By LAURIE WINSLOW World Staff Writer on Jul 30, 2013, at 2:22 AMUpdated on 7/30/13 at 3:51 AM

Meghan Donnelly, owner of Inner Peace Yoga, knows firsthand about workplace stress and now aims to help workers alleviate tension by offering yoga classes in a downtown studio.

Starting Thursday, Inner Peace Yoga will be renting space in the Fly Loft at 117 N. Boston Ave. and offering classes at 6:30 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. Saturday.

"I've always wanted to expand and, of course, serve a larger community," Donnelly said. "The Brady District is booming, and all sorts of neat stuff is happening there. I wanted to be at the forefront and the first to serve that community."

Donnelly began offering classes at her studio at 7718 E. 91st St. beginning in 2005. She said that for years she had been receiving feedback from people, including those who work downtown, who have wanted to take her classes but felt it was too far to travel to her studio.

Yoga is an ancient practice, dating back 4,000 years, but few people practiced it in the United States until about the 1960s and '70s, Donnelly said. Yoga has made a comeback in the past 10 to 15 years and particularly in the last couple of years as many athletes have taken it up.

Today, many businesses recognize the health benefits of yoga, which can lead to healthier employees and, thus, fewer sick days and insurance claims, its proponents say.

Donnelly said she began practicing yoga 16 years ago as a stressed-out college student. Someone had suggested she try it, and she found a yoga VHS tape, which she inserted in the TV. That's all it took, and she was hooked.

Yoga made all the difference after she entered the corporate world, first working at Hilti for three years and then in the oil and gas industry for T.D. Williamson Inc. Aside from her day job, she was teaching yoga on the side in the evenings and weekends.

Two years before Donnelly left office work, she began working on a business plan for a yoga studio.

Original post:
Inner Peace Yoga to open downtown studio