River of Life Yoga

....my yoga journey....

Ulrike McCarty is a native German.After finishing high school she completed an apprenticeship as a hairstylist . Met and married husband Greg while he was stationed in Germany with the US Army.After moving to the US, Ulrike pursued her Hair Stylist career and worked at various hair salons.While raising her two children she eventually started to work with the Family business as an office manager.In 2003 Ulrike and Greg purchased the family business and became sole owners of McCarty Well Drilling in Buchanan, MI .

Besides caring for the kids and working the family business Ulrike has always made exercise a priority. Bike riding,walking,spinning classes ,strength training were some of the exercises she enjoyed.Eventually she started up running and completed 7 Half Marathons and the Chicago Marathon and numerous 5k’s .Ulrike suffered from a lot of injuries due to running and overuse from heavy strength training .Despite having several surgeries she always got right back in the game of running.In 2012 her local Fitness Studio started offering yoga and Ulrike decided to use it as an complimentary exercise to her running regimen. She started to notice other benefits that she didn’t expect and also realized how hard yoga can actually be.Always enjoying a physical challenge she become hooked on yoga.In 2014 she suffered injuries from a car accident ,resulting in surgeries ,that laid her up for a good 6 month .Missing her running and yoga she decided not to dwell on what she couldn’t do but what she could do.Having learned about meditation in her yoga classes she decided to learn more about different mediation techniques. Once Ulrike was able to get back to a more active life style she was able to start practicing yoga again.She felt more of a connection to yoga than ever before and after watching her good friend go thru her yoga teacher training it became clear to her that she needed to learn more about yoga than she could in a class. Putting off another surgery she decided to complete a 200 hour yoga teacher certification with no intention of teaching but to deepen her own yoga practice. Halfway thru the training she quickly realized how she needed to share her knowledge with others and began teaching classes even before her graduation in April of 2016.Ulrike is always eager to broaden her knowledge and enjoys attending workshops and trainings held by very remarkable yoga teachers. In November 2018 she completed an additional 300 hour training and is now certified as a RYT500 through the Yoga Alliance.

Her husband and kids enjoy her knowledge of yoga and come to her often for guidance in yoga poses to help with tight shoulders , back pain,sciatica and more.The most enjoyable moments for Ulrike are when her 6 year-old grandson comes to visit and says “ Omi,let’s do yoga“ . He gets right down on the floor closes his eyes,uses his yoga breath and does the most beautiful down dog you have ever seen !

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