Meet Eileen:
In her own words
“After many years as a corporate Buyer at Fortune 500 companies including Bristol Myers, Nestle and Time Magazine, I became a “wife, teacher and mom”. In 2012, the sudden and unexpected death of my husband made me stop, meditate and listen to the whispers of learning a new skill and help people through my kind of pain. Or any pain for that matter. I completed training as a yoga instructor and returned to teaching high school after 20 years in the Broward County School system. I continued my training, learning with the world’s best gurus through Yoga Journal conferences and guiding students through trauma and strength-building character yoga empowering others to live their best life.
Second only to the birth of my 3 wonderful children – Sara, Danielle and Austin – my most rewarding shift has been practicing yoga off the mat: blogs, conferences, drug rehabilitation suicide prevention, and raising funds to provide trauma-informed yoga instruction for Veterans and military families through Connected Warriors. I am currently a Brand Ambassador for Connected Warriors, I am on the Board of Exhale to Inhale, Inc. for women who have experienced domestic or sexual abuse, and an active advocate of the #NeverAgain gun violence movement.
Working with Veterans is an experience that gives these individuals an increased sense of community and self-empowerment. It’s an extraordinary honor for me to be able to help people, especially Veterans and military families who have given up so much for our freedom. As a trauma yoga teacher in the community, the crisis center reached out to me following the horrific shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that took 17 lives. I am humbled to have provided my own service as I taught trauma-informed yoga to the counsellors and students. Giving back to the community is the most extraordinary thing I can do, as Maya Angelou so eloquently articulated, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
How do I live my best life?
It begins with yoga, love, freedom, desire, appreciation and acceptance to create your shift with grace.”
Eileen Fruithandler is a certified Yoga Instructor empowering others to find their destiny. Eileen has a B.S. in Economics & Business and is the CEO and Founder of Third Eye Yoga Shala Studio, you can read more and follow her blog at www.ThirdEyeYogaShala.com/.
*** Please follow along on instagram as well and learn more about Eileen. This year for my birthday, I am embarking on a weekly photo essay project highlighting 52 Phenomenal Women. This is week 23 of 52. Participants in this project will be supporting the efforts of Dress for Success Worldwide – Central. We are all stronger together and it is my sincere hope that we will be inspired by each other’s stories. Now is the time to celebrate as well as encourage one another. Tell your story!**