About
Who is Yumaste?
Michelle in Garbha Pindasana from Primary Series in Ashtanga Yoga
Throughout 8 years of University, yoga was a way to relieve stress for Michelle. After graduation, she started working long hours as a Pharmacist and stopped practicing yoga. She felt lethargic and unhealthy living this constant, busy, "on-the-go" lifestyle, convincing herself that if life is busy, it has meaning.
So she decided to return to yoga in 2013 to change her lifestyle and discovered her love for asana. Walking through the doors of Yogalife in Edmonton was the ultimate stepping stone for Michelle to blossom out of her shell. She fell in love with the variety of classes that was offered and often felt comfortable in the studio, being uncomfortable. Yogalife became her home and her family. This journey of practicing yoga continued to push her out of her comfort zone and allowed her to follow a path that she didn’t quite envision. Michelle had a love for travel which allowed her to experience the power of being present. In 2015, she followed her heart, left her job and decided to travel the world for six months where she attended the Bali Spirit Yoga Festival and other various yoga retreats. Through this experience of meeting various, amazing world renowned instructors, she discovered that Ashtanga yoga was the right fit for her. After her travels she returned back home and practiced asana continuously as a transition to use her body as a tool to find her way into the present. The use of breath and the alignment of body helped quiet her mind while returning to this busy lifestyle once again. She was introduced to morning Mysore practice from Melissa Perret (owner of Edmonton Ashtanga studio) and has been learning Ashtanga from Melissa since 2015.
During her travels in January 2017, she decided to travel to India to attend the Tattvaa Yogashala and received her 300 RYT Ashtanga yoga certification. She fell in love with learning The Eight Limbs of yoga and discovered a deeper side to yoga physically, mentally and spiritually.
While traveling is naturally easy to be in the now, Ashtanga yoga has taught Michelle more than that. It has taught her a disciplined practice, mindfulness and philosophy of paying attention to the present moment. Yoga is not just about the physical practice, everything we do affects us and our environment.
Since her YTT, Michelle has travelled to Bali and India to learn from Mark Robberds and Deepika Mehta. During these yoga intensives, Michelle has adopted many strategies into her own practice and teaching methods.
Michelle is teaching regularly at Yogalife Studios in South Edmonton Common and on 124 street. She teaches a strong Vinyasa Flow and consistently motivates her students to challenge themselves and to see what the body and mind is capable of doing. You can expect to learn and have fun with heart openers, arm balances and inversions in her class.
Michelle practicing Eka Pada Sirsasana from Second Series in Ashtanga Yoga
“Asana is a window that opens onto some of our deepest personal conditioning and the suffering it creates. In order to relax into things as they actually are, one must surrender every last drop of the internalized desire to feel good. That desire is shaped by our most cherished ideas about what constitutes good and bad, as well as by ingrained, organic perceptions of pain, pleasure, neutrality. Relaxing effort means letting go of limiting internal definitions. Simply put, in asana one must do less to be more."
- The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali
Commentary by Chip Hartranft
Yumaste is the collaboration of the two passions of Michelle’s life, yoga and baking. Michelle started @YumasteYeg as a little side project from home. Initially, she baked and decorated simple desserts for friends and family. In 2017, she sold her first baked good and then decided to seriously pursue this as a side job, on top of working full time as a pharmacist and teaching yoga. Michelle did not have a background in culinary arts or working in the kitchen but she fell in love with being able to provide creativity in cake and dessert. She was catering her baked goods to special diets such as vegan, gluten free and/or egg-free. Ultimately, as her clientele increased, she found herself fully immersed in her craft and was designing art on two and three tiered cakes and creating unique and tailored flavoured cakes for weddings, bridal events and birthdays.
She traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia to learn buttercream techniques from an Australian Luxury Cake Artist, Sweet Blooms Cakes.
Michelle also offered Cake Decorating classes with Get Cooking YEG in which she was able to teach decorating techniques on pre-baked cake layers and provide one on one attention.
Michelle’s business ran from 2018 to 2021. During this time, she had built a commercial kitchen and evolved to a business that continually pushed boundaries in cake design.
Why the name Yumaste?
Life as a full time health care provider
Sadly due to COVID, her creative momentum declined and returned to focusing on working full time providing patient care as a community pharmacist during this critical time period. The decline in bakery sales correlated with increased shifts at the pharmacy. Ironically, working full time welcomed more space and time dedicated for self care.
Michelle is a believer of Western medicine for the right patient at the right time. Additionally, Michelle firmly believes that the science of longevity and immunity begins with understanding an individual's unique constitution and identifying imbalances to seek the journey to health and healing. Harmonizing the Mind-Body-Spirit equilibrium.
The Apothecary
Michelle is now utilizing this platform to share all things she loves in her world. She has not given up in decorating cakes as an art form but requires the time to navigate what she needs to maintain a work life balance without losing her love and passion for designing cakes. While Michelle is known for teaching yoga and also providing healthcare services on the front line, you can count on Michelle connecting with the local community and sharing recipes on her blog and eventually hosting cake decorating classes again.
The Bakery