To Live Life Fully is #WhyIYoga

For CorePower Yoga CEO Eric Kufel, yoga is personal and professional. You might say it’s, well, everything.

"My life was not hitting on all cylinders. My health was not good. I had been running a company for ten years, doing work I enjoyed, had three young kids, a family who needed me, and I just could not perform the way I was used to." For Kufel, a zest for life had always been something he could count on.  Then, without warning he lacked the energy and stamina to do all the things he enjoyed. 

Diagnosed with severe Crohn's Disease at 39, Kufel was prescribed medication to combat his extreme symptoms. The prescription, also given to childhood Leukemia patients, only made him feel worse. Kufel and his wife Kristy began to do research on their own to find options outside Western medicine. They discovered that the benefits of exercise, and a strict diet, were getting positive responses from Crohn's patients.

Kufel was no stranger to exercise. He’d spent countless hours at they gym, muscling through standard workouts of cardio and weights. Over the years, Kufel would notice people leaving the yoga room. "They looked like the happiest, healthiest people in the gym," Kufel remembers. Then, one day while sitting on a spin bike, he thought, “Okay, this is it. I want to feel like that."

Kufel had the typical perceptions of yoga. “I was 100% convinced it was twisting yourself into a pretzel. I was an athlete. I was a State Champion, All American Shot Putter. How many shot putters are going to do yoga?” But in that moment, on the spin bike in the gym, he found the courage to approach the instructor. This was the first step in what would turn out to be a life-transformation.

"I told the instructor my story and I was so inspired by the way he truly listened and cared. He told me that this practice was going to change my life if I stuck with it, and I gave it a shot," Kufel said.

The first class was intimidating, but Kufel says it was because of the instructor that he kept coming back. "He made a real connection with me after class. Like so many teachers I've met at CorePower Yoga, he was so passionate about yoga and in it for all the right reasons."

Kufel committed to come to his mat 3-4 days a week, a discipline he continues to practice to this day, and he began to transform. "I felt a sense of calm and a sense of community as a result of this practice."

Five years later, when Kufel returned to the doctors who had diagnosed him with Crohn's Disease, they were shocked by his overall health and energy level. They told him he was actually getting better, not worse. “I went from being really sick to feeling like I was eighteen years old again. Ten years later, I still feel like I have more energy than I’ve ever had.”

The decision to take that first yoga class shifted the course of Kufel's life. “Yoga helped me become a more mindful leader, and I was committed to helping others learn and grow.” 

Motivated by a new sense of purpose, Kufel set out to lead a life of greater significance; to always bring out the best in himself and in others. This included, pursuing a career to which he had a personal connection and that gave him a sense of purpose - eventually leading him to his role as CEO of CorePower Yoga.

“I really believe that the combination of the physicality of yoga – the intensity – with the presence of the mind is what produced the dramatic life change that I experienced as a husband, as a father, as a coworker, as a friend.  Yoga has truly allowed me to live my life to its fullest.” 

Eric Kufel

CorePower Yoga CEO