Clear your mind, strengthen your body with Emma Stayduhar

The number of ways a person can get themselves into shape are incalculable. From sports and activities to hobbies and good-ol’ fashioned hard work, it’s not difficult for most to find a way to break a sweat.

What can be a bit more rare though is finding a sport, hobby or activity that not only exercises the body, but also centers the mind. Emma Stayduhar, a physical therapist at Shoshone Medical Center, teaches an activity that does just that right here in the Silver Valley.

Operating out of a renovated space in her home, Stayduhar owns and operates Cornerstone Yoga and Wellness in Wallace. With this small studio, she has had the opportunity over the last three years to take one of her many passions and share it with the rest of the community.

Originally from New York City, Stayduhar moved away when she was 10. When she was much older, she enrolled at George Washington College in Washington, D.C., and studied a variety of subjects including geography, history and fine arts.

After graduating in 2003, she wanted to move away from the East Coast, and since she had some friends that lived in Missoula, Mont., that seemed like the place to go.

It wouldn’t be until 2009 that Stayduhar would experience the Silver Valley firsthand. Her ex-husband had a home in Wallace and she loved the area, but putting down roots here wasn’t in the cards just yet.

In 2010, she moved to Cheyenne, Wyo., and started working at a small gym. That was where she would start her work with personal training and yoga.

For two years, Stayduhar would work at the gym and teach other fitness classes around town. She eventually got the idea to become a physical therapist after someone put the idea in her head.

“A client of mine actually told me that I should be a physical therapist and I didn’t know what that was, but I looked into it and was like, ‘she’s right.”

She enrolled in community college in Cheyenne and graduated in 2012.

Stayduhar then moved to Minnesota for graduate school, all the while working full time.

After completion of graduate school in 2015, she landed her current job as a physical therapist at SMC in April 2015.

Though she had achieved her goal of becoming a physical therapist, Stayduhar still had a love for yoga and wanted to continue doing it while in the Silver Valley.

“Originally, my thought moving back was I would just drive over to Coeur d’Alene to take yoga,” she said, “but after being here for a few months, I figured I should open my own studio.”

Just nine months after moving back to the Silver Valley, Stayduhar opened Cornerstone Yoga and Wellness in January 2016.

“I’ve been teaching out of my studio ever since. I go between teaching one to four classes every week.”

Currently, Cornerstone offers three types of yoga classes per week — Vinyasa, salutations and prostration, and fitness. While the class types do change on occassion, Stayduhar sees solid attendance with these classes.

“I’ve got my solid group, and that solid group changes over time.”

Stayduhar’s reasoning for teaching yoga (other than her own personal love for it) is to help people not only stay physically healthy, but mentally as well.

“I think something that yoga emphasizes is that it’s just part of a practice of the way we live our lives,” she said. “Something in Buddhist teaching, which yoga is tied to, is to be present in your actions. It’s a therapeutic space. There’s a calming aspect to it. It gives people the opportunity to separate themselves from whatever clutter was brought to them during the day.”

While she admits that everyone is different and may find calmness in some other activity, Stayduhar stresses that yoga places a strong focus on centering the mind.

“In the initial few breathes of class, I often try to say, ‘inhale a fresh breath and exhale of what came before. Inhale your presence in this room and exhale and let go of what doesn’t serve you — of which that isn’t needed in this place.”

On the physical side of the things, Stayduhar hears small success stories all the time from her students, such as people telling her an injured body part doesn’t hurt anymore because of yoga.

These “little victories” motivate her to continue teaching while using anatomy and physiology terms. This helps students understand what the movements (no matter how simple or complex) are actually doing.

“Yoga is just movement, basic human movement,” she explained. “I believe that bodies are meant to do the movements that are in yoga and it’s not all crazy twisty-pretzel stuff, a lot of it is much more straightforward.”

Stayduhar also points out that the new maneuverability and flexibility gained with yoga will help individuals with other sports, activities and hobbies as well.

“It’s such an important complement to my other training, like when I’m running a lot or biking a lot, yoga is going to keep me safe to excel at those things. It’s insurance on your body and makes it so that you are less likely to get injured if you have the flexibly and the ability to control your breathe.”

With the many benefits that yoga can offer someone — whether it be physical, mental or both — Stayduhar hopes to “demystify” the discipline and get more people to try it.

Cornerstone Yoga and Wellness is located at 143 King St. in Wallace and more information about it can be obtained by calling 406-241-7134.

For weekly class updates, check them out on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CornerstoneYoga/