Read more about Bhumi’s Yoga history:
The adage says, “Bloom where you are planted”, and Bhumi’s Yoga & Wellness Center is no exception. After living 8 years in an ashram as Program Director of the largest residential yoga and wellness facility in North America, Harriet Russell, whose yoga name is Bhumi, came home to Cleveland to recuperate from a horseback riding injury. She wanted to be surrounded by like-minded people, so she decided to stay and build a yoga community, educating others in a holistic lifestyle. In 1992, the seeds were planted, and Bhumi started teaching at various locations, including universities, churches, and community centers.
In 1994, as the roots started to take hold, she opened a yoga school in Lakewood. Bhumi’s Yoga & Wellness Center was the first studio of its kind in Northeast Ohio, offering a full array of wellness programs. The Bhumi’s Yoga Teacher Training certification course was the first in the Midwest to be nationally recognized by the Yoga Alliance. She was also the first one to introduce yoga into both public and private schools for physical education credit in the area.
The seeds flourished, the students were nourished, and the press and TV soon saw the benefits of yoga in mainstream suburbia. Bhumi was on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox 8, Ch. 43, and full-page pieces were written about her and her yoga journey in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sun Herald, and Crain’s Business. Bhumi’s Yoga has hosted some of the yoga community’s biggest celebrities, including colleagues Rodney Yee, Doug Swenson, and Dean Lerner, as well as Spiritual Masters Yogi Amrit Desai (Gurudev) and Yogi Hari.
Just a few short years later, the “one-room schoolhouse” type studio in Lakewood was outgrown and transplanted to a larger space in Westlake. There, Bhumi was able to offer classes simultaneously with her certified teachers in several styles of yoga. The community grew to 350 students a week, but the individualized approach and community spirit were not compromised.
