Dr. Loretta Standley

Mom to a 40-year-old Nurse

Granny to an 19 year old young man (college student) I call ‘Big Tree’

Yoga Teacher, Holistic Health Consultant, Astrologer, Mentator, Experiential Junkie, Author, Internet Radio, outdoor enthusiast, survivalist, camper, canoer, hiker and mountain backpacker.

 I am half EBCI Cherokee (my mother is full-blood) and I am an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) in Cherokee, North Carolina, which is why sacred ceremony, rituals and practices resonate with my spirit.  Cherokee, NC is my 1st home and ‘official address’ and where nearly all of the Cherokee side of my family lives.

Doctor of Chiropractic (no longer in practice)

Three (3) Bachelors Degrees - Physics, Biology and Human Biology

FIAMA - Fellow in the International Academy of Medical Acupuncture (no longer in practice)

YACEP - Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider

May 2018 - Completed my 1st - 200 Hour RYT with a strict emphasis on Baptiste Power Yoga founded by Baron Baptiste.

August 8, 2019 - Opened Pose-itively Yoga, LLC in Belleville, IL

September 2019 - Completed my 2nd - 200 Hour RYT with an emphasis on Freedom Style Yoga founded by Erich Schiffmann. 

May 2020 - Earned my ‘E’ RYT 200 designation (experienced) after teaching 1000 hours.

July 2020 - Completed my 300 Hour advanced studies earning my RYT500 designation at Asheville Yoga Center in Asheville, NC, which is just 50 miles away from my home in Cherokee, NC. 

Certifications - Yin Yoga, Restorative Yoga & Yoga Shred® 

Yoga Shred - Certified with Sadie Nardini

Yin Certified through Paul Grilley, who (along with Sarah Powers) was a student of Paulie Zink (the father of Daoist yoga) *see last bullet point below.  Paul Grilley developed this slow-paced style of yoga, which Sarah named ‘Yin Yoga’ using ‘the functional approach’ to yoga as opposed to the aesthetic approach to yoga.

I also have also completed three (3) trainings in Restorative Yoga including certificates in ‘Restorative Yoga’ and ‘The Kinesiology of Yoga’ with Judith Hanson Lasater, who is recognized as one of the leading teachers in the country in Restorative Yoga and who’s foundational practice is Iyengar Yoga who she taught with BKS Iyengar. 

I continue to take ‘monthly online’ Yin Yoga classes with the founder and father of Yin Yoga - Paulie Zink, followed by a Q & A session with all participants. 

Keep reading . . . . there’s more . . . my yoga story

After closing my women’s clinic in Clayton, MO to pursue my website, radio and writing career, I spent the next 17 years behind a computer building one of the largest holistic healthcare websites in the world called www.DrStandley.com.  

Fast forward, around the early autumn of 2015 until the spring of 2017, I had gained 42 lbs. When a friend texted to tell me she was opening a new yoga studio, I texted back that I would be there to support her. The timing was impeccable and let me know that I needed to stop sleeping in my coat, get my hormones back on track and get that 42 lbs off my ass.

I had also developed a horrible case of bilaterial frozen shoulder.  I probably don’t even need to mention how tight my hips were.

On April 5, 2017 I began attending yoga classes once a day and most of the time twice a day. By mid-July 2017 I had lost 30 lbs. (*See picture below.) My weight gain had nothing to do with what I was eating because I am a super-healthy eater from the get-go. My issue was sitting on my ass all day long with no movement in my joints, circulation in my blood or flexibility in my tissues and developing a full-blown self-induced hormone imbalance. My body was never heating up to burn one single calorie, much less heat up enough to keep me warm.

**See my article on the Soleus Muscle (Soul-eus) and you will see just how dangerous a sedentary lifestyle really is. You will probably start walking again after you read this article.

By the end of July 2017 I knew that I wanted to take the 200 Hour (YTT) Yoga Teacher Training Certification that was getting ready to begin, but my yoga practice was just not ready. My shoulders were not nearly open enough to put them through any more than what I was doing. In my mind, I was already signed for the next 200 Hour YTT that would begin in January 2018, which was not even one year after I began my yoga practice (for the 3rd time in my Life). By the end of May 2018 I had finished my 1st YTT just 13 months after starting my yoga practice.

In the middle of my 1st YTT I knew that I would be talking about yoga a lot through my website and using another Facebook page to excite and enlighten others about yoga, it was at that time the Facebook page Pose-itively Yoga was born in early June 2018.

While preparing to spend 6 weeks in Asheville, NC at Asheville Yoga Center for my 300 Hour training that would begin in May 2019, I realized that I was not prepared to take on such a task as there was so much yoga that was not covered in my 1st YTT.  I had NO IDEA there were different styles of yoga.  I only knew what I was taught, which was Baron Baptiste’s Power Yoga.  I felt deficient and realized I still did not know yoga.  I knew poses and a two (2) sequences but I didn’t know YOGA.  I really wanted to learn about yoga, the philosophy and the yoga sutras. I needed to go deeper.  I wanted more ‘woo-woo’ than only asana (poses) and set sequences.  

In January 2019 when I was told I would not be teaching (where I thought I would be teaching) while sitting in that chair listening, it was just like magic, my entire energy shifted from that yoga space, to creating my own space. 

Initially I was hurt after all I had done to promote the studio over the course of nearly a couple of years and the thousands of dollars I had spent at workshops, apparel, classes, yoga, teacher, training, etc., not to mention checking-in on social media every time I was there.  I even referred others to do teacher training there who spent a couple of thousand dollars.  I always thought I was an asset to that studio but I was dismissed without a thank-you or an opportunity to teach.    

While listening to the owners words fade away knowing they were now unimportant and didn’t matter, it was as if the Universe did not want me to hear anymore.  I immediately understood and heard through Spirit to my spirit that ‘my energy was bigger than this situation and that space' and my ability to reach the masses was not to be used there. I was to create my own path and do my own thing. My growth would be stunted there for what I realized were obvious reasons.  My hurt immediately dissipated while still sitting there because I understood. It was simply time to move on.  That’s all.  No harm, no foul.

In March 2019 I decided to postpose my 300 Hour 6 week training at Asheville Yoga Center and I began my 2nd YTT to fill in the holes of my 1st YTT training.  I completed my 2nd YTT on September 9, 2019.  

During my 2nd YTT I took additional training and workshops in Kundalini Yoga, Jivamukti Yoga and Pre-Natal Yoga with additional training in 'Yoga and the Pelvic Floor'.  I also began learning Yin and Restorative Yoga by taking an abundance of classes, which prepared me for the certification trainings I would soon be going through to learn more.

While in the middle of my 2nd YTT, I began my 300 Hour training at Asheville Yoga Center in May 2019 but instead of embarking on the 6 week program, I chose the ‘module’ route which was ‘go at your own pace’.  So I would travel to Asheville, NC to do this on weekends.

In August 2019 I opened Pose-itively Yoga, LLC in Belleville, IL . . . 12 months after my 1st YTT and 1 month before my 2nd YTT ended.

In May 2020 I earned my ‘E’ designation for my E-RYT200, which a yoga teacher receives after having taught 1000 hours.  I will readily admit, had it not been for the pandemic, it would have taken a lot longer to complete 1000 hours in a two-year period, but having opened Pose-itively Yoga in August 2019, it sure sped up that process having taught so much opening the studio and then when the pandemic hit, I was teaching even more via online classes.  There were some weeks when I taught as much as 30 classes in one week.  Insane?  Quite!

In July 2020 I completed my 300 Hour at Asheville Yoga Center thereby earning my RYT500 designation.  My final few modules of my 300 Hour were Zoomed due to the pandemic.

I can see now for all kinds of reasons why my process in training, teaching and becoming a studio owner was so fast and why my experience had to be the way it was sitting there hearing these words, “You’re probably wondering why I haven’t asked you to teach.”  

Had it not been for the hurtful conversation and being told I would not be teaching, I don’t think I would have considered doing my own thing and having my own studio.   At least not so quickly. It wasn’t even on my radar and really never crossed my mind until I heard that sentence.  If I were allowed to teach, who knows how long my energy would have been contained, tamed or stifled.  Honestly, I did not realize I had all of this in me until that day, during that conversation, when I heard through my DLG (Download from God) that I simply needed to move on and was guided on what I needed to do next.  

And just as I have always done when I felt rejected, dismissed or neglected, I simply choose to make lemonade with the lemons.  This is another reason why I am so supportive of other teachers.  God sure does move in mysterious ways.  (winky wink)

I also teach 100 Hour Certifications in Yin and Restorative Yoga, as well as a Mentorship Program for RYT's.

www.Pose-itivelyYoga.com

Enjoy the website ~Loretta

1-618-801-3330 (call or text the Pose Yogi Hotline) anytime