Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Glaeser.
Laura, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Laura: HiI I’m Laura. Co-founder of Lala Bodi Yoga and a yogi and anthropologist by training and in heart. I spent the first act of my adult life as an anthropologist working in international humanitarian crises, witnessing the challenges people confront and the incredible strength, ingenuity, and resilience with which they face them. Some two decades on, it felt time for a second act, so I began to evolve my longtime personal yoga practice into yoga teaching, creating more space for me to reconnect with myself, my body, and my community.
Jamie: Hi! I’m Jamie. Lala Bodi Yoga’s other co-founder. I’m a longtime creative and small business owner in Baltimore’s interior design and production scenes. Laura and I have been friends for years and her journey into teaching yoga brought me back to my own mat. One day I dragged myself and my long-injured body to one of her classes and something magical happened in that practice. I felt challenged—I knew I was working my body hard. But I also felt powerful, limber, full of energy, and devoid of the aches and pains that I get from similarly challenging workouts with other forms of exercise. That class, and every class of Laura’s I have taken since, was a sensory experience of self-discovery. Laura’s offerings blend physical, mental, and spiritual aspects and allow me to find my own purpose in the practice. From that very first class, there was a spark and I knew what Laura offered needed a home in Baltimore.
A year of conversations, brainstorms, and planning later, Lala Bodi launched in 2024. Our name meshes one of Laura’s childhood nicknames (Lala) and a play on the Buddhist term for enlightenment and awakening (bodhi—we pronounce it “body,” with a good-natured wink). Our mission is to guide others in reconnecting with themselves, their bodies, and their surroundings, fostering a holistic approach to well-being rooted in thoughtful movement, connection, and fun.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Each day at Lala is a wild ride, full of opportunities and, often, a challenge or two. We’ve noted a couple of the obstacles and challenges we’ve faced below.
– Honing our story: Laura has a craft for storytelling. Jamie curates beautiful and thoughtful brands. We’ve both lived in Baltimore and its environs for years. Still, the process of building, honing, iterating, and evolving our “why” and how we achieve it continues each day.
– Finding our voice and style: Just as every body is unique, so too is every space that offers ways to move it. Laura has had the fortune to teach in several spaces in and around Baltimore and beyond. Each has offered different approaches to attracting and serving those wishing to integrate yoga into their wellness journey and each has offered me different experiences that have helped me to cultivate and expand my voice and style as a teacher.
– Building… everything: There are no two ways about it, starting a new small business is work. We know what we know. We know what we don’t know. And we just try to ride the waves with deep breaths, trust, and grace through all the things we didn’t know we didn’t know when they arise. Each offering we dream up–from hosting a Pop Up Yoga Party to curating a private event to constructing a micro-retreat–must be conceptualized, then built, then advertised, then implemented, then refined. The ideas are never-ending and the to-dos equally so. Keeping our energy and momentum going and being attentive to and mindful of the big picture and all of the little pieces that support it without getting bogged down is a constant balancing act.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At Lala Bodi, we believe that there is power in presence—that the energy in a room full of humans breathing and moving with intention can be transformative. We believe that when we create space to tap into the connections within us and the connections among us, we create space for magic. We believe that supporting our bodis with regular movement helps us feel better, live better, and be better. We believe we are always stronger and more capable than we think, and that, while growth can be challenging, it can also be fun. We believe there is a space for you here and that you are always welcome, exactly as you are.
Lala Bodi’s power vinyasa yoga experiences curate a seamless blend of dynamic movement and thoughtful meaning set to music that ties it all together and gets the bodi moving. Our practice isn’t just about building strength; it’s also about reconnecting to our breath and our bodis, reconnecting with the people and spaces around us, and building awareness around our engagement with all of it. While we like to go deep, we also believe opening ourselves to challenges and growth doesn’t have to be a strictly serious affair, so while our practice gets our temperatures rising, we’re never short on cheeky jokes and playful music that bring a smile as we explore and expand our edges.
We offer lots of ways to Lala. From monthly-ish Pop Up Yoga Parties that bring together anyone interested for a ~45-minute all-levels power vinyasa flow followed by an After Glow party with snacks, sips, and some good ol’ fashioned socializing with fellow yogis, to private yoga parties, corporate events, and one-on-one sessions. We also offer regular power vinyasa classes at Tribe School for Embodied Movement in downtown Baltimore (https://www.tribebaltimore.com/).
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
A few touchstones to which we keep returning as our Lala Bodi journey unfolds include:
– Ride the waves: Not every day is amazing, so we try to really enjoy the ones that are. Not every day is terrible, so we try to hold on, breathe, and give ourselves and others some extra grace when things get tough.
– Embrace the beginner’s mind: Not knowing everything doesn’t make us imposters, it makes us human. It also makes us relatable. We try to meet every opportunity, every encounter, every challenge as a space for connection, learning, and growth. We are also consistently amazed by the depth of wisdom and support that is at the ready all around us when we need an assist.
– Keep a notebook and pen (or a notes app) at the ready: Speaking of that depth of wisdom that surrounds us, when inspiration strikes, we try to capture it right away. Maybe it’s a passage from a podcast or something we’re reading, maybe it’s a fun sequence of movement that we found while playing on our mats, maybe it’s a song that we haven’t heard in forever that makes us smile and floods us with nostalgia–when something captures our eyes or our minds or our hearts or feels really good in our bodies, we jot it down.
– Great is good repeated consistently: Taking a cue from Steph Smith, we work to keep one eye on the big picture as we make our way through all the details. We give our best to everything we create and offer while also giving grace to the knowledge that there will forever be room for iteration and growth.
– Allow rest: Maybe it’s because we began this latest venture well into the space affectionately referred to as mid-life, but late nights and crammed schedules zap our energies and creativity faster than they did back in our 20s. We are big fans of going to bed early, the occasional cat nap, blissfully unscheduled weekend days, and all the great ideas that get their start when we let our minds and our lives go quiet for a spell.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lalabodi.yoga/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lalabodiyoga/?igsh=ZmtsMDBjaW1zNzZ4&utm_sourceW=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Lala-Bodi-Yoga/61556817213587/?mibextid=LQQJ4d
