Online Yoga School's Logo and Mission: Here's Our Story

Online Yoga School's Logo and Mission: Here's Our Story

The Back Story

It would be hard to explain the history of Online Yoga School without explaining a bit of my own history.  I founded the school and much of what Online Yoga School stands for stems from my own personal story. 

I started practicing yoga at a young age.  Like many others, the older I got, the deeper I got into my practice.  As a teenager, I had a lot of fire element going on. I was the kid you wouldn't have wanted your kids to be friends with.  With a hot temper, I had more than one fight at school and got suspended at leaast 2 or 3 times.  I always had good grades and enjoyed learning, but I was troubled to say the least.  Unresolved trauma showed up in many ways during my teen years, and by the time I was 16, I was pregnant with my son.  

I had my son in November of my senior year of high school. I'd worked at a grocery store from the time I was eligible to work.  I can remember going to Kmart and putting all of his baby stuff on layaway.  It took me about 6 months to pay it off, but I did.  I stood in line at "the free store" to get a baby swing and crib.  This was just the beginning of living in poverty for me and my son.  

Over the years that followed, I spent lots of times in food bank lines, despite working two jobs.  I had a couple of cars repossessed, my credit was shot and there was never enough money to spread across the whole month. By the time I was 21, I'd had my second child, Khloe, and I was relying heavily on my yoga practice for sanity.  I wanted to take a yoga teacher training but didn't have the money.  

I'd attended a workshop that a co-worker paid for with Maty Ezraty.  She'd come to town.  I spoke with her for some time after the workshop and found out she had a yoga teacher training coming up, out of town.  I couldn't afford to pay for it unless I abandoned my bills for a couple of months.  She was gracious enough to work out a payment plan and bartering system with me so that I could attend.  

I went to that yoga teacher training with my two kids and a friend who helped me with them.  It was during this day that I learned the importance of "Om," and that really resonated with me.  I was so very grateful for Maty Ezraty and all that she taught me.  

Yoga & Ayurveda Center

Many years later, I opened Yoga & Ayurveda Center.  It was a local studio offering yoga classes, yoga studio memberships, yoga workshops and yoga teacher trainings.  We also offered Ayurvedic consultations.  By this time, I'd been through countless other yoga teacher trainings and had been teaching yoga full-time for years.  It was time to have my own yoga space.

In honor of Maty Ezraty, the signifiance of Om and all that Maty taught me, this was our logo:

Yoga and Ayurveda Center YTT

At Yoga & Ayurveda Center, we hosted yoga teacher trainings.  People would travel from out of state to come, with the Pennsylvania weather, there were often complications for students to make it to the training.  I then started to put the training online, informally.  I had videos, pdf files and other materials to support students when they were unable to attend the training.  This way, they didn't have to start over and they could still graduate from the program.  

The feedback that I got from students was incredible. They enjoyed that they could revisit the material at any time, and many found that it enhanced their learning experience as compared to taking notes in a live lecture and trying to make sense of the notes later.  Some of my students told their friends about it and I started getting requests for a fully online 200 hour yoga teacher training.  Many people had work or family obligations that prevented them from enrolling in a traditional yoga teacher training program, and they were super interested in learning online to become a yoga teacher.  

Original Online Yoga School

For a few months, I began offering hybrid trainings and then shifted from hybrid trainings to a fully online training, in addition to those offered in person.  There was a little confusion because the Yoga & Ayurveda Center trainings were in person, and I wanted to differentiate between in person and online trainings, so I created the Online Yoga School brand.  At this time, there were no other online yoga teacher training programs.

I wanted the logo to really hold the meaning of all the yoga teachings I've received over my lifetime.  I decided to move from the Om sign to a mandala.  

Mandala means “circle” in Sanskrit. Mandalas come to us from India and have roots in both Hinduism and Buddhism from thousands of years ago.  I'd practiced Buddhism for years by this point, and the mandala had great meaning to me.

There are different types of mandalas.  In Buddhism, students hold the teachings that they learn from their teachers in the highest regard.  Students often offer mandalas to their teachers as a token of their gratitude for the teachings and as a token of their willingness to do whatever they can to learn.  Mandalas in this way were normally bowls with offerings inside for the teacher. 

This is one reason why the mandala is so personal to me.  For me, the mandala represents the importance of all I’ve learned as a student of yoga, meditation and life over the years. It brings me back to that time in history when I was bartering and putting everything I had on the line to take my first 200 hour yoga teacher training. I now offer all I’ve learned back to the world through my business with affordable online yoga teacher trainings.  This logo symbolizes the gratitude I hold in my heart for all of my teachers and all that they've taught me.

This is our logo:

Online Yoga School logo


Yoga & Ayurveda Center, the Original Online Yoga School 

We kept chugging along with this logo for a few years.  When Covid hit, Yoga Alliance suddenly started accepting online yoga teacher trainings.  As a lead trainer of Yoga & Ayurveda Center, I was able to offer Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher trainings online.  However, the brand "Online Yoga School," was not registered with Yoga Alliance at the time.  So it was time to merge the two logos together, and the final product was more meaningful than words can express.

This was the logo that merged our brands and represented the culmination of all that had taken place:

online yoga school pink logo


I mentioned that there are many types of mandalas.  One type is a sand mandala.  Tibetan mandalas were often created on the ground through sand art.  The numbers in these mandalas held great significance and the layers all mean soemthing.  The mandalas would usually represent the whole universe and each layer brings you closer to the center.

Our mandala has 8 points which stand for the 8-limb path of yoga.  As you move closer to the center, you explore all that lies within that path.  At the center of our mandala is a pink Om sign.  The Om sign in the center is such an important part of the logo.  We all know that Om is the original vibration of the Unvierse and the vibration upon which all other vibrations are built.  Chanting Om can shift us into Dharana, one of the steps of the 8-limb path where we focus on only one thing in meditation.

For me, the Om in the center of our mandala also represents my original yoga teacher training that I attended as a student when I really learned the importance of Om.  It represents the gratitude I have for my teacher, also symbolized in the mandala, and as the mandala moves out in layers from the center to the outer 8-points, everything I've learned since that original yoga teacher training I took is represented.  

The mandala is pink, which is a muted shade of red.  Red stands for fire and passion and the  pink tone represents the humble passion for the practice.

The Original Online Yoga School Accessibility, Affordability and Authenticity

Our mission is now and has always been to bring accessibility, affordability and authenticity to yoga teacher training online.  I realize there are millions of people who live in impoverished situations, much like mine at a young age.  There's no reason why they should not have access to become certified in this healing practice of yoga.   Is is important to make yoga affordable and accessible for people who have family, work or financial obligations that prevent them from attending a traditional yoga teacher training.  Yet, the authenticity of the teachings cannot be compromised in the process.  

We are honored to be the one and only original Online Yoga School and the first online yoga teacher training program that prioriitized accessibility, affordability and authenticity.

Online Yoga School One-Stop Resource for Yoga Teachers

Since launching our 200-hour online yoga teacher training program, we've continued adding additional online yoga teacher certifications and continuing education courses.  We now offer a 300 hour online yoga teacher training, 500 hour online yoga teacher training, prenatal and postnatal yoga teacher training online and children's yoga teacher training online certificaitons.  We offer continuing education certifications in meditation, mindfulness, yin yoga, restorative yoga, ayurveda, chair yoga, pranayama and accessible yoga.  

We've also launched a virtual yoga studio so that yoga teachers can find inspiration and a space to practice with a wide variety of yoga teachers and styles. 

Online Yoga School has become a one-stop resource for yoga teachers, offering opportunities for certification, continuing education and growth through practice.  We are here to support yoga teachers as they are plant, bloom and grow.  

Our Community

Without our community of yogis, there wouldn't be an Online Yoga School.  We have so much gratitude for each and every one of our students.  Thank you to every one of you who have entrusted us with your yoga education in any capacity.