KELSI HAUGAARD

What’s your favorite way to start your morning before teaching? 

Gratitude Journal, stretching, breathwork, meditation, and chanting

Coffee, tea, or green juice? 

Tea! I love herbal teas or matcha lattes

What’s your go-to post-yoga meal or snack?

Coconut water, fruit, or protein bar

What’s your current song or playlist obsession?

Echo by Lynnic, ItsArius, and Dinia has been a song I’ve been liking recently. I do enjoy going through my healing playlist I created and seeing what song my energy/mood guides me to

When you are not teaching yoga, what are you doing?

I enjoy ecstatic dance, music, walking, running, spending time with friends & family, and being in nature!

What’s one thing your students might be surprised to learn about you? 

In high school I did not like attention on me. I felt insecure in myself, and it felt like people were judging me. After becoming a yoga instructor, it supported me in starting to heal those younger parts. I now feel more confident in myself to speak and lead yoga classes as well as offer somatic life coaching sessions!

Describe yourself in three words.

Playful

Caring

A great listener

What originally brought you to yoga?

The ending of a long-term relationship in college. Yoga supported me in getting to know who I am in a deeper way, supporting me in my personal growth and spiritual journey on and off the mat.

How long have you been teaching yoga and what are your certifications? 

I got my 200-hour YTT in Thailand on Koh Phangan at Orion Healing Center

What’s your favorite pose right now and your “love-to-hate” pose?

I enjoy reclined butterfly pose, Supta Baddha Konasana. I also really enjoy flowing cat-cow lunge, it’s a beautiful feeling when the back of my legs are given more love and time to flow at my own pace!

How do you want your students to feel when they leave your classes?

Supported, grounded, connected to themselves, each other, and nature.

What’s the biggest lesson yoga has taught you off the mat?

That it is okay to let all parts (emotions, thoughts, sensations, etc.) of me show up on my mat