Elsa Stuart Owner and Instructor, iHeartYoga
To say 2020 has been a challenging year for this Dana Point business owner would be an understatement. “COVID was no joke, as everyone can relate to,” says Elsa Stuart, who worked as everything from a clothing rep in L.A. to a private yacht stewardess in the South of France before deciding to become a certified yoga instructor eleven years ago. Stuart began teaching donation-based classes in Lantern Bay Park. Those popular classes led to SUP Yoga, special collaborative events with local businesses, yoga teacher training, retreats, and finally, a brickand-mortar studio in Dana Point Harbor (voted “Business of the Year” by the Dana Point Chamber
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Photos courtesy of Elsa Stuart and John Park
of Commerce in 2018). Understandably, having to shutter her business for months, cancel and refund multiple retreats, and be unable to provide jobs for instructors “was a hot scary mess,” she says. “My husband, thankfully, is more tech-savvy than I am and figured out how to stream classes online fairly quickly. So, we were able to maintain a large amount of our members that way, and were able to offer teaching opportunities to our staff and come up with other creative outdoor locations. But, overall, we got really lucky. Every teacher stepped up to help out in any way possible, and our community is so supportive and loyal that instead of COVID tearing us apart, it actually brought us together even stronger than before.” After funneling a wealth of love, sweat, tears, and finances into iHeartYoga, Stuart’s proudest moment to date occurred in November. “I had my first daughter (Sienna) a year and four months ago and my second daughter (Greyson) three weeks ago, and I just taught in the park with both girls by my side,” she says. “It was truly my dream come true moment!” Look for iHeartYoga to get its Mexico retreats back up and running and maybe offer more local retreats. Can you say, “Staycation in Dana Point?”
