Meet Jenny Thiede, YBD Teacher of the Month!

Jenny, wild thing. 🙂

Jenny has been teaching with Yoga by Degrees since the first studio opened its doors and has been a wonderful part of the community at all the locations thereafter. Just this summer, Jenny stepped away from her full time PE teaching position to pursue yoga teaching full time. She is one of our senior teachers, We are so grateful that she has taken this leap of courage to follow her dreams and that her home studio is YBD. Here is her class schedule though she is subbing and filling her schedule up so check our app or website for the most up-to-date schedules:

Sundays, 4pm YBD2 95 in Wheaton

Mondays, 12pm YBD1 in Downers Grove

Tuesdays, 8am YBD2 95 in Western Springs

Tuesdays, 4:30pm YBD2 105 in Wheaton

Tuesdays, 6pm YBD2 95 in Wheaton

Thursdays, 4:30 YBD2 105 in Elmhurst

Thursdays, 6pm YBD1 in Elmhurst

Fridays, 6am YBD2 95 in Downers Grove

Fridays, 5:45pm YBD2 105 *75 minutes in Downers Grove

Check out her responses below to get to know Jenny T better. ❤

When and how did you come to yoga?

I went to Arizona State University so that I could teach dance in Physical Education. My student teaching mentor Teresa Lake taught mostly yoga classes for PE. She developed and implemented the yoga curriculum in the district. As her student teacher, I was responsible for teaching her classes and I had never done yoga before! I showed up early to take her first class of the day, and then copied what she said to her later classes. At first I hated yoga… so much. It was not easy like I thought it would be. It is not just stretching and flexibility little did I know. 

Eventually, I found my voice, saw the students and myself benefit immensely, and fell in love. I was hired on to teach yoga at that school, then two other high schools. I earned my 200 hour YTT in 2011 on the Big Island of Hawaii with the amazing Deborah Koehn. I had already been teaching yoga for 4 years, but this training was life changing  My love for yoga grew as did my teaching style. Yoga has been such a gift to me, I’ve enjoyed sharing that happiness with high school students for eight years, and now in the community.

What is your favorite pose?

Ahh how do you choose?! I make fun of myself while teaching sometimes because I’ll hear myself say a different pose is my favorite every week! But I love so many of them. I feel the best in Uttanasana – forward fold. It’s so calming and you can literally feel your spine and neck (where I carry alllll of my stress) lengthen. But I love playing around with variations in Ardha Chandrasana, and feel expressive in fallen triangle… I can’t pick just one!

Who inspires your teaching?

Students! Their dedication and growth is inspiring! Life is also a big inspiration to my teaching. The way we are on the mat is the way we are in life and vice versa so I pull a lot of what I personally see and feel into my classes. 

Tips for beginners…

Try to enjoy your practice and not over think. The first few times I practiced I was so in my head, it took me far too long to just enjoy being on my mat. Just enjoy the time for you!

What’s your favorite quote?

There are many that inspire me but ‘Choose Joy,’ spoken by my yogi sister Lara in class one day were the two words that really stuck with me and led me to change my life.