F
or some, yoga is a great workout. For KATELYN MAGINNES, owner of Port City Power Yoga, it’s that and more. Yoga is the means by which she transformed her life.
SWITCHING
PATHS
FROM TEXTILE DESIGN TO YOGA LEADER
by LYNDA VAN KUREN | photo by ARIS HARDING
10
WILMA
MARCH 2022
“I didn’t have a voice until I started my yoga practice,” Maginnes says. “Showing up, knowing who I am and what I want to be for the world and others comes from my practice of yoga.” As a former dancer, movement has always been important to Maginnes. However, she left that part of her life behind when she started her professional career in textile design. Maginnes took up running, but her need to express herself through movement wasn’t filled until she stumbled into a yoga studio at the urging of a coworker. Maginnes was hooked at the first class and immediately started training to teach yoga. She became a certified yoga teacher in 2016, and a certified Baptiste yoga leader in 2018. Baptiste yoga is a type of hot yoga that is done in rooms heated to 85 or 90 degrees. It encompasses the physical, flowing from one pose to another; meditation, through which practitioners learn to be present; and inquiry, through which practitioners learn about themselves. Maginnes stresses that though Baptiste yoga classes are intense – you work hard – they are for everyone. And students of all levels take class together. Most importantly, Maginnes says that through the classes, students uncover their power, and she loves seeing the transformations her students experience. “The practice will take you to your edge,” Maginnes says. “It’s physically challenging, but there is support and inspiration inside the room. As people become more experienced, they see where they started and how much they’ve progressed. People carry what they learn about themselves into their everyday lives.” Such was the case for Maginnes. It was through her Baptiste yoga practice that Maginnes realized that she wasn’t happy in her career, that she had no enthusiasm for her work. Maginnes’ move to Wilmington in 2020 gave her the opportunity to change her life. As she had a new baby and wasn’t working, Maginnes decided it was the perfect time to teach yoga. That way she could do something
