Karen Kinnard

About Karen Kinnard

I am committed to providing my community with high quality yoga instruction, this means that I continue developing myself as a teacher through my own practice and taking classes from other teachers.  I have attended Ashtanga yoga primary series classes weekly and private sessions with Lynn Shuck, an Eischens Yoga master-teacher.  Over the past several years, we have helped many people recover from injuries and their own personal life tragedies.  We have provided happiness, peace and well-being in a troubled world.  Even in a privileged community such as Eden Prairie, there is suffering.  I hope to keep providing this oasis of peace well into the future here. - Karen

Yoga Prairie studio opened in 2008 with a vision to provide the highest quality yoga instruction available to our community in Eden Prairie and to become a place where everyone can find some peace and healing. The business was started with a dream and a loan guaranteed by my Uncle.  We built a studio in a retail shop near the mall.

Shortly after opening the studio, the recession hit us hard.  We borrowed, we worked hard to stay open.  By 2009, we were worried about being able to stay open - many students either had to go back to work in lower paying jobs or lost their jobs - everyone was cutting back.    In 2010, tragedy hit in the form of a bus knocking me off of my bicycle.  It took two years to recover from head, pelvis and neck injuries. 

By 2012 the studio was in danger of closing due to back rent due.   I received an eviction notice and was fortunate to have our community of teachers and students rally and help us to bring in donations through a fundraiser/auction to convince the landlords to allow us more time to recover.  THANKS TO THE SUPPORT of our yoga community, we survived through it all and caught up on back rent.

In 2014 tragedy struck again with the death of my son Jacob, this time causing me to close the studio and rent space at Dance Esteem.  Change doesn't always bode well in business.  I needed to cut back on classes and the teachers & I parted ways - business wise, but not friendship wise. The experience of running a retail yoga business has taught me a lot:  that my work must be authentic (yoga should not be stressful), that perhaps the true essence of yoga does not belong in a retail business, it taught me how to hone my teaching, management, and marketing skills as well as what is truly MOST important in my life:  that is my family, my own well being and teaching yoga.  I feel I have arrived now at a lovely balance and it is reflected in my teaching.

I am committed to providing my community with high quality yoga instruction. Over the past several years, we have helped many people recover from injuries and their own personal life tragedies. We have provided happiness, peace and well-being in a troubled world. Even in a privileged community such as Eden Prairie, there is suffering. I hope to keep providing this oasis of peace well into the future here.