Jason Schramm

Jason Schramm, Detroit Yoga's owner and director, was first introduced to yoga in the summer of 1999. Prior, Jason had been an ardent exercise enthusiast, always open to and pursuing new forms of health and fitness. He first encountered this ancient discipline through the urging of a friend who gave him a yoga video to try. It was right there, on Jason's living room floor, that it all began.

Jason Schramm in Eagle Posture / Garudasana
From this first yoga experience, the physical benefits were obvious and rather immediate, while there was something more happening as well. In the midst of the practice's mental and physical challenges, a continuous emphasis on the breathing offered focus and refuge through the intensity and discomfort. Jason instantly recognized yoga's innate wisdom and fundamental simplicity. He began applying yogic principles to his life, on and off the mat, to keep him self physically and mentally sound. Within a short period of time, Jason had memorized the initial video; he then turned the television off and continued his practice day after day.

Concurrently, Jason had been contemplating a career move- he desired a change without knowing the exact road he would take. A friend suggested that he teach yoga, after all, he was spending more and more time on the mat. In the summer of 2000, Jason took a teacher training course with the Center for Yoga's founder, Jonny Kest. By September, Jason was practicing Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga 3-4 hours a day, and by October, he was teaching it at local gyms and health clubs. In December 2000, Jason joined the teaching staff at the Center for Yoga studios in suburban Detroit. For the next three years, he taught yoga full-time, sharing his enthusiasm, passion and love for yoga with thousands of students. Throughout, Jason maintained his own daily practice, persisting through the cold, gray winter days, the onset of spring, and into summer's long nights. Jason practiced and taught- evolving and growing each time he stepped onto the mat. His commitment and consistency was palpable, and was being imparted to his students with every class he taught during those three years.

New Beginning

Jason Schramm in Headstand I Posture / Sirsasana I
In spring 2003, Jason left the Center for Yoga, focusing on a new project that would fulfill his unique vision. Remaining true to his own practice and teaching methodology, Jason's vision had actualized, when on November 24, 2003, he opened the doors of Detroit Yoga.

In the minds of many, the city of Detroit is emblematic of chaos, dysfunction, and imbalance; it is a broken down, defeated core-city- a perceived embarrassment to the surrounding suburbs. For Jason, it was only natural to name, and thus link, his yoga studio and practice after the city that has prompted so much negative and divisive thinking. Yoga literally translates as unity- to join or bring together. The many qualities that yoga embodies have the potential to bring harmony, strength, and connection to and within the individual. Through Detroit Yoga, Jason is offering his students the tools to build awareness and to affect change, and he is perhaps doing the same for this forgotten urban center. The city of Detroit's seal states, "Speramus meliora, resuget cineribus." We hope for better things; it will rise from the ashes. Similarly, Jason is urging his students to wake up and rise above.

With Detroit Yoga, Jason is providing a safe haven. Once inside, it is no longer about one's clothes, car, yoga mat or yoga mat carrier. Once inside, breathing, moving, and sweating, it is only about the practice, about yoga's capacity to bring people of all ages, genders, races, and personal backgrounds together in one place for one purpose- to unite the self and rise from the ashes into a state of greater wellness, clarity and focus. This is the intention of Detroit Yoga.

The Saga Continues...

Just as yoga has no end, and there are always new aspects of self to discover, Jason continues to expand and refine his vision of sharing Detroit Yoga with any and all. In the spring of 2005, Jason began work on the idea of bringing his yoga practice to a wider audience and into homes and offices beyond Detroit's city lines. The goal of Detroit Yoga will now be realized, nationally and internationally, through the power of the Internet and virtual yoga.

More information to come, because the story does not end.