welcome to a new kind of yoga studio
We always have chocolate.
We love working with skeptics, newbies, and experienced yogis alike.
We work hard to make sure that every body that walks through our doors feels welcome and comfortable.
Forget the party tricks; we're focused on using yoga to feel your best
physically, mentally, and emotionally, and building an awesome community along the way.
This is yoga for real life. Come experience the difference for yourself.
518 10th Street NE, DC 20002 | | 202.600.9860
take a look inside...
welcome to my studio...
i'm thrilled you're here!
Hi! I'm Alia. I'm a recovering-attorney-turned-entrepreneur, and after a long and winding journey, found my calling as a yoga teacher and studio owner. I practiced for nearly five years as a big law associate before jumping ship to build a career that actually used my superpowers and passions. Two years - and a few other careers - later, I opened my East Side Yoga in Washington, DC in early 2015.
Four years later, I moved back to my hometown of Austin, TX and got to work on opening my second studio: Oak + Lotus.
I've been practicing yoga since 2008, and I'll be perfectly frank: my journey as a student involved sifting through a lot of hippie-dippie stuff to get down to the truly powerful benefits that yoga has to offer. It also involved ignoring all of the intimidating, unrealistic images of "yoga" flooding social media and building a practice that truly suited my needs.
I began teaching yoga because I knew I couldn't be the only person who craved a practical, secular, alignment-focused flow practice that wasn't all about seeing how far I could push my body. My mission as a teacher is to bring yoga to people who think it isn't for them, or who've tried it but didn't like it because they were either freaked out by the religious stuff or felt intimidated, rather than welcomed, by the other folks in the studio. And to people who already love yoga, but are looking for a down-to-earth approach to it.
The mission behind my yoga studios is to create a community around my approach to this life-changing practice. To build a tribe of like-minded folks who, like me, are looking for that "Goldilocks" yoga experience: not too corporate or aggressive, but not too woo-woo crunchy either. From the moment you walk in, you'll notice that we do things a little bit differently from other yoga studios. I hope you love it as much as I do.