Debra on Flow Yoga Center

"I was living in San Francisco and I had a terrible break up. Though I love that city more than anything in the world, I felt that nudge to do something different. I was working for a company that had an office in Berkeley and D.C. I encouraged my boss to think about opening a branch in NYC. He agreed and I moved to New York. I was the only person in the office, and I did sales and marketing for a company that sold software to non-profit organizations. I was in New York for a while and, at some point during my time there, I started to date one of my clients who was based in D.C. That was Ian, the man I ended up marrying. We started to date long distance and then a year into my time in New York, my boss said that I should come back to San Francisco or move to D.C.

"So much of me wanted to move back to San Francisco, but I came to D.C. At that point, I was only dating Ian for about six months and I don't think we had said I love you yet. But there was something that made me decide to go to D.C. I had the conversation with Ian about moving to D.C. and asked his opinion.  In a typical way, he said it would be really great if I came to D.C., but I shouldn't do it for him. So I did and moved a mile away from him. He was very welcoming and, in the end, it all worked out. 

"At the time, I was getting bored of my job and feeling the calling towards yoga. I had been practicing for about ten years. I met a bunch of women on a yoga retreat as soon as I moved to D.C. We would get together every couple of weeks and talk and support each other. We decided to read this book called 'The Artist's Way.' It is twelve steps to uncovering your passions and creativity. Throughout the workbook, there are different questions and one of them was, 'If money and time were no object, what would you do?' Out of nowhere, I blurted out that I would open a yoga studio.  I had never thought of it before. Sure enough, that following year, I opened Flow. 

"We found this place and Flow came about in 2005. I really liked this neighborhood and as I was walking around one day, I saw the liquor store, looked up and saw the empty space above. I went to the liquor store and asked who owned the building. The guy said, 'No one,' but it turned out he was not so welcoming because he didn't think that I was serious. He actually owned the building. This was a total raw space when we moved in. We had to do a full build-out. The business plan was pretty easy to make. I interviewed other studio owners, which was really helpful. The other thing that was really helpful was that I had money to open the studio because a company that I worked for in San Francisco was bought by Amazon, so I got all of this Amazon stock. A lot of people sold, but I held onto it and used that stock to open this place. I realize that not everyone has that same luxury. I feel fortunate that I was able to pursue my passion." 

Flow Yoga Center is located at 1450 P Street Northwest.  

Ian, left, is pictured with Debra.