Certified Yoga Instructor Marie Myrbakk, at left, leads a mid-morning Vinyasa Yoga class at Yoga Body & Soul in Lakewood Ranch on Friday. PAUL VIDELA/Bradenton Herald

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LAKEWOOD RANCH -- Taking one breath at a time toward a healthier life is the way Marie Myrbakk teaches at her new studio at Yoga Body & Soul, 8225 Natures Way, Suite 115 in San Marco Plaza.

"When you start practicing yoga, you really learn a lot about yourself. It changes a lot about your mind-set. It changes the way you think; it changes the way you speak. We focus a lot on the breath and the breath is the bridge to the soul," said the Seattle native who recently relocated here after living 20 years in Norway.

It was there she trained in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with practitioner John Scott and began her first studio that grew to 500 students. By then she was living in Tonsberg, Norway, with her Norwegian husband, Kai Myrbakk.

But when their son Julius, now 12 and a student at Braden River Middle School, started taking soccer lessons at IMG Academy in Bradenton, the couple heard about Lakewood Ranch and decided to look here for a place to live.

For the yoga instructor, the move became part of her calling.

"It inspires me when people leave here smiling or content with themselves," Myrbakk said. "Then I know I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing."

Classes at Yoga Body & Soul are geared for people of all abilities, rather than just those who are already physically fit.

"What about the people that also really need yoga, the people that are physically limited, the older people that can't get around that often or who can't get to

Originally posted here:
Yoga instructor helps students breathe en route to the soul