Today we’d like to introduce you to John Cottrell
Hi John, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I have to say, my journey didn’t turn out the way I expected, but I’m grateful for the outcome. I grew up in Northern California and attended school in the Bay Area. In my formative years, I had a great family, wonderful friends, and I loved school. As long as I could remember, I wanted to study psychology. But while pursuing my education, I also explored and appreciated extra curricular activities. In school, I enjoyed drama, performing in school musicals, and dancing. Little did I know, these things really helped me along my path.
I graduated from high school in 1986 and went directly to college that same fall and declared my major. I wanted to study psychology; I knew that I wanted to become a psychologist. Although my parents did not study these particular skills or work in these industries, something motivated me to move in this direction. I knew that I wanted to work with people in this capacity.
College was wonderful, although, it was a challenge for me at times. Even though I loved psychology, it was a difficult subject for me, but I persevered. Once again, getting involved in extra curricular activities on campus really helped me stay focused and balanced. I was involved with my church group on campus. I continued to perform on stage. I took dancing classes and even directed a few plays. I graduated in 1990 with the intention of going to grad school. I stayed in the Bay Area and kept moving forward on my career path studying clinical psychology. I have to say that grad school was really a challenge for me. The subject matter was challenging, the tests were tough, but I continued forward. During these years, I remained connected to the performing arts. I joined a dance and performance group that sung, danced, and performed for live crowds. I also tried my hand at choreography. I believe it was these activities that kept me afloat during my grad school years.
My final year of grad school was a psychology internship which I happened to do in Salt Lake City with a community mental health agency. I received wonderful training and found my groove and love for doing psychotherapy with various groups. My intention was to complete my one year internship and return to the Bay Area, graduate, and pursue my goal as a clinical psychologist. But this is where things started to change.
After my internship, I decided to stay in Utah. I fell in love with the climate, I made great friends, and I loved my work. I found a job with an agency doing work in substance abuse treatment. All the while though, I was not doing anything related to performing arts. I took a break when I moved to Utah, thinking I may return when I moved back to California. Instead of dancing and doing choreography work, I joined a gym and got into fitness. I had found my new love.
I was attracted mostly to dance aerobics classes, since it reminded me of my performance days. I worked with a wonderful trainer who eventually turned me on to teaching fitness classes in a local gym. I taught on the weekends while I worked as therapist during the week. I continued this for a few years and was introduced to yoga at this small gym. I instantly fell in love. Once again, the movement of yoga reminded me of dancing. I practiced yoga for about a year and was encouraged to get certified as a yoga instructor, which I did. I started teaching yoga at this same local gym while still working full time as a psychotherapist. I found that teaching yoga felt like choreographing dance movements.
Things took a turn when I hit the ceiling of advancement at the agency in which I worked. I decided to leave. I worked at another non-profit substance abuse agency, but it didn’t pay much and I struggled to pay my bills. A friend introduced me to new gym facility that was opening. We went to workout together only to find that they had a yoga studio for which they were hiring. I decided to put my hat into the pool and got the job. I found myself now teaching yoga full time as well as managing the studio and the other yoga instructors. This is where I learned to run a yoga business and really deepen my own practice. I also discovered the bridge between yoga and therapy when I had the opportunity to work with individual students. I discovered that yoga is a resourceful therapeutic practice. The lightbulb shown brighter when I realized that life-balancing effect it had on me. Just like dance in my formative years helped me stay focused and calm during my educational years, yoga was doing the same for me AND my students.
I worked in this gym facility for a couple of years when I realized that I wanted to do more. I had the fortunate opportunity to travel to Peru and work with a Shaman there. It was during this trip that I had a life changing experience. With deep self reflection, I realized that I wanted to do therapy work, but use yoga as the vehicle for change and growth.
On that Peru trip, I designed a business plan that would shift me out of the gym setting and into my own business called MBODY. This was back in 2009 and to this day, I continue to run my own business. Under the MBODY brand, I now offer yoga classes, private yoga therapy sessions as a Certified Yoga Therapist, (and by the way, I did get my PhD in Clinical Psychology), run workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings. I started a men’s yoga clothing line (MBODY.com) in 2011 and even wrote a few yoga books.
My story hasn’t ended, it only continues. Teaching yoga and doing yoga therapy remains a passion for me and feel that it is my true calling.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As mentioned in my story, the struggles I faced were really with the challenges of school. My grad school courses were tough. I didn’t always succeed on my tests, but somehow I made it through. When it came to my comprehensive exams near the end of my education, I found myself having to take some tests over again several times until I passed. But like I said….something…and maybe it was the dance and performance work that I was doing on the side, that helped me through these hurdles. When I look back, I see that performing for me was my “yoga” of the time. It provided balance, focus, and determination that I needed to reach my intended goal.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My main work is yoga, but many of the things I do in regards to work and recreation revolve around the idea and philosophy of yoga. As mentioned, I have a yoga clothing line, I write yoga articles, have written a few yoga books, and lead yoga workshops and trainings. But I feel that yoga has helped me express my creativity. Dance, movement, music, and choreography have all been a part of the creative front. Another love and something that brings me great pleasure is baking. I love being in the kitchen creating cakes, cookies, and ice cream! People can also purchase my sweet treats online (OneCakeWonder.com). Not only are all these things passions of mine, but I feel they fit into my MBODY Brand. My mission is to embody the Power and Strength within you; moving you toward your Highest Potential. That comes in many forms that deal with taking care of yourself…and that includes finding the sweetness in your life!
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Maybe something that some people may not know about me is that I grew up roller skating. I put on my first pair of roller skates at the age of 4! Me and my best friend took to the streets of our neighborhood and skated as much as we could. This was during the 1970’s, the disco era, and DJ roller skating was certainly “a thing.” I even took roller skating dance lessons. It was like figure skating and learning tricks, but all done on roller skates! I remember my dance teacher telling me, “hey, kid, you’re good. You can go far with this!” (Kinda funny when I look back at that! Although I didn’t pursue professional roller dance skating, I still, to this day, have a pair of roller skates and hit the streets when I can!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Mbodyyoga.squarespace.com
- Instagram: @mbodyclothing
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGSYqippdSRu2CBPlAjsjQQ/featured?sub_confirmation=1
- Other: https://OneCakeWonder.com
