Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Migliozzi.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I got into yoga early, when I was just 14 because it rescued me from debilitating symptoms of IBS & anxiety I’d struggled with my whole life. I completed my training & started teaching when I was just 16 years old. Yoga led me on a long path of discovery in the worlds of alternative medicine and holistic healing, and after high school, I completed my B.S. degree in Alternative Medicine while trading my yoga services for mentorships with different healers around the world. By the time, I was 22 I had visited 14 countries.
Upon returning home, I felt I was outgrowing the yoga & fitness scene as it’s been adopted in the states. There is so much privilege in it & everyone takes themselves so seriously. Then, I found Buti Yoga. This style of yoga revitalized my passion because of it’s strengthening challenges, primal movements, and dance influences, which awakened a love of dance that I never knew I had. More than that, it’s focused around empowerment, and it’s impossible to take yourself too seriously. I witnessed the way it is changing women’s lives by making them feel sexy & confident again. After my work in midwifery and as a doula, I recognize how important (and usual) it is for women to feel empowered in their bodies in this way.
I opened The Cure Studios as a transformational fitness studio where women (and men) can step outside of their comfort zone in a judgment-free space, to explore new depths of self-acceptance, confidence, and freedom. My most key focus at the studio is in building community, especially among mothers and women across generations, as well as in communities that are underserved in the yoga industry, such as people in recovery from addiction or teens suffering from depression or anxiety.
I still practice as a doula, women’s health coach, holistic medicine practitioner, and blogger; as well as a Buti & Yoga instructor.
Has it been a smooth road?
No road is smooth, which might be something we forget now with all of this “manifestation” rhetoric trickling around. We think that if something isn’t “flowing” we aren’t on the right “path”. That simply is not true. The universe is constantly throwing tests at you to help you fine-tune your focus and defend your intention. There were so many times I had to remember the WHY of what I was doing to have the strength to move forward. It honestly seemed like the Universe was saying “But how bad do you REALLY want this?” and I had to keep proving it, again and again.
I feel like when you step out into the community as a leader, you naturally attract discourse. You get a lot more positive feedback & a lot more negative feedback, as well; you encounter people that feel threatened or triggered by what you’re doing or saying and are going to try to stop you, in small ways & big ways.
For example, when we first started there were lots of other studios & yogis that banned us (my other teachers & myself) from their classes because they considered us competition or felt threatened by what we were doing. We got tons of hate mail. Here, we were just trying to help women in their fitness & body-acceptance journeys, and we were being attacked. For a while, that made me want to crawl into a hole and hide. I questioned whether what I was offering was good enough. But it only took our first few students telling us how much we’d impacted their lives for me to remember why it was all worth it.
So, my advice for women at the beginning of their journey is, don’t let anyone else make you question yourself, i.e., ignore the haters! Keep doing what you know you’re good at, stand by what you believe in, and most importantly don’t feel threatened by others doing the same thing as you! A rising tide lifts all ships. Keep empowering each other & keep helping each other grow; give stuff away. Help each other just to be nice. If you don’t let good stuff flow out, it won’t flow in, either.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Cure Studios story. Tell us more about the business.
At The Cure Studios, we specialize in Buti, which is a style of yoga developed by Bizzie Gold that is just starting to grow on the East Coast. It’s difficult to describe the results of having a Buti yoga practice; physically, the results are staggering, but there is also an energetic shift that happens and the oxytocin release during a Buti class creates a mood lift like I’ve never seen in any other style class.
But beyond Buti, what I really pride myself on is our commitment to community and our focus on giving back. For years, I’ve taught yoga in high schools to kids with issues at home or with substance abuse or to teens with body image issues, and soon, we hope to be running a similar program through the studio. I’m certified in Yoga for 12 Step Recovery & we currently teach donation-based recovery classes at the studio and regularly donate to different non-profit recovery programs in the area. We provide childcare for classes free of charge because we want mom to be able to connect with other moms for support. And we regularly hold classes to raise money for different environmental initiatives. Fitness & self-care are cool and truly necessary, but I don’t think it can be overlooked that we’re in a time right now, we’re helping the community and the collective is just as – if not more – important than our own self-work, and I want to do everything we can to help that.
Who do you look up to? How have they inspired you?
I’ve had the privilege of working with so many extraordinary women and of meeting women on so many different interesting paths in my travels – yoga teachers, professional travelers, women who founded their own companies, single moms. My mother has always inspired me to remember to be selfless. She is the most thoughtful and generous person I know and would regularly give back to people she didn’t know when we were growing up; like paying someone’s heating bill or inviting single people over for Christmas. My two younger sisters are unapologetically themselves, and I love that. Carrie Tyler, my yoga teacher, inspired me to be a multifaceted woman.
Most of all, when I was in high school and struggling with an eating disorder, I met a counselor who changed my life. She taught me that I had SO much power and in order to access it, I just needed to nourish & be kind to myself. So many women go around hating on their bodies without realizing they are in control of how powerful they feel. It was the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten to learn that lesson from her.
Pricing:
- Unlimited Membership at the studio $130/month
- Unlimited Membership for Millennials $99/month
- 10 days of unlimited classes for new students $20
Contact Info:
- Address: 125 Bridge Road, Salisbury, MA
- Website: www.thecurestudios.com
- Phone: 978-994-4802
- Email: info@thecurestudios.com
- Instagram: @thecurestudios
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/thecurestudios
- Twitter: @thecurestudios
- Other: www.samanthanaturalhealth.com
Image Credit:
Share the Soul Photography
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