Meet Kimberly Homer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kimberly Homer.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Thank you to Voyage Phoenix for allowing me to tell my story. Though I was raised in rural Wisconsin, I now consider Tucson, Arizona, my home, so you can imagine the twists and turns that were on the adventurous road that led me here. Even more that led me to yoga, which is where we will end up today! I left Wisconsin at age sixteen, to live in Oklahoma City with my mom. After finishing high school, I became certified as a respiratory therapist (RT), at the age of nineteen, and it was my career for fifteen years. While still in RT school, one of our first clinical rotations happened in April 1995, during the Oklahoma City bombing. This was a hands-on experience with a devastating mass traumatic event. The following fifteen years of that career were filled with trauma on a smaller scale, emergency room, ICU, the type you find working in acute care hospitals. I did this in many different states, demographics, and small to large non-profit, for-profit, and government-run facilities. Burn out was the motivation for retiring in 2008, and I went back to school to finish a Bachelors degree online, from Northern Arizona University. By this time, I was already living in Tucson. But it wasn’t until a move back to Wisconsin and a return to live in Tucson a second time, that I found yoga. At that time, I was a total Zumba enthusiast and had a friend that raved about yoga. I promised him I’d try it out. From the first savasana (final resting pose), I was hooked – and sobbing uncontrollably. Immediately embracing this yoga thing, I took six classes a week, started sleeping better, dealing with stress better, and would just randomly smile for no reason at all! In a few months, I’d gone from a lifelong realist (happy pessimist) to an optimist! I had no idea what was going on: like most people, I thought yoga was just for stretching. It turns out the yoga “works on you,” whether you know much about it or not. Just the simple reminder from a yoga instructor to guide you through more mindfulness, breathing techniques, and mind-body connection, seems to automatically improve the human condition – for each of us. I realized quickly that had I found yoga when I was a health care worker, the impact of what I’d seen and done during that time might have been a bit or a lot easier than what it might have been. And once I started practicing yoga, it opens the heart and mind in realizing, hey, there are some issues we need to move up and out of our body. It’s not just a saying, “the issues are in the tissues,” it’s a physiological truth. Our bodies keep the memories of our experiences – good or bad – and as a result, affect us down the line. Once I came to this discovery which has been preached for years before I came to the conclusion in my own life, it was clear that I wanted to help other people discover how strong and balanced, mentally, physically and spiritually, yoga made me feel. And then I also realized I wanted to serve those demographics I identified with, because of what I’d seen in my time as an RT: I wanted to help veterans, emergency responders, health care workers, all of the people who are absorbing more than their fair share of negative emotion.

Has it been a smooth road?
Oh boy. Can I just leave it there and insert a nervous laugh? No, seriously, it’s hard to compare one’s struggles to that of others, but yes, there were challenges. However, I’ve come to a point in my life – largely thanks to yoga – where I not only don’t regret anything that’s happened in my life, but acknowledge that it all had to happen to make me who I am, and realize my potential and move closer to my dharma, my life’s passion. Though dharma isn’t fully realized, I feel I get closer every day. And the things that have happened in my life that the average person would chalk up to horrible events or timing or bad things happening to good people, I don’t necessarily agree with that. I’m not going to go into details on everything that might qualify or quantify this view, but for example, I was only nineteen when I saw and felt the impact of that bombing, April 19, 1995. It was two years before I could talk about it when people that weren’t there would ask questions. While I was living in Lake Havasu, my brother died of a heroin overdose. You’re never prepared for that, and the end result was some deep-down unresolved issues caused by that trauma that I’ve had to work through over the years. But both of those examples taught me amazing things. The bombing made me realize emergency responders have got to find a way to offload absorption of the negative emotions and images we, unfortunately, see on a daily basis in those lines of work for health care workers, police, firemen/women, EMTs, veterans. They give so much of themselves on a constant basis, and we need to help them keep their own “cups” full so that they can then help others, from a good place. And losing my brother has allowed me to be more empathetic and sympathetic to people suffering from drug addiction and mental illnesses. I’ve met so many mothers of children with substance abuse issues; it’s as if we are drawn together, and they acknowledge that. If I can offer them any comfort, I realize what I have gone through is worth it.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
I haven’t mentioned my brand, per se, in the interview because I feel like it’s just a handle I use for social media. I’m not even sure it invites the people in that need to find me or the style of yoga I offer. I call my brand/self Pixie Thug Yoga. That nickname was given to me by fellow yogis and shaped a little by yours truly because I gravitated towards power yoga and core bootcamp style classes. I found these classes while going through a divorce and after some chronic back pain issues due to scoliosis and other health issues. When yoga started not only shaping my mind but body so quickly and giving me extraordinary strength that I’d never had before, I didn’t want to quit. Mind you, I was forty years old at the time! Small in stature but feisty and lionhearted, are the characteristics I feel that I possess, that earned me the name, “Pixie Thug.” I added “Yoga,” which just became part of my Instagram and website name. I’m actually open to any rebranding ideas. What I want people to know about the yoga I teach, and the people I want to serve is that in all cases, I do it with an open heart. Yoga has allowed me to be vulnerable and allow people to see my strong side but also the soft. I am as happy holding a one-minute plank, as I am holding your hand while we cry. I’m an empath with a filthy mouth, and will always be more badass than bendy. I work on myself every day, trying to keep ego in check, do what’s right and hope to reach as many people out there that need some form or another of yoga in their life.

I think one thing that sets me apart from some of the others or maybe allows people to resonate with me or the yoga classes is that I’m very transparent and accessible. I don’t pretend to be a master at anything, certainly not yoga, but I’m willing to practice and then practice some more and ask the hard questions and reach deep into my own soul to try to come up with answers. And as a yoga instructor, I am proud to be an anchor – support – for students when I’m in front of a class. I take that as a serious responsibility, to be present and mindful for everyone in each class, to allow them the space they need to get out of that practice what they need that day, but to be there as a grounding force if needed as well. It’s not to be taken too seriously though; we have to laugh a few times during class, in order to have person to person connection in the small microcosm of our little yoga community.

When you look back, what are you most proud of?
Though our classes are small and it’s apparent so many more need to be in them, I’m most proud to be a volunteer yoga instructor for the Tucson Police Department. I see the need for yoga, the tough and sometimes horrendous things they have to do and witness for their community shouldn’t be overlooked. We need to make sure they are taking care of themselves. Self-care in this demographic as for all emergency and health care workers and veterans should be a priority. And if I can help in just this small way once a week to help in their self-care, I’m more than happy to do so. I’ve been volunteering with them for over a year. We are trying to incorporate more yoga and mindfulness in the training setting at the academy, and hopefully, at some point, funding will allow for a full program, and regular daily classes. That’s my hope!

Another highlight that I have been proud to take part in is teaching for the first and second annual Tucson Yoga Festivals. I had only been teaching yoga for four months when I agreed to do this, not knowing at all what to expect. Teaching outdoors to a class of seventy-five people was intoxicating. Their energy was so beautiful, and you could feel the smiling hearts.

Contact Info:

• Address: Kim Homer
• Website: www.pixiethugyoga.com
• Email: pixiethugyoga@gmail.com
• Instagram: @pixiethugyoga

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