Meet Lauren Hribek | Certified Exercise Physiologist & Yoga Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lauren Hribek and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lauren, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Creating my business came from many years of life experience with my own healing journey and experiencing the disconnect between allopathic healthcare and whole-body wellness. I experienced first hand how the medical system does not address the root of the issue and how it often leaves out important pieces of healing that can be so simple, such as breathing correctly, connecting with nature and finding a bit of stillness each day.

I experienced a lot of pain in my body throughout the years and my healthcare providers only focused on the physical aspects, leaving out the integral connections that my pain had to my past trauma and current protection mechanisms. Through yoga though, I learned how to bring those parts of me back into the whole and to address healing from more angles; mind-body-heart. I learned that I was in control of my own healing and that everything in my life, good and bad, had its own teachings.

There is a metaphor that is often used by yoga practitioners; no mud, no lotus. The beautiful lotus flower must root into the dark muckiness in order to rise above as a beautiful, transformed flower. We must have have one to appreciate the other. It’s the beauty of opposition and finding the balance and equanimity in both instances. These are lessons that I unraveled as I used yoga and movement to comb through my pain and past.

Grace and Grit Wellness resembles that lotus. It takes into account that to appreciate or even have the existence of grace, that we must have grit. Light and dark, happy and sad, good and evil, strength and ease, female and masculine, yin and yang; all opposites but all let the other exist. There’s beauty in all of it.

When we have that muck in our lives, we must use grit to push through and have the grace to open and soften back up. So, when I work with my clients, I bring these aspects into my teachings and guide them to explore equanimity and contentment with all experiences as well as resilience and ease in their lives and in their bodies. This embodiment transforms the healing process.

What should our readers know about your business?
The ultimate goal with my work is to support my clients in ways that help them feel peaceful and at ease as well as strong, powerful and confident. I work with them to create mind-body practices that fit their lifestyle, needs and goals and encourage them to take their health and wellness into their own hands. They have the power but I am always here for support.

My favorite thing about working with people privately is when a special nuance clicks and I can see the change in their body or the way they treat themselves or others and show up in the world. It’s a magical feeling when someone learns to change an antagonistic movement pattern or a blocked perspective to create more freedom and lightness in their body and mind.

I created a technique that is a mix of personal training, yoga practice and therapeutic movement. I pull from my degree in exercise science, study of yoga and years of being a physical therapy patient and also working with patients in clinical rehabilitation settings.

As a pain patient myself, I always felt there was something missing in my healthcare and my goal is to bring that missing piece into the equation with my clients. I also believe that we can bring more mindfulness into our fitness regimens in order to avoid injury but also boost enjoyment and peace.

I specialize in injury prevention, pain management, and rehabilitation which can be very serious but I am here to bring the fun into movement so that clients can maintain a sustainable relationship with their wellness habits. I believe that how you feel in your body is most important and building strength creates confidence and a lasting routine.

I work with 1:1 clients in person as well as online. I also have self-paced online programs. I am always happy to speak with my client’s providers to help bridge their wellness plan and get them the best results possible.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I don’t know much about Denver, but if I knew I had some time, I would escape the city and venture to the nearby parks. I love Garden of the Gods, Rocky Mountain National Park and Mesa Verde National Park. I’ve had beautiful experiences there.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d love to shout out the teachers who I look up to: April Storms, Vicki Distin, Gabriel Halpern, and Tias Little for keeping it real and being their own funky, fun selves. Thank you for sharing your love of the body and yoga philosophy.

Deep gratitude to soooo many people in my life who have taught me and continue to teach me lessons daily through simply sharing experiences with me.

Shoutout to discomfort. You continue to push me to learn and grow.

Website: https://gracegritwellness.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/graceandgritwellness/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/graceandgritwellness

Image Credits
Katrina Spain Photography