Even before yoga became her life’s work, Jodi Petlin knew yoga meant peace.

Trying to balance a high-pressure career as a senior executive at a major record company in New York City, she began practicing yoga in 1994 at the suggestion of a co-worker.

“It was quite difficult for me, but I always felt better after I did it,” Petlin said. “As I began exploring more studios and practicing more regularly, it instilled a balance in my life.”

Today, as owner of Shanti Yoga Studio in downtown Whitefish, she continues to find balance in practicing, teaching and training others in yoga. Shanti is the Sanskritic word for peace and is pronounced ShONtee.

“Aside from getting stronger and more flexible, what I got from practicing yoga consistently was more calm inside,” Petlin said. “So while I enjoy the physical benefits of this practice, the main reason I keep doing yoga is to bring myself back to center.”

Her journey into the world of yoga happened slowly over several years. She left New York and moved to Los Angeles to earn her master’s degree in spiritual psychology and there completed her first yoga training. Still, she never intended to teach a class herself, only wanting to have a deeper understanding of the practice. She expected to return to her job and life in New York.

“I got bit by the yoga bug,” she said. “I agreed to teach one class and secretly loved it, but I knew that teaching yoga was a challenging way to earn a living — at least back then before yoga was so mainstream.”

She eventually became manager of Yoga Works in Los Angeles and was also teaching classes. Then she founded On-Site Yoga, which drew on her knowledge of the corporate world as she brought yoga along with wellness programs into large companies like Boeing.

For five years, Petlin traveled to Montana on several visits, ignoring a feeling she had on her first flight here that the Big Sky state would become home.

Eventually, she listened to that feeling, making the decision to move to Whitefish. She was standing in line at Sportsman and Ski Haus buying winter clothes when another customer heard she taught yoga and said he knew a place in need of an instructor.

After moving on from that first job, she opened Shanti Yoga Studio on Central Avenue. This month marks the 10th anniversary of the studio, which offers classes, workshops, retreats, private lessons and transformational coaching, and now includes senior teachers Claudia Collins, Cyndy Stanley, Kirsten Sabin and Ingrid Wick.

“I’m grateful,” Petlin said. “Yoga studios close all the time, I never take for granted that we get to be open. I really have it in my heart to try to educate people about the deeper aspects of yoga. I want them to learn and help train other teachers. I have a belief that yoga can help people in a profound way.”

Watching Petlin work with a beginning student in her upstairs studio, she is welcoming and relaxed in her approach. She gives simple instructions to place a foot or hand in the correct place on the yoga mat rolled out on top of the studio’s golden hardwood floors. She demonstrates each movement before taking her student through each pose. Petlin works with her students on breathing and lets them know to speak up if they have held a position too long. Yoga, she says, should feel good. As she instructs, a type of calm focus washes over her and she seems to emanate the same peace she is helping her students find.

“Yoga is transformational — when you help teach a person that, it’s amazing,” she said. “Developing greater levels of awareness for living a deeper and more integral life is the goal. Body awareness is relatively easy to develop because it’s like ice, you can hold onto it. But the mind is like the wind, and that makes it much more difficult to get hold of.”

Petlin has now been teaching full-time for more than 15 years and has worked with all different students such as athletes, those will illness and disabilities, and both new and experienced students in all age groups. Most recently she worked with an 81-year-old former logger who wanted to learn breathing techniques and develop a routine he could practice at home.

“Yoga is broad and flexible enough to meet anybody where they are at,” she said. “I have one student who does yoga just for flexibility and doesn’t want to learn any of the philosophy. I have some who want to study yoga to become better at meditating and others who want to do an even deeper study of yoga itself. It makes me sad when someone tries yoga and says they didn’t like it, because there are so many different styles and approaches. They just didn’t find the right approach.”

Classes offered at the studio are open to the public for drop-in and include asana and meditation, back care basics, gentle yoga, prenatal yoga, restorative yoga, yin fusion, yoga for teens, and more. Petlin also offers a 200-hour yoga training program and she is a certified life and career coach.

Shanti Yoga Studio will be offering anniversary specials and giveaways during the month of June. More information is available at www.shantiyogamontana.com or call 862-1885.