Leaving the business suit behind

Karen S. Kim

It was about four years ago that Michele Ray-Mooney, a corporate

executive, passed a building for lease in Kenneth Village on her

drive home from work.

The stresses and difficulties that came with her job as a project

manager for a bank had left her craving some sort of relaxation,

Ray-Mooney said.

“I was driving home and I thought, ‘God, I wish there was a yoga

studio here, I could really use some yoga,’” she said. “I saw this

place that I always passed on my drive home and thought, ‘What are

you wishing for?’”

Within four months, Ray-Mooney had opened Yoga at the Village, a

yoga studio tucked into the corner of west Kenneth Village. A year

after that, Ray-Mooney had quit her job as a bank executive and had

took on the task of running the yoga studio full time.

“I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew what I wanted to do,”

she said. “I wanted to bring this to our community. I was using my

day job to fund my life’s passion. Finally, I jumped off the edge

with both feet.”

Today, Ray-Mooney said she has no regrets. In addition to yoga

classes for beginners, intermediate and advanced students, Yoga at

the Village offers yoga for kids, infant massage workshops, prenatal

yoga and creative movement and dance classes for toddlers.

Additional classes are being added all the time. In September,

Yoga at the Village will begin to offer candlelight meditation

classes Sunday evenings. More lunchtime community classes are on the

way. The studio also might offer a seniors-only yoga class at some

point, Ray-Mooney said.

And every so often, Ray-Mooney still gets a chance to step back

into the corporate world. She speaks at health and fitness seminars

at corporations like Nestle USA, teaching business executives how

she’s learned to relax from a stressful day.

“There are days when I wake up and my eyelids are the only thing

that doesn’t hurt,” Ray-Mooney said. “But with yoga, I feel buoyant,

I feel lighter. I can’t imagine not doing yoga everyday.”