As the youngest brother of five in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, Chance York always grew up around sports. He played baseball, soccer, gymnastics, downhill skiing, and others, but the activity that would transform his life would be yoga. He shared, “I believe this saved my life,” York said. “It not only continues to give me purpose and fulfillment, but it is what I go to through the dark times.”
York was a college freshman in 2001 when he saw a movie that featured yoga and decided to pick up a pocket edition of “Yoga for Dummies,” but it wouldn’t be until he hit a rock bottom in 2016 that the discipline would completely take over his life. “I felt like there wasn’t a lot of joy and felt like I had to do a lot of soul searching, I was depressed” York said. “I was pretty deeply in a hole, just about what to do in life. I wasn’t getting the same thrill or fulfillment out of the things I used to do. In that deep depression I turned back to yoga because I knew it was something that made me feel different.”
At that time, York was struggling with many aspects of his life as he was pursuing his masters in education, had two young children, and was active in the music scene. Plus, the killing of Philando Castile greatly impacted him as he had mutual friends with Castile. “Through that, it was quick, after about a month of practicing a lot. I realized how much better I started to feel,” York said. “I started to feel like myself again. I started to feel more joy and then I noticed how the people around me were still suffering.” He was focused on getting his yoga teaching certification and did within months. Due to his connections, He was able to build a base of students and saw a community in need of the same transformation he was able to get.
“In that deep depression I turned back to yoga because I knew it was something that made me feel different.”
“A lot of people were just curious [in my transformation],” York said. “I was teaching out of my rehearsal space with my band. I had people from all different scenes. People in the scene that knew me from music were ready to learn. It was a natural fit. Every opportunity led to another opportunity to do more of it.” Most yoga instructors are white women and that fact led YMCA of the North to reach out, as they were looking for someone like him because of the need for diversity. He was brought into a research and development role with the George Wellbeing Center.
“They [institutions like the YMCA] are looking for people who can do that job and actually look like the people who they are serving,” York said. “That need for self healing, self discovery, and searching inward by somebody who looks like us has been the big thing. The need [of diverse yoga practitioners] outweighs the number of practitioners doing it.” The need for diversity in yoga and York’s experience in teaching youth is also how he ended up working for a charter school in North Minneapolis because he had experience in creating mindfulness programs for youth. “[The charter school] reached out to me to create a program that was more than detention,” York said. “They wanted mindfulness, they wanted meditation.”
His experience in doing that is how he ended up at his host site, Homegrown Lacrosse. York was sought out by Aron Lipkin, the founder of Homegrown Lacrosse, because of a mutual acquaintance named Jaina Portwood who referred York to Lipkin. “Aron was big into yoga,” York said. “He was interested in expanding his services into including career pathways for yoga and meditation for youth.” Now at Homegrown Lacrosse he is contributing to the building of its yoga division. The yoga division will function much like the lacrosse division by training its high school coaches to train their athletes.
“That need for self healing, self discovery, and searching inward by somebody who looks like us has been the big thing. The need [of diverse yoga practitioners] outweighs the number of practitioners doing it.”
“The career pathways program that we are working on is taking this model and bringing a college in the school's yoga teacher training to high school,” York said. “We want to create a yoga teaching program in the high school free to the students that are interested and they can also receive college credit.” One cannot teach yoga without certification which is why the free part is essential. The high cost for yoga certification, which can cost between $2000-$5000 according to York, can create a barrier for a lot of individuals. “If we can provide that [the yoga teacher training] in schools for free and then start hiring or have paid opportunities for those students to use their qualifications to serve their own communities, that’s the goal,” York said.
Part of what York enjoys about working with Homegrown Lacrosse is that he gets to tap into his network and helping other people of color get into the yoga space. “I get to bring together some of the greatest heads in the Twin Cities that are in this wellness space,” York said. “I’m not the only person doing this work, but I am kind of one of the people that people think of. I am able to connect people to other opportunities. There is a lot of stigma, barriers and identity stuff and people go like “nah, yoga isn’t for me.” We are kind of overcoming whatever reason this stigmas got in place. We are trying to make yoga way more inclusive.”
He is very busy raising his family, his work at the YMCA, building the yoga division of Homegrown Lacrosse, his own PBS show, his own music, and other things, but he doesn’t feel like he is doing too much.“You can do anything, but you can’t do everything,” York said as he was reflecting on a quote he saw from a book called Essentialism. “I don’t think of self-care as some sort of secondary thing. If you are always your biggest project you can do anything you want.”
“The more we can become whole, instead of trying to fill a hole, we as a society can do and will do better. I hope to represent growth, compassion, and courage in whatever I’m doing.”
Chance isn’t sure where his path will take him, but knows he will continue going as he sees a need for his services. “If a year ago I was told I would be working on the projects that I'm working on now I would've been thrilled and excited,” York said. “The more we can become whole, instead of trying to fill a hole, we as a society can do and will do better. I hope to represent growth, compassion, and courage in whatever I’m doing.”
