the journey
"So truthfully, I wasn't really a yogi from the beginning. I loved working out, moving my body, etc. When I was younger, I suffered with depression and anxiety. No one really spoke about it, so I had a hard time dealing with it by myself. One day, a friend at the gym I went to said it would be good to go to yoga with her, and we would talk a lot through out the sessions, so I found it more therapeutic.
My yoga journey began in 2012 when Hurricane Sandy hit the shore. I actually had a near fatal seizure in my sleep. I was in a coma with 18 hours of no brain activity. At that point, they had told my husband (who we were raising 3 young daughters at the time) about my living will because I was basically brain-dead with little chance of surviving.
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For some miracle, I had woken up from my coma, surviving the seizure, however... I realized I could not move. It was like my body had been rebooted. I had to learn to talk, walk... everything again. It was traumatic.
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I did not have an easy time processing all of this. With all the medications I was put on, I fell into a deep depression. Absolutely hopeless, until a friend of mine asked me to go to hot yoga (and I took my husband along with me that day.)
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That first class changed my life. It was like a darkness was lifted, I was dripping sweat. I didn't even know what I was doing, I just felt lifted again. And that's how my journey beyond yoga started."
the history
"After going to hot yoga every single day, going through the process of healing, my husband said 'why don't you just open up your own studio?' and I realized how many people I could impact and help doing so.
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When looking for a studio, we wanted to be mindful of our location. The nearest hot yoga studio at the time was 45+ minutes away, so we wanted to do it in an area where we wouldn't take away from others' hot yoga business and where the local community was in need of a studio.
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I originally looked at a small place across the street, but my husband who always inspires me to think bigger, found this abandoned storage and envisioned this amazing studio we have today.
With his profession, he helped build the studio with the help of his friends in construction, architecture, etc and it was all done by our community. We are family-owned and built, and that is the intentions of our practices and studio, to have everyone feel like they are part of our family here at Xhale Hot Yoga. "
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- Kim Cupolo
Owner & Lead Yoga Instructor