In early 2002, with a three year old son, a one year old daughter and an intense love for yoga, I decided it was time to get my yoga teaching certification. Six months later, I began teaching yoga part time. Shortly after that, I began working with professional athletes who needed to improve flexibility. Soon, I was teaching up to eleven classes a week and formed Athletes Yoga, LLC!
When I teach yoga, I address not only the physical, but the spiritual aspect of the practice. My goal is to inspire each student to do something they already do in a better, healthier, more positive way. Yoga is not only about stretching the body, but nurturing the mind and the soul as well. One of my classes consisted of a fabulous group of women, who soon became like sisters to me. Over the next five years, our journey together was a combination of joys and sorrows. We shared our life experiences with each other: the death of a parent, cancer, divorce, the birth of babies and the challenges of facing middle age! No matter what was going on, each week they faithfully showed up for class. I felt like I owed them more than just a class; I wanted to offer them an “inspirational gem” to take with them after the yoga practice had ended. I thought that I owed them at least that, since they were a constant source of inspiration to me as a teacher. I would bring a reading from Eckhart Tolle, a poem from Marianne Williamson, or a pertinent article from Yoga Journal.
How Chewylou was Born
One day, I thought about the qualities in myself that I would like to enhance. I came up with Enthusiasm, Gratitude, Optimism, or the acronym EGO! I told my students that day to write it on their mirrors in lipstick, make it their new mantra -- go ahead -- and have a big EGO!! Several students came back the following week saying how they couldn’t stop thinking about it. I decided it would be better if people could wear the words, so I created my first tee shirt! Later, I sat at my computer and created several other “blessing” acronyms that struck a chord in my life; qualities that we could all develop or enhance in ourselves: FAITH, HOPE, DREAM, BREATHE, PEACE, LIVE, GRACE... were just the beginning. I was inspired to create the ‘LIVE’ shirt for my Mother Marriann who was courageously battling breast cancer for the 3rd time and all the other brave women battling breast cancer around the world. Pretty soon I was creating custom tee shirts for nonprofits, church youth groups, local schools and other organizations. One of my former yoga students and MLB third baseman inspired the men’s shirt, “If You Don’t Bend You’ll Break”. This became Athletes Yoga’s motto.
The Chewylou trademark name comes from our two dogs; Chewbacca aka “Chewy”, our sweet Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and Lexington aka “Lexi Lou”, our 100 pound chocolate Labrador Retriever. Our two dogs, along with my husband Marc and two children Cooper and Maddie, are an endless source of inspiration, optimism and unconditional love.
Shirts
In keeping with Alyssa's commitment to actively support non-profit organization, Chewy Lou's t-shirts are screenprinted at Michael's Garden. The printing is done by their
adult clients in one of their production centers, which is a division of ACCEL (Arizona Center for Education and Lifeskills). At Michael's Garden, adults with special needs learn vocational skills by trained professionals to create this
quality product for Chewy Lou. This provides valuable training opportunities for adults with special needs.
Each shirt is hand embellished with Swarovski crystals. The shirts are sold throughout Arizona, Los Angeles, New York and Seattle. They are also carried in several spas, resorts and yoga studios. The list gets longer everyday! You can also find them on line at www.athletesyoga.com.
