Collective Community

Circle Yoga Shala is comprised of a small group of long time friends with a common interest in conscious evolution; and an equally long history engaged in spiritual practices geared to that end. It began in 2009 when Matthew and Holly Krepps, former owners of Barefoot Studio, Little Rock, AR., for approximately ten years; and their senior teacher and friend, Louanne Lawson, purchased a 25 acre working homestead in the Ozarks of Arkansas. Since then their aim has been to create a self-sustainable haven, in which to continue both their work on themselves, and their service to others.

Business Principals

Louanne Lawson, Yoga Teacher and Gardener: I have been practicing yoga in various forms since my hair was dark. I was introduced to asana practice by Lilias Folan on public television. I then used Richard Hittleman’s “28-Day Yoga” and Bikram’s “Beginning Yoga Class” to learn yoga as geometric form. Afterwards I had the opportunity to study with a number of local teachers, including Lynn Frazier, Nell Weaver, and Cliff Riggs, and each of them offered challenges and opportunities for growth. When I met Matt and Holly at Barefoot I found what I didn’t know I was looking for: that yoga as action – both on and off the mat – answered a deep yearning, a yearning for stability, for ease in transition, for balance. As a teacher, it’s important for me to communicate a clear recognition of integrity in connection. At the Shala, I oversee the gardens which offer me an invaluable daily practice of presence, and I also assist Matt in the kitchen.

Matthew Krepps, Transformational Teacher and Chef: I have always been constitutionally disposed to enjoy discipline, uniqueness, philosophy, and art – – in particular music. As a teen aged boy growing up in a small Arkansas town, I somehow encountered the ideas of the Buddha and could not shake the feeling that the East held something crucial for my destiny. I soon became a vegetarian, began to learn cooking – – as my dear mother was not sure what to make of these culinary changes – – started racing bicycles, distance running, and dreaming of moving to Kyoto to live in a Zen monastery.

By the time I attended college, I had ditched road racing and had taken up what would become a life long love affair with drumming. I studied literature and continental philosophy in school and was fortunate enough to encounter two teachers of unusual quality, both of whom told me to promptly leave school upon graduation and move – – for a time at least – – away from academia. (thank you Conrad and Charlie.) I spent the next three years playing in a rock-n-roll band, traveling the southwest region of the country, reading Nietzsche, Heidegger, Thomas Mann, Nikos Kazantzakis, Dostoyevsky, and developing a wicked case of carpel tunnel syndrome from a subtle flaw in my drumming technique.

After the band imploded, I landed in Austin Texas, where all of my loves would finally coalesce into the beginning of a single direction. With no travel in the picture I got a job in a local restaurant and apprenticed under a remarkable human being (thank you Paul, I’ll always love you) and was trained in the cooking profession. I studied with a percussion teacher who corrected my hand technique, and decided to take up Yoga as a way to naturally address the problems in my wrists.

Now, fast forward through ten years of formal kitchen work, maintaining a steady yoga practice through the kitchen madness, neurotic levels of reading and study (thank you Patanjali, Darwin, and Nisargadatta Maharaj), falling head over heels in love with my smokin’ hot wife, meeting my yoga teacher on an island off the coast of Barcelona (thank you Godfrey, I’ll always love you), owning a yoga studio (after swearing to never work in a kitchen again), teaching publicly and privately, training yoga teachers, and becoming disenchanted with all of it – – except my wife (thank you Hollydevi) . . . Whew !

Two years ago, Holly and I and a couple of close friends decided to buy a working homestead in the Ozarks, intent on developing a retreat center. Enter Circle Yoga Shala, where folks come to be immersed in nature, to train in classical yoga and other forward thinking modalities, to eat the food we raise on the property, and to drink living water from a local spring: basically to heal and realize their highest potential. The shala is the embodiment of everything that has been and still is important to me: food, philosophy, activity, and inquiry. Regarding the food here, I am adept in cuisine from every continent and use the principles of Ayurveda in my preparations. It is our example of what it means to live a life that is intent on thriving. It is an offering to our fellow students, teachers, friends, and Mother Earth, in service of the possibility that humans can evolve consciously.

Holly Krepps, Transformational Facilitator via the methods of yoga and self-inquiry:

I began practicing meditation approximately 20 years ago as part of a 12-step program that is still the foundation of my spiritual/mental/emotional well-being. During the same period, I also returned to my Catholic roots drawn to the religion for its mystic tradition apart from the dogma I grew up with. At that time, as a result of grace, I began an unintentional journey with an awakened Kundalini for 3 intense years. My experiences were confusing and extraordinary. Not having any prior understanding or basis for them I was quite on my own, until I was blessed with the introduction to a Catholic Priest from Portugal, who preferred to use the language of the Holy Spirit instead of Kundalini. We had many sweet moments discussing the joys of connection with the Divine. Eventually, he felt that I would find more direction and support outside of my religion for my experiences and turned me in the direction of the Bhagavad Gita and the yoga tradition as a whole. Thank you, Father. Please note: he was not suggesting I should leave my religion entirely.

Throughout those years I found refuge, as well as exact accounts of my experiences in Gopi Krishna’s Autobiography, Living with Kundalini, and in the writings of Swami Muktananda, C. W. Leadbetter and others. I was also led to my first teacher, Shri Ananda Ma. This body-mind has never been the same. Although a dramatic shift in personality and consciousness occurred, the experience has been followed with years of practice and further self-observation to ground the awareness in a unified center.

Five years later, I met Matthew and he introduced me to Ashtanga Yoga. We eventually married, had Noah and began our decade long run as owners of Barefoot Yoga Studio.

In addition to Matthew, my main asana studies were with Ana Forrest. I met her through the studio during the early years of ownership, and there was an instant connection. She encouraged me to participate in her upcoming teacher training, not so much from the aspect of learning technique, but rather for focusing my intuitive abilities to read energies, which she said she could address and also noticed in me from our first meeting. I received a lot from my time with her. Mostly, I gained a compassionate ferocity for truth and authenticity.

I’ve had the chance to work with many wonderful teachers thanks to the studio: Erich Schiffmann, Doug Keller, Godfrey Devereux, Shiva Rea, Dr Svoboda and others.

I have been greatly influenced by Bill W., Robert Svoboda; Byron Katie, Nisargadatta, Patanjali, Guerjieff, my friend, Red Hawk; my beloved Shri Ammachi, Shri Ananda Ma; Ramana Maharshi, my mysterious relationships with the Blessed Mary and Kali, a community of earnest practictioners, and Ray Metzger – may he be resting in peace. For a little more than a decade I have now also been deeply affected by the Lakota Tradition via sweat lodge ceremonies, and most recently through vision quest.

If a practice has culminated from all of the above, it is that of surrender. Surrender to the divine and to what is happening in each moment, maintaining a felt connection to Self which is the opposite of getting lost in mechanical action is the basis for joy and peace in the midst of this beautiful play of MA(ya).