MURN! This Kentucky-born, Nashville-based firecracker and grace-giver offers thanks for freedom and her purpose, both as podcast host, Realtor and yoga teacher: to hold space for others, generate connection, vitality, listening, and real love. Murn found her work by virtue of answering the call that asked her to redefine success, in her own terms. This empowered her to step in front of fear, take action and pave her own unique path.

The shift began when she walked through Shakti’s front door in 2012 to take her second yoga class, ever. She loved the physicality of the practice and was curious to see if there was more to this “yoga.” She walked out feeling different--a little more awake and a little less tense. Back then, she had a successful career in pharmaceutical sales. She had all the material success she’d ever wanted but she wasn’t fulfilled, in a whole lotta ways. While driving, she daydreamed about driving away. So she started coming to Shakti five days a week. One day she found herself sitting in the car with this sensation, “I know there’s something bigger for me,” and it was then that she got the nudge. Even in that moment with this deeper knowing, she squashed it. Ego took over and she was stuck in the story of “Who am I to dream for something bigger?” - and who can’t relate to that? She felt stuck, yet continued to explore the practice and all it had to offer. Through carpal tunnel syndrome and surgery to treat it, she woke up to the fact that the physical aspect of practice is amazing and yet there’s more to this whole yoga thing. She’ll tell you herself: “When I first met Lauren and Kelly (the owners of Shakti) I thought, ‘They know something I don’t know. And I wanna know.’“

Months later, when Kelly suggested that Murn enroll in Shakti’s first 200-hour teacher training, Murn thought she was crazy. She thought about it more and decided she might be crazy, too, AND it felt right. On the last day to apply, in 2013, guess who signed up? She did the thing. She wasn’t daydreaming anymore about running away; Murn was running toward her true dreams and they were choosing her right back.

In 2014, Murn was sitting in her comfy house, alone, watching her 50-inch flatscreen while sitting in her recliner. There, she opened the Course in Miracles workbook. First lesson: Nothing I see in this room means anything.

Say what? And yet, despite all the reasonable and hard-earned reasons why not, the meaning of those words pierced her heart and broke it open -- even more than it was already was. Murn sold everything she owned except her mattress and dogs, and moved in with friends. In January 2015, the house that she was living in caught fire and burned to the ground. She remembers looking at the house burning and thinking, “Wow. There must be something amazing around the corner because this SUCKS.” That spring, she quit her corporate job and started managing Shakti. She also started doing more of these: smiling, singing, dancing, saying “I love you,” and choosing joy no matter what. Simultaneously, she cut back on this: sweating the small stuff. Long story short, it’s almost all small stuff. The moral of the story: You get to decide what matters.

Murn is a certified Baptiste Yoga® instructor. She co-leads Shakti Yoga University’s 200-HR teacher training and is 500-HR certified. As a teacher, friend, and very human, human being, Murn encourages people to be themselves, to show up just as they are, and let it happen. She loves offering options and holding space for every body, every heart and every soul. Now is the time.