Meet Trailblazer DeAnna Shires

Today we’d like to introduce you to DeAnna Shires.

Thanks for sharing your story with us DeAnna. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
It all began in 1993 in my tiny apartment in college when I fell in love with yoga, which would be the first step towards my passion for serving people through Holistic Health practices. I’m not certain how I came to know about yoga or how I knew I needed it in my life, but I found myself more centered and comfortable in my own skin. I remember thinking, “Wow, if only I knew about this yoga stuff before I spent so much time of my life in the self-help section at the bookstore, I’d be better off.” This was before yoga mats, yoga clothes, or yoga as any sort of business. I was self-taught mostly, diving into the philosophy, as well as the physical practice. I practiced and studied off and on for several years as I made my way through school, eventually getting my Masters Degree in Special Education. I noticed a pattern of turning to yoga when things became challenging. Nobody ever taught me to do this, it just happened.

Fast forward to 2001 and becoming a Stay at Home Mom with a part-time gig at the YMCA where I began taking group yoga classes. I was encouraged to take a weekend training they were offering and was hooked. I knew I wasn’t ready to teach, so I signed up for a 200-hour program with my teacher Karen Prior. I chose her program because it was therapeutically based and offered Ayurveda, which was difficult to find at the time and complimented my Special Education skills. I continued with Karen through the 500 hours, advanced studies as well, where I dove into a required project incorporating research and development for Yoga and Addiction. At the time of the project, you could not Google information on yoga and addiction, so the facility I worked for allowed me to sit in with the team of Psychologists, Nurses, and Case Workers once a week and I started my journey developing a program for those in Addiction Recovery. The project was called Breathe into Recovery and it went on to be utilized in various treatment facilities, yoga studios, as well as penitentiaries. I still offer training in this program, but now include yoga for Trauma as well. Because of my love of learning, all of my teachings are living documents, always changing and growing.

After my first trip to India in 2007, I was inspired to open a yoga studio with therapeutic and spiritual offerings. This wasn’t easy to find in North Texas at the time. The studio was an offering from my heart and the community was like family to me. We offered yoga teacher training, as well as group classes. It was during this time I also started writing articles for various yoga magazines, presenting at conferences and dove deeper into Reiki, Ayurveda, and Vedic Astrology studies. My yoga career was booming and I wondered how things could have worked out so well for me. It was a dream come true. However, after seven years of managing a studio, it was time for me to move on, so I sold it and ventured out on my own for a few years while I worked through some family life changes, as well as some additional personal struggles. During this time I found myself questioning what to do next in my life since so many of my years were chest deep into running the studio that I had forgotten who I really was and experienced a much too long moment thinking I had nothing of value to offer anymore. This turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me.

On my knees, literally, feeling as if I had lost everything and would have to start over, I enrolled at The Gardner Institute (now The Divine Intelligence Institute) for their Life Coaching program that specialized in Neuroscience. This program was a life and game changer for me. I was in awe of the similarities of what I was learning and what I had been teaching for years in my yoga classes and training. Little by little, I was re-inspired to possibly teach more again, incorporated what I had learned into my teacher training offerings, and began focusing more on neuroscience-based life coaching and Vedic Astrology sessions.

Presently, the core of my yoga class offerings and training are at my home studio, Urban Vybe in Flower Mound. I started there as a student, not intending to teach, but now am the Director of our 300 Hour advanced training and co-facilitator of our Women’s Circle. I love the community at Urban Vybe and feel it, as well as the owners Jo and Stacy, have played a pivotal role in where I am present. A lot of healing took place for me when I placed my mat in the studio there, choosing to make it home base. I do offer training/workshops in other communities when invited and it’s fun to meet new people, so I welcome those field trips.

My newest adventure has been as the yoga therapist position at The Neurological Recovery Center for Armed Services in Ft. Worth. I feel as if all of my experiences prior to yoga and after yoga have molded me for this position. There isn’t a lot of information “out there” for yoga and Neurological conditions and very few places are offering yoga specifically for paralysis, strokes, traumatic brain injuries, etc. You can’t Google this stuff. I started with Krystin Vollmer as my mentor and together, we are researching and running case studies to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Not only does this position feed my need to learn and grow, working there feeds my spirit, inspiring me daily, as you’ve never met a more determined population. I often wonder if they aren’t doing more for me than I am for them.

I am incredibly grateful for the journey I’m on. Loa Tzu said, “A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” I learned this to be true. My journey to where I am today would have never worked out had things gone the way I had planned. Sometimes the most beautiful scenery is in the detour.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My journey to now has not been as smooth as I mentioned a bit before. I believe my motto, borrowed from Steve Jobs, ”Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”, is what kept me going when I was told to “get a real job with insurance” or when I had months where the majority of my clients canceled on me because this can be a fickle business since self-care if often put last. When I started working for myself and employing others, I really had no idea how the world really worked. I was a dreamer and I blindly believed the best in everyone and everything. I was an optimist to a fault. This is probably what kept me going every time I failed. It was challenging re-working the way I viewed the world and finding my place in it in a new way, however, I believe now, I’m much more healthy and realistic and better at what I do have gone through these challenges. I’m grateful to those who placed those roadblocks in my path because it made me that much stronger. As for those who believed in me when I was down in the trenches, they own a piece of my heart.

Once, when I wanted to quit, my life coach told me, ”Who are you to keep your gifts from the world?” I was like, ”Dang, that’s right, it’s my duty, I gotta do this for the people and the planet, so stop feeling sorry for yourself. Also, too bad you are tired because you can sleep when you are six feet under.” I still have this conversation with myself on occasion; I’m not going to lie. My advice is to keep your heart in the game and believe in yourself because every person following their dream has moments of doubt, as well as moments of elation. It’s a dance we all know and a stumble now and then is normal. The important thing is to keep coming back to it. It’s also helpful to have someone in your life you admire and believes in you. Mine is my Mother. Her story isn’t mine to tell, but her story has inspired me to believe I can break the odds if I set my mind to it. It was my mom who gave me reading material in college that sparked my interest in “weird things” like yoga. It was my mom who talked me off a very serious ledge of quitting this industry when she said to me, ”DeAnna, I don’t entirely know what all it is you do, but you’ve been like this since you were a little Girl. Your problem is you’ve forgotten WHY you do what you do. Do it for God. To turn away from what you know in your heart you are meant to do, is to turn away from your own Soul.”

After that, I totally had to make an inspirational image of that quote to share with the world and naturally, I got my butt and my heart back in the game and I haven’t looked back since and here I am in this interview.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Breathe Into Awareness – what should we know?
When people ask me what I do, it’s tough to answer because I do various things. I’ve always been like that; even in high school, I had two jobs at the same time. When I was a Special Education teacher, I had a second job at a Group Home for adults with special needs and was getting my Masters degree at the same time. I suppose you could call me a professional lifelong learner and Wellness Coach, as I incorporate several modalities under one umbrella. I’m a Yoga Therapist, a Reiki Master, Life Coach, Yoga and Ayurveda Specialist, Writer, and Vedic Astrologer. My company and training programs are called Breathe Into Awareness. What I’m most proud of is not giving up and remaining inventive in my approach to an ever-changing industry.

Through the years, I’ve received a lot of feedback and I believe we are just supposed to focus on the positive here so here goes my attempt at telling the world what sets me apart from others who do what I do. I believe that I was meant to serve others in a way that empowers them and have been given an intuitive gift to do this work. I can see the best in every person I meet and I am driven to treat each person as a whole, even when they come to me thinking they are broken. Our spirits aren’t broken, they might just be scratched up a bit and need some polish to shine again. I think I have been given special polish and it doesn’t seem to ever run out.

Do you recommend any apps, books or podcasts that have been helpful to you?
I’m always reading and researching. I have many favorite books I use in my teacher training and workshops and suggest for my coaching clients. At any given time, I usually have a couple of books I’m reading personally. Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith was the inspiration behind my company name, so I’d say it’s the most influential to myself and my work.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://deannashires.com/
• Phone: 214-317-8171
• Email: deanna@deannashires.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deanna_shires7/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deanna.shires7
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/santosha07
• Other: http://urbanvybestudios.com/ & https://www.nrarmedservices.com/

Image Credit:
Jerry Cravy – Lakeside Pics, Taylor Horn-Urvan Vybe Studios

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