through the ancient teachings of yoga, we can learn how to alchemize all things and situations to better serve ourselves and society. Yoga shows us that our lives don’t necessarily need to change for our lives to change. Our perspective on the unfolding of life will change, and with that, we can learn how to raise each moment. Each human being is an alchemist. Each human being has the potential to raise each moment for the greater good.
In my personal story of alchemizing is when I was diagnosed with cancer in December 2016. I was diagnosed a few months after my husband and I decided to end our relationship. My entire world was going through a significant change in all areas… relationships, health, and the body. I thankfully have been practicing yoga and meditation for a few years at this point in my life. I was able to use the unraveling of my identity in my marriage and health to go inward to who I am beyond all these things. This is what yoga and meditation does. It helps us see who we are so we are, when significant changes happen, we remain deeply rooted inside. Because of my spiritual practices, divorce, and cancer helped me get closer to Divinity. It showed me what is real, the indwelling soul, and what is transient, all the things that can change, such as relationships, health, and my body. This is what Alchemy means to me. To see how we can raise each moment to take us closer to Divinity or your highest spiritual truth.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
As a little girl raised by a Marine recruiter, I would join my mom and my dad in his workouts, helping young men get ready for boot camp, so I always had physical fitness as part of my life. I found yoga after I gave birth to my youngest son, Toshi. I went to a yoga class at Gaia Flow Yoga with a friend and intended to stretch and perhaps do some cool poses. Even though I meditated in high school, got an Aum tattoo on my 18th birthday, and independently studied Tibetan Mysticism, yoga didn’t call to me until I was 27. And even then, I went only on a physical level. At 27, I thought I had it all figured out; my ego was strong! My ego didn’t even recognize that I had deep-rooted issues with dealing with pain and uncomfortable emotions by taking drugs and alcohol, and I just saw myself as a party girl who wanted to have fun. After 3 years of taking classes, I started to unravel the total mess and finally began my healing process. I felt ready to dive deeper into understanding yoga, and I enrolled in the Gaia Flow Yoga YTT program in 2011. The following year, I took their first 300 YTT certification course. Even though I loved yoga so much, I felt there was a component that was missing. When I learned about meditation in the 300 YTT program, I knew I had found the missing link to deepening my practice. On December 8th, 2012, I dedicated myself to practicing meditation every day for 1 year to see if it would transform my life, whether it be 5 minutes or 2 hours, as long as I practiced every day.
After one year, I marked the calendar of my 1st anniversary of meditation and discovered it was Bodhi Day, the day that Gautama Buddha (Shakyamuni) is said to have attained enlightenment. I took this as a sign to stay on the path of meditation. I told the owner of Gaia Flow, Chrystal, of my 1-year achievement, and she suggested I go to a 10-day silent retreat. I had no idea what it was about and found out on the first day of the retreat we were going to learn how to practice Vipassana. Vipassana is the same technique that the Buddha used when he attained enlightenment. That sealed the deal that Vipassana was the meditation technique I was meant to do. I have been practicing Vipassana daily since January 2014 and attending yearly retreats.
As I got deeper into experiencing myself as a spiritual being, life was still happening, giving me opportunities to apply these ancient practices in modern times. In 2012, my husband and I decided to divorce. It was challenging at first as with 2 young boys and me being primarily a stay-at-home mom, I had lots of fear about what my life would be like. After 1 year of moving out of my house, my ex-husband and I decided to give it another try. In the summer of 2013, I moved back in with him. I started to go back to college part-time to finish getting my degree. In August of 2016, my ex-husband and I realized it was not working and amicably decided to separate. To tell my boys again that we were separating was excruciating. In December of 2016, I found out I had lymphoma cancer.
My ex-husband, Gautam (he was named after the Buddha, again another sign!), graciously let me stay upstairs in our home while I was going through chemotherapy. The 6 months of going through that was my life’s most peaceful, transformative chapter. I practiced all that I learned and practiced Vipassana meditation in my chemo chair. A friend recommended I try to listen to frequencies and soundbowls during my treatment, and my time in the chemo chair became a beautiful practice within itself. With all my techniques to be fully present in the moment, there was one practice that hit hard, the highest form of unattachment: my own death. Every moment was savored and felt to the core of my being. All the little annoyances of life turned into moments I would cherish…from picking up the kids’ shoes to seeing them drinking water from the fridge door or them leaving their bookbag in the kitchen, hit differently. I realized this situation gave me perspective. Life can still be what it is, be when my perspective changed, the depth of each moment could be felt.
After I recovered from chemo and was in remission, I had a whole new zest for life…go all in and allow the flow of life to take me where I needed to go. I decided to enroll back into college, but this time full-time. Life was a hustle, but I loved it! School, taking care of my kids, teaching yoga, and now facilitating soundbaths. I met my now husband in May of 2020, and we instantly fell in love…oh how life can change on a dime! In Spring 2021, the year after I met my now husband, Jared DeRuby I completed my HR degree with honors. After graduation, I was going to find a corporate job and continue to teach yoga on the side. As life would have it, Jared encouraged me to open a yoga/meditation studio. I said no at first because I didn’t want to let him down if I couldn’t succeed, and I was worried what it would do to our relationship. A few months later, he asked again. I saw this as a sign that life was trying to direct me once again, and this time I said yes.
September 25, 2021, we opened The Alchemy Yoga. I wanted to open a space where we can learn how to alchemize life’s experiences into something sacred, as I have learned to do with my life’s experiences. Soon after opening, a Lululemon staff member, Macy, attended my sound bath classes. lululemon was looking for a local yoga ambassador and reached out to me. I was honored to have the privilege to be part of such an amazing brand and find other ways to be involved in our community.
Our studio teaches how to greet life so that everything has meaning and intentionality. Just as alchemy transforms base metal into gold, we can to transform our everyday life situations, no matter how mundane or challenging, into a source of healing and let go of stories that hold us back from our true divine essence. Yes, we teach the physical practice of yoga (asana), but we also teach breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation, facilitate sound healing, and we are a school to obtain a 200 RYT yoga certification through Yoga Alliance. As the West has made yoga primarily a physical practice, we specialize in the philosophy and subtle yet very powerful and transformative aspects of yoga meditation. We have 2 separate rooms in the studio. The heated FIRE room is our yoga asana room, and the soundproof ETHER room is our meditation, sound bath, and philosophical discussion room.
There is going to be a point where our bodies will not always be able to do the physical postures, at some point in time we will have to give them all back, just as I had to while going through chemo, so how can we still practice? This is where our studio differs from so many. We teach the art of living. We teach students how to observe the chattering mind, the fluid movements of the emotional heart, with equanimity and compassion. This can be done by observing the physical body in movement, asana practice, and stillness in meditation. We learn how to do this in a safe container, and we then can apply this to our everyday life…we become emotionally resilient with a tender heart.
I am most proud of our community! Our teachers are amazing at their craft but are also some of the most inspirational human beings I have ever met. They not only teach yoga but also live it off the mat. Our students are also highly dedicated and extremely welcoming. Some newcomers thought that the students were instructors because of how helpful and welcoming they were. I love how we are all so different, and even though we are all on our individual paths, we all are walking hand in hand together, holding and sharing space with each other.
I am very proud of our corporate offerings, too. I have been working closely with the Marriott hotels with their VPs, HR Directors, and Managers, teaching them simple meditation and breathing techniques. They even flew The Alchemy Yoga out to Chicago for a women in leadership event to facilitate sound healing meditation.
Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?
Having a business that provides a space for spiritual practices is different than running a typical business. There is a balance between wanting to grow your business and staying true to your spiritual path. This balance involves doing your best with integrity and then letting go of control because of your absolute trust in something bigger than you. An owner of a spiritual business needs to have a deeply ingrained spiritual practice. That powerful intention and guidance from Divinity steer the ship. Clients are coming in to process the day as well as deep trauma. They need to feel that they are held in a safe space and to do that; I need to be very intentional with my life and practices so that I have the capacity to hold space for them. This also extends to the instructors who teach at the studio. I have known many of them for years and know that they practice what they preach. Students can feel this, and this is key to helping our business grow.
Have you ever had to pivot?
The Alchemy Yoga came to fruition from my husband, Jared DeRuby. When I met Jared, it was May 2020, and I was finishing up my degree at UTD. I planned to graduate from college, enter the corporate world, and teach yoga on the side. As our relationship started to develop into something that we both knew was going to be long-term, he approached me with a business idea for me to run my studio. My initial reply was “no” because I just finished working hard to graduate with honors and start my career. He told me he noticed I do not read business books in my free time. Instead, I spend my free time diving deeper into studying yoga, philosophy, and meditation, and perhaps my purpose is to own a studio. I stuck with my “no” for a few months because I didn’t want my love of yoga to be affected by being a business owner. A few months later, he asked me again and I took it as a sign that I need to persue this path. As soon as I said “yes,” all the ideas started to download. My friend, Becca Wyatt, is a digital designer, and after hearing my vision, I created a beautiful logo and color palette for our studio. The most interesting thing about this, is by owning this studio, it acually took me deeper into my spiritual practice. I had to learn to give it my best without attachment to the outcome and to totally trust the unfolding of life and allow life itself to navigate me.
Contact Info:
- Website: thealchemyyoga.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/thealchemyyoga/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheAlchemyYogaTX/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-alchemy-yoga-frisco
Image Credits
Thanin Viriyaki