About the Owner

Throughout her lifetime, Mandy has found great joy and solace in movement. During the ten years she worked as a corporate web designer for Microsoft and other technology companies, she spent most of her 8-hour work day sitting at a computer. And while she enjoyed the creativity of web work, Mandy never felt at home in a corporate environment, turning to fitness classes and workout videos to help her stay centered.

Following a car accident, Mandy developed chronic shoulder pain and scoliosis that was made worse by stress and repetitive movements. Taking a hard look at her life, she realized that staying in the corporate world was costing her both her happiness and her physical health. Seeking relief for her chronic pain, Mandy began to explore yoga and alternative medicine. As she began to take more responsibility for her own health and well-being, she found the courage to leave corporate life in 2005 to follow her dream of becoming a fitness instructor.

Mandy obtained her American Council on Exercise Group Fitness instruction certificate and shortly after taking her first Nia class, she discovered her inner dancer. She celebrated Nia's barefoot, mind/body approach to aerobics, soon becoming a Nia white belt and starting to teach Nia at a small dance studio near her home in suburban Seattle. Moving into the position of studio manager, Mandy was delighted to realize that for the first time in many years, she loved her job and truly enjoyed going to work.

Mandy was focused on her dream of owning a movement studio when she learned that she was pregnant. Making a conscious decision to put her dreams on hold, she returned to her hometown of Veneta, Oregon. For the next two years she took primary care of her daughter and worked part-time as a freelance web designer. To keep her fitness dreams alive, she took a Yogafit teacher training and began teaching yoga twice a week.

In November 2009, the opportunity to open a new studio found her and she couldn't turn it down. She immediately fell in love with the space that is now Just Breathe and was even more excited to start collaborating with Village Health, the holistic health clinic that shares the building with Just Breathe.

These days, Mandy moves through her days with joy and serenity. She believes her own life is an example of how the journey to finding one's health and happiness can bring true change into the world.