Gina Rivera

Inner Fire Yogi since 2022

I began my yoga journey in 2008 when I was working on my Ph.D. in music history. My days were long and spent mostly seated at a desk in the Harvard music library. I was teaching part-time and one of my students invited me to a class at Bikram Yoga Boston, which taught exclusively original hot style classes. I was hooked.

After I finished grad school several years later I continued my yoga practice at Bikram Yoga West Philly. Then I took a long break from yoga after moving back to Wisconsin from the east coast. When I heard about Inner Fire Yoga's annual open house in 2022, I knew I had to get onboard. I took a hot 90 class with Dr. Ruddy on that open house weekend and have come back for over 300 classes since then. My all-time favorite poses are standing bow and straight-leg triangle. I've worked really hard on my form in these poses over the years.

Yoga is my stress relief from my full-time cooking job, which can often leave me feeling rushed and overwhelmed. While I love the original Bikram style practice, Inner Fire Yoga has made me super fond of the Power Flow and Inner Fire Flow classes as well. And I love our Inner Fire community. Anne Morgan and Dr. Ruddy are rockstar instructors and there are always lots of smiling faces here.