We recently connected with Katie Arnold and have shared our conversation below.

Katie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

I came into yoga after a friend suggested I try it to deal with the stress I was feeling from working in the music industry. I had no idea what I was doing but found some 20-minute audio classes that came with a PDF pose guide and practiced in my dining room several nights a week. I would relax so much that I would fall asleep on the floor, a clear sign that my body really needed rest. I eventually started practicing in a yoga studio and discovered hot vinyasa yoga (flow-style yoga) and immediately fell in love. Over the years, my practice was mostly these flow-style classes that left me feeling strong and sweaty. While I did learn to not just appreciate but also love slower styles, especially after completing my 200-hour training, it wasn’t until 2020 that I really learned to slow my practice way down.

For a little background, I ran the 2019 Chicago Marathon and the following week moved into a new house. While I had seemed to bounce back well from the marathon, as the weeks and months progressed of living in this new home, I was feeling worse and worse. My body would ache, my brain was foggy, I was gaining weight and so many other seemingly random symptoms. I blamed the marathon and felt like maybe my body hadn’t bounced back like I thought it had.

Then March 2020 came and I was not just sleeping in my house, but like so many, I was also working my day job from my house. Suddenly, these symptoms that were annoying and weird became unbearable. I could barely get out of bed in the morning, had body aches all day every day, couldn’t remember a phone call the moment I hung up, and running a single mile felt impossible for my heavy legs and constantly triggered asthma. What I would eventually find out was that the house I had moved into had a severe problem with toxic mold in the basement that was slowly taking over every system in my body.

I started working with my functional medicine doctors to work through detox protocols, the home was remediated, and I also made the choice to move out and throw out the majority of my belongings in the process. This is where the aha really came in my practice. Those flowy classes were no longer possible and even one chaturanga was one too many. Instead, I took my flowy practice to a complete halt and my personal practice consisted exclusively of Restorative Yoga and Meditation for almost a full 6 months, until I tried to slowly reintroduce shorter flowy practices into the mix.

People often come to yoga for the fitness side of it and while over the years I learned there was so much more to it than that, especially when you dive into limbs of yoga, this moment was my reminder of how much we all need to slow down and preferably, without forcing ourselves into it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a vinyasa and restorative-based yoga and meditation instructor, breathwork and journaling coach helping women reconnect with themselves and stress less through movement and mindset practices.

After spending years burning the candle at both ends, I learned there’s a better way. Yoga taught me to slow down, tune inward, and actually take care of myself. I know what it’s like to be in a constant state of GO-GO-GO and never prioritize your own needs; I know what burnout feels like; I know that feeling of constant stress, overwhelm, and anxiety. And I also know it can get SO MUCH BETTER.

I believe that our daily practices have the power to change our lives, health, and mentality. When we learn to slow down and look inside ourselves, we’re able to reconnect with our authentic selves and show up better in our world. And I also know that busy people don’t have a ton of extra time to devote to these practices, no matter how important they are. I help people see that in 30 minutes or less each day, we can find this connection back to ourselves.

I use a 5-tiered approach to self-connection with guided meditation, mindful movement, journaling, self-care, and community. These components of connection as I refer to them are the building blocks of a daily practice. We don’t have to do each of them every single day, but I firmly believe if you can do one thing each day for you, you feel more connected to yourself, more in-tune with your needs, and more likely to realize when you’re heading in the direction of burn-out so you can pull back the reigns.

I offer a lot of free resources for people because it’s important to me to remove a lot of the barriers that can get in the way of these practices. I have a guided meditation and journaling podcast called The Soul Connection podcast that helps you find that deeper soul connection. I love pairing meditation and journaling together because I often hear people say they can’t meditate because they can’t stop the thoughts in their head, so offering an opportunity to journal all of those thoughts out on paper first can help remove some of that distraction. Then on the opposite end, when journaling after your meditation, we’ve already knocked so much of the ego out of the way so you can truly tap into the flow of writing on that day’s prompt. I also offer free yoga classes on my YouTube channel, Katie Arnold Yoga, which are super digestible classes that can be done from home usually in 30 minutes or less. I love to use props to support a yoga class and we don’t always use them, but when we do, I always offer an alternative so you don’t need anything fancy to support your practice.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

I often find myself wishing I got into yoga and meditation earlier in my life so this could have always been my career path, but it wasn’t, and in many ways, that’s probably a good thing. My background was in the music industry and the stress of trying to make it in the business (even on the management side of things) brought me to yoga and helped me learn how to manage my own stress, anxiety, and burnout. I now get to use that wisdom and bring it on and off the mat for myself and my students. As for teaching yoga, I would choose that every single day.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve made many pivots in life and my business, but as we learn through aparigraha, or non-attachment, I’ve had to learn to let go in many instances. The one coming to mind the most right now was in the decision to close down my virtual yoga and meditation studio. It wasn’t easy and I found that my ego really wanted to keep pushing and pushing, but I also came to realize it wasn’t what my students were needing right now. Given the current state of the world and I’m sure several other factors, this wasn’t the answer. I had to surrender and stop grasping so tightly to something that wasn’t actually what my students needed so I could open up and meet them where they are at with the practices, programs, and support that they do need right now.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://iamkatiearnold.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamkatiearnold/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamkatiearnoldwork
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/KatieArnoldYoga
• Other: https://pod.link/1603712717