Meet Hannah Hutcheson

We recently connected with Hannah Hutcheson and have shared our conversation below.

Hannah, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience is created from living a life of grit and grace. When life hands you some tough times, do you have the courage to move through them? While the courage is a main component, the biggest energy of all is the grace. Can you give yourSelf grace for how you showed up in that moment of courage and tough times? No one is born with resilience. Maybe grit. Maybe grace. But not resilience. It is something that we have co-created with this wild journey of life.

I got my resilience from my life. I did have an amazing teacher though. My childhood was not the easiest. I guess no ones really is. I experienced a wide range of big T’s (traumas) and never really treated them as much. But my resiliency teacher, my mother, she just kept going. She had to. There was no other way for her and I to get through life if she didn’t pick herself up each day and keep going. She didn’t want to have grit, but she did. We lived in a place where we were robbed from my bedroom, gun shot through our house (separate instance), cops called often- it was bad. I had an abusive babysitter, she called the cops on them. She worked in a male dominated (and still does) field with no grace given to her. The list can go on of traumas and instances of abuse and power taken from us. But she had the grit to keep going. Waking up each day and providing a wonderful life for us. Now grace was something I don’t think she ever truly gave herSelf, but she gave it to me. She made it to where those big T’s were only little T’s during the time (later I realized they had created a lot of blocks in my life and yoga and other healing modalities have helped unpack them).

She is where I get my resilience from. Being raised by this strong woman carved me into the woman I am today. No matter how many times I fall, I will get back up. No matter how often I want to give up, I won’t. No matter how many mistakes I make (and I do because I’m human), I get back up and give myself grace because I am human. “I’ll show up at the table, again and again and again” (Rising Appalachia “Resilient” lyrics).

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am the creator of an amazing yoga studio, Horizon Healing Center, in downtown Canton. We are yoga for every body! A place where we can all give ourSelves grace. We offer yoga, reiki, massage, EFT, yoga teacher training, online workshops, women’s circles, meditation, ayurvedic nutrition coaching, empowerment coaching, and SO much more.

The studio itself kinda stumbled upon me. I was managing yoga at this fitness boutique and the owner wanted out. It’s a hard field to be in honestly. The hours are endless, the pay isn’t always consistent, and it’s downright tiring- but it is so rewarding for the heart. I said YES I would love to buy your props at a discount and build my own. So I did. I did it for the clients that didn’t feel safe going to yoga anywhere else in the area. I understood it. They wanted to do yoga, but they were afraid of the hyper flexible, super skinny, mirrored rooms, and snooty places. Yoga was this new world that they wanted to discover, but also didn’t want to feel less than on the journey. So Horizon was built. The community built us honestly. I just run the back end of bills, scheduling, and what not lol.

I think my favorite part of what we do is we let people see that it doesn’t matter who you are, you can find healing too. Through yoga, reiki, meditation, etc. And we will be there to hold the lantern for you on this journey. You are NEVER alone with us at Horizon. I love leading teacher trainings because that is 6-9 months of long term commitment from souls that are looking to discover their true Selves! Ahhhhh it just lights me up in ways I cannot even form into words. Yoga teacher training changed my life and I want to give that to so many others. We have a scholarship program as well to help folks do just that!

We also have a super fun podcast, “Another Yoga Podcast”, that is filled with profanities and truth. My teacher training partner, Michele Stewart, and myself just shoot the sh!t about real life and how to apply yoga to it so we can all show up as a healing light to others rather than just perpetuating the cycle of trauma, abuse, power, etc. Every action we create creates a ripple. It will affect so many people. I would like my ripples to at least provide some comfort and joy for most.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I guess the first question answered it all to be honest.

If you are early in your journey, can you have grit? Courage! Can you keep showing up each day, being present and in the moment, and just take what the day brings you? Some days are going weigh more than others. Some counted more than others. Can you show up the same way each day filled with courage and determination?

Can you give yourSelf grace for any mistakes you make? I recently missed my first class EVER in the 8 1/2 years I have been teaching. I was baffled! How did I let it slip through? Well my plate is loaded and perhaps some things are falling off the sides, so I wasn’t too baffled. But it gave me the opportunity to give mySelf grace. I can give others grace all day, but me- no! So what a lesson. I am human, I made a mistake. I made it up to the folks that were there, I apologized, gave free classes, and then let it go. I would do the same for my teachers at the studio. Can you give yourSelf grace for being human?

Can you show up with resilience AND joy? I try to live my life like my kids, they wake up each day as a new day. They are filled with wonder, joy, and resilience. They don’t take the past with them. They just live in the moment and see all the beauty and magic that it truly is! I want to be my kids when I grow up!

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
Overwhelm is something I know a lot about. Owning a business, running a business, teaching in that business, offering my healing services, running events, having 2 kids, a husband, a house to maintain, a studio to maintain, a book to write, other business ideas always circulating, and an insatiable desire to learn everything- I often feel overwhelmed. I really just want to do everything that comes to my mind. Read all the books. Create all the things. But I can’t. I really cannot. So I have learned to first outsource what I am not good at doing, or I don’t like doing. This helps take some of the things off my plate. Asking for help is not an easy thing for me to do, but once I hired someone for my taxes, answering my business phone, cleaning my studio, managing social media, and childcare I had more space open up in my life and the overwhelm began to dissipate. Secondly, I try to move my body every day even if it is just for a few minutes. This helps me release any extra energy that may be pulling me down. Third, finding time to be alone. I joke that my love language is quality time alone, but it really is. Quality time alone helps me sit with my own energy, sort it out, release what I don’t need, and then show up back in society as a more whole business owner, mom, wife, friend, etc. Find what works for you. It is different for everyone.

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Image Credits
Kaitlin Coleburn

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