Everyday brings a chance for adventure for Emilie Pomerleau.

Whether it be on her mountain bike, running or instructing a yoga class, the 36-year-old is always active.

Her love of the outdoors and yoga have prompted her to create her own LLC, Everyday Adventures LLC.

With the company, Pomerleau hopes to share her passions with others.

“I just sort of love bringing my enthusiasm for that, hopefully, to more people,” she said. “That’s what Everyday Adventures is.”

She takes others on mountain bike treks, hiking adventures and instructs several yoga classes.

It’s the yoga mat where Pomerlous has found herself, and has found a sense of self-acceptance and inner peace.

“I definitely was a very angry little kid and I had a really bad temper,” she said. “I definitely can see that my reactions to things, with yoga now, I can take a pause and not be set off by something small.”

Now, Pomerlous uses her passion for yoga to help others.

She teaches at Open Studio Yoga, Nova Stella, Fountain of Health Yoga Studio and in the outdoors.

Through her practice, she hopes to make Pueblo a better place.

From student to teacher

Pomerleau first began practicing yoga in 2006.

As an avid runner and mountain biker, she began going to classes instructed by Marcee Ballantyne.

At the time, however, Pomerleau said her life was too busy to really devote herself in yoga.

“I was driven to distraction,” she said. “I would always have two or three jobs and would be going from thing to another. I was so busy, I didn’t have time to figure out my life.”

She continued to go to class intermittently for the next 11 years.

Ballantyne then offered an instructor course, and Pomerleau — with a less hectic schedule — decided she wanted to take the course.

“Having time to slow down and actually work a little bit less and figure out what was important to me - that was huge,” Pomerleau said. “As soon as Marcee decided to do a teacher training … it was awesome and the timing for me, in my life, was right too.”

After completing 10 months of training, Pomerleau began leading her own yoga classes. She loved it so much that she began to teach at several studios around town.

In her eyes, the more places she goes, the more people she can reach.

“The word yoga literally means union so you can’t just pick one studio or one teacher,” she said. “A big important theme to me is branching out and seeking more styles. I wanted to go into it with acceptance and not judging the way people practice.

“Yoga doesn’t work for everybody. Some people run, some people just mediate. Some people don’t do anything active and that’s OK.”

Yoga for everyone

Though she has taken much of what she’s learned from her own instructor into her practice and teaching, Pomerleau practices an unbranded Hatha yoga.

With the attitude that no one person is the same, she utilizes philosophies from various disciplines to help her students.

“It’s really important to me to try and figure out what works for you and approaching it from that way,” Pomerleau said.

Recently she partnered with another local fitness instructor, Rachel Kutskill, to create a winter series that combined using weights and bosse balls with yoga. The two had a Tai Chi instructor come in, and worked with the same students throughout the course.

The goal of trying new things, Pomerleau explained, is to reach more people than she normally would.

“Because I’ve sort of stepped into different communities, I feel like we can all collaborate and come together a little bit more,” she said. “The more I do that, the more people will come in. That’s been really cool.”

Achieving balance

Though yoga can provide various physical benefits, for Pomerleau and her students, the benefit of helping achieve balance in life are far more valuable.

By reducing stress, yoga can help people lead happier and healthier lives.

“Our lives are super-stressful,” Pomerleau said. “So vigorous exercise helps with that. Yoga helps with that. There’s time for introspection.”

Pomerleau and her family have seen the changes yoga has made in her life. By exercising and practicing yoga, she’s been able to quell her temper and deal with her own stress in more practical ways.

She believes that physical activity, in general, can do the same for others.

“If we develop a lifestyle that’s healthy, where we can eat healthy, spend time outside then we can develop a lifestyle that supports our health,” she said. “When we’re physically active, the mind works better. Your interactions with other people are more healthy, too.”

By practicing and teaching yoga, Pomerleau has found self-acceptance.

She believes exercise can help limit insecurities by instilling confidence and increasing self-esteem.

“I feel like people have all of these judgments toward each other,” Pomerleau said. “Bt, it really comes from self-judgment. So, the more self-acceptance that we have, the beter and the more we’re going to be balanced and we’ll treat other people better.”

Each class, she congratulates her students for attending because in essence, they’re working on themselves.

She’s learned that by practicing and teaching the discipline, you can work through things in life with a much clearer head.

“We all make mistakes and we do dumb things sometimes,” Pomerleau said. “Yoga helps us move on. It brings us to the present moment where we can move forward and not have to dwell.”

The adventure continues

Pomerleau’s love for yoga has grown but so too has her love for mountain biking.

She owns several bikes and with Everyday Adventures LLC. she looks to help other outdoor enthusiasts enjoy her passion.

“I love taking people out,” she said. “Whether it’s riding bikes or trail running.”

She also does outdoor yoga sessions and she and her husband have been holding gong therapy sessions.

Her goal is to continue to take people out for bigger excursions, perhaps going on day-long rides and hikes.

Her ultimate goal is to share what she loves with others.

“I have a love of outdoors,” she said.,”So Everyday Adventures is my way of sharing passion in life with other people.”

llyons@chieftain.com

Twitter: @luke_lyons14