Hi! I’m Heather Sage Church, a writer, conscious breath evangelist, embodiment educator, yoga teacher, homesteader, small business owner, maker/creative, slow living advocate, contemplative, author, wife, and mom of one amazing adult daughter. Life used to assign me lots of other labels but I’m in the process of rejecting and dismantling each, as I learn to more fully embody my essence instead of society’s view and the ‘shoulds’ that those labels place on me as a human. I prefer to say that I’m simply ‘on the way,’ (because we all are!) With that said, I do emphasize the yoga teacher + conscious breath and embodiment educator role I play because it informs my very essence and the ways in which I do everything else in life. I am an avid believer and practitioner of body and nature-based spiritual practice. My husband and I also live as close to the land as possible and run a small farm business, Legend Ridge Gardens & Greenhouse.

PRACTICE: My current daily practice is one of slowing down … a blend of embodiment practices, contemplative study, sacred creativity, breathwork, writing, movement, stillness, spending time in nature; growing herbs, veggies and flowers; mindfulness, yoga, reading, learning, and observing/living within the rhythm of the moon and natural cycles of the earth.

STUDY: I am currently working toward a certificate in Interfaith Spiritual Direction that doubles as a Master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling, through The Spiritual Guidance Training Institute (SGTI) and the Graduate Theological Foundation, and recently completed a two year program called ‘The Living School’ through the Center for Action & Contemplation, which is a living, breathing, embodied, spiritual enrichment program that thoroughly explores the contemplative, mystical perennial wisdom traditions.

WRITING: Journaling (therapeutic writing) has been my personal process for awareness and healing for nearly a quarter of a century. During my mom’s terminal illness and in the aftermath of her passing, journaling was the catalyst that helped me uncover trauma and a disregulated nervous system that I didn’t know existed. It helped me vision what the last half of my life will look like. It gave me the courage to write a poetry book and to continue to put myself out there in blog form. When I was actively teaching yoga at university, I also wrote a short nonfiction book, Yoga Prayers, about the history of yoga, with links to essays about the 8 limbs.

YOGA BIO: an E-RYT 200 (experienced registered yoga teacher initially trained at the 200 hour level) certified in Integrative Hatha Yoga from Samyoga Institute, I teach from this perspective, as well as incorporating Vinyasa, Pranayama, EmbodiYoga, Yin, and Restorative. Practices are well rounded, challenging students to find their edge while respecting their bodies and most classes are heart-centered, philosophy and breath-based and introspective in nature.

I found yoga in 1998, became certified to teach in 2007, and am accredited by the National Yoga Alliance. I am also a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT). I have certification and/or extensive coursework in Vinyasa, Pranayama, Yoga Anatomy, Prenatal, Yin, Restorative, Somatic Meditation, Trauma Sensitive Yoga, the Yoga Sutras, Yoga for Athletes, Storytime Yoga, Thai Yoga Massage, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and am currently immersed in deeper breath, embodiment and contemplative studies.

As an adjunct professional on three regional Ohio University campuses for over a decade, I taught asana, philosophy, pranayama, ayurveda, embodiment and mindfulness practices every regular semester. When I left OU in 2018, I began offering private sessions from my hOMe studio just outside of Somerset, tailored specifically to the individual. My own practice and the work I primarily offer to students focuses on breath, embodiment, contemplative practice and nature, and merges the wisdom traditions of east and west with modern mysticism, psychology, and moonology.

Yoga is a beautiful practice that over the years has become fully integrated into my being, not in the traditional physical sense but in a larger philosophical, yet very embodied way. As the great yogi sage, Patanjali wrote in the Yoga Sutras, “yoga is the cessation of the turnings of thought. When thought ceases, the spirit stands in its true identity as observer to the world.” That, in my experience, is spiritual practice — uniting mind and body to heart, directly experiencing a oneness of all, that knows beyond knowing. Life is a journey and yoga was a springboard into many avenues of non-dual spiritual depth and healing. All overlap and intersect and I feel blessed to continually be a student while helping others on their own healing paths.