A 'Centered Being' in Lorton Town Center

Lorton's Suzie Carmack was easy to spot. She was the yogi with the fiery red hair eating healthy Indian food in the Johnson Center at George Mason University. She's currently getting her doctorate in health communication, and as the owner of Lorton's "Centered Being" yoga practice, it wasn't long before she spilled her yoga beans to me.

Suzie, who began teaching from her own home studio in Lorton, teaches weekly at the Lorton Town Center. Crossfit Liberation sponsors her teaching and allows Suzie to bring yoga to Lorton at 7:00 a.m. on Wednesdays and 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays.

"I've been drawing many people in Lorton who were just hungry for yoga and I'm all about whoever can be here, let's be here," Suzie said. "Yoga can be a recovery practice. It can be celebrating rest as a means for strength. It can also be celebrating work. Just in my own teaching I try to adapt and be there for whatever people are hungry for."

Living as a "centered being' is Suzie's business. She teaches mindfulness practices to office people who sit in chairs all day. "As I learn more I realize how many questions there are to ask, and I became more interested in sharing that with other people in a more profound way," she said. 

Suzie, a former professional dancer and actor, discovered yoga at a local YMCA in an effort to get in shape after having children. She earned a yoga teaching certification for two reasons: to get a free YMCA membership and to maintain her edge with knowledge in the fitness world. During her training she realized that it took more than physical strength to practice yoga. She identified with yoga because of the commonalities with dance and her theater. Theatre is about understanding stories, and playing a difficult role can inspire an actor to look inward. 

"It's not just performing on the stage, but looking at yourself from the audience and then going back stage and checking what the next scene is going to be," said Suzie, who eventually traveled to Asia to train others to teach yoga. 

Suzie believes that as a yoga teacher she is always a student and that the relationship between the two is organic. I asked Suzie what are the positives and negatives of yoga. On the physical side, it's helped her lower back pain. With the mental and spiritual, she admitted that mindfulness never shuts off. That can be good and bad. 

Suzie occasionally struggles with being too in the moment. Almost obsessed. She also admits that she'll get too caught up in her own stuff. Trying to find the balance of time and energy. And overextending herself.

"I'm still enamored by (the yoga practice). I'm still mystified by it," Suzie said. "But that's kind of the whole point. We don't have to be centered all the time... Centered isn't about perfect all the time and everything's great. It's about 'Wow. Look at how insane this is,' and how we (can) laugh about it'."

Yoga teachers, while people often think they're these perfect beings, but they're not always so balanced. Suzie talked about a time when she had what she called an A+ day. Taught a class with a peaceful ending. Everyone seemed really happy and she was patting herself on the back.

Then, not 15 minutes later, she was in the car, shoving Chicken McNuggets at her children, frazzled about how they've got three different sports events to drive to. And then she caught herself in the moment and laughed.