Meet Erika B: Living Proof that Hot Yoga Changes Lives
“Come As You Are—So Long As You Keep Coming To The Mat.”
Success looks and feels different to everyone—and one person’s journey might help inspire your own.
That was certainly the case for Thrive instructor: Erika Budson. She learned about Original Hot Yoga (then known as Bikram Yoga) through a friend, and it developed into a lifelong passion she pays forward with every class she teaches.
It is a privilege to have Erika as part of the Thrive team. Her years of experience shine through her teaching, patience, kindness, sense of humor, and welcome acceptance of everyone exactly as they are.
Erika has been on staff with us longer than any other instructor—over 20 years! She is one of those rare human beings who has spent the better part of her adult life serving others. It has been a gift to watch her help people grow and heal through various modalities—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
For many years Erika taught hot yoga full-time and worked with us behind the scenes at Thrive as a manager. In the recent decade, she’s earned her Master's Degree at Wayne State University and now works full-time as a mental health therapist at a local university, while running her private therapy practice. Lucky for us, she still makes time to teach at Thrive Wednesday nights at 7 pm in Farmington Hills (click here to experience one of her amazing classes for yourself!).
Erika is known for having fantastic playlists for her class, a great smile, a great laugh, and the fantastic gift to remember everyone's name she has met in the yoga community over the years—even after only one interaction!
Keep reading to learn more about Erika’s passionate start with Original Hot Yoga—and why she can’t live without it.
Jenny: How long have you been practicing yoga?
Erika: I have been practicing for 28 years and teaching Original Hot Yoga for 22 years.
Jenny: Wow. That’s incredible. So what initially got you interested in starting to practice yoga?
Erika: I was 18 and home from college; my best friend Mary and I found a heated Bikram class at a Southfield community center with Katarina, the first Bikram teacher in Michigan. I felt rejuvenated afterward. Mary and I got lunch at Inn Season after that; we just felt so healthy and good.
After that, I bought Bikram’s red book (from the 1970s) and practiced with it for many years. Then in 2001, it was Spring, and I was home from Asheville, N.C., visiting my parents. I found the Plymouth Bikram Yoga studio, which had just opened a few months earlier. I took my first class in the heat with Jenny or Melissa. It was like lighting bolts went off saying, “this is what I need to be doing with my life.”
Jenny: And how did that transition into wanting to become a teacher?
Erika: Honestly, I was living in Asheville with friends and having fun, but I didn’t feel any purpose, and I felt kind of lost. After taking that class and feeling the magic in every fiber of my being, something just mentally clicked. I felt like a real person. And that helped so much. I decided right there that I had to move back to Michigan, practice hot yoga, and take the teacher training to have this yoga in my life. I didn’t have passions in life at that time. This was it—it was so cool.
So I moved back to Michigan and worked at Starbucks to save up for Bikram Teacher Training. I went to training in September, right after 911. we didn't know if it would happen because air travel was iffy, so I drove myself out to California. .
I felt like yoga saved my life. It was like living life in black and white, and then after class, it was like living life in color, like I came alive. I realized I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.
Jenny: How has teaching yoga impacted you over the years?
Erika: I don’t know where I'd be if I didn’t teach because it changed my life forever. Even though practicing hot yoga now doesn’t feel the same in my body as it did 20 years ago—it still feels life-changing—even in dark moments, it reworks things and shows you that it’s ok to keep living life and moving forward.
I was drawn to hot yoga mostly for mental health, even though I may not have known it then. I was already flexible, and the yoga felt good for moving my body. The heat felt good. At the end of every class, I felt like a totally new person. The mental health aspect was the most salient point; even though I wouldn’t have used those words at the time in my youth, it gave me purpose.
“A great thing about hot yoga is that you can always come back to it—it’s a constant through all of the changes in life—you can always count on it.”
In those early days, I was going through a tough time. I was in a bad relationship and struggling with depression. My friend Mary, who was already a Bikram Teacher, told me, “You have to make up your mind, just like you make up your mind to lock your knee.” This idea inspired me to make a major powerful decision by taking things in a new direction.
When you are in grief, despair, or even joy, this yoga reorganizes things inside of you and gives reason to move forward. I don’t know how it works, but it does. Maybe because it is such a structured practice, it feels like coming home to me to practice. It’s like my church or something. I hope this is how people feel when they go to church. And the connection to other people—that is something that no one can take away from you.
Jenny: What do you love about Original Hot Yoga?
Erika: I love the heat. It feels cathartic. Each class feels like you are on a journey, and then at the end, it is like you are like a new person. A great thing about hot yoga is that you can always come back to it—it's a constant through all of the changes in life—you can always count on it. I also love connecting with all the different people as an instructor. I feel like I provide a different perspective. We all have our own, and I know that mine has changed over the years, but just like yoga, teaching is a practice. It evolves over time. It's not about “being better,”. It's about evolving in perspective. I also really love the Thrive community. There is so much diversity in our community, and our connections go beyond status, political affiliation, socioeconomics, and ethnicity.
We all have a deeper connection through yoga. I have met some of the most important people in my life through yoga.
Jenny: Is there anything else that is important to you related to your yoga practice?
Erika: Yoga is a foundation for life. It helps me immensely in my job as a therapist. Yoga teaches skills like how to breathe through discomfort and understand who you really are—the same skills we work towards in therapy.
Jenny: Do you have any advice for yoga students?
Erika: First of all, I want them to know how much we really care about them. We love Thrive's yoga students so much and genuinely wish them health and wellness. Beyond that, I think it's important to just breathe and find joy in your own body.
Oh! And one more thing: leave your cell phone outside the room!
Meet our beloved Erika and get inspired by her passion for Original Hot Yoga firsthand.
Erika teaches Hot 60 Music every Wednesday at 7 pm in Farmington Hills—you can book her class now by heading to our class schedule.
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