On Gavin Milner—and the Full Potential of Bliss
“Always be a willing beginner.
There’s so much growth in just that.”
Every month, Thrive Hot Yoga features a staff member to help our growing community get to know each other better—and perhaps gain some new insights about your own yoga practice, potential, and life.
Celebrating his 20th year at Thrive Hot Yoga this fall, Gavin is a Saturday morning teacher at Thrive in Farmington Hills. Anyone who has attended a Gavin class knows they are well loved and attended (and he has the waitlist to prove it).
While he teaches the Original Hot 90 class every week on Saturday at 8 AM and 10 AM, Gavin has developed a unique teaching style that infuses a love for deeper aspects of yoga and philosophy with a healthy dose of humor, sincerity, humility, and hope. These are just a few of the reasons people can’t seem to get enough of Gavin and his unapologetic authenticity—which is why I’m sure you’ll enjoy his interview as much as I did.
Keep reading to learn more about Gavin’s approach to yoga—and why he keeps coming back for more.
Ian O’laughlin: What originally drew you to the world of yoga?
Gavin Milner: There were a few things that happened right around the same time. It was 1997. I was doing core curriculum classes at Washtenaw Community College, and I was going from one class to another. Occasionally, they had Hari Krishna devotees on campus—one of them this interesting-looking guy with a shaved head and a little tuft of hair at the back, a big smile, and wide, open eyes. He came up to me and said something really intriguing like, “Would you like to experience the full potential of your bliss?”
[Laughs]. Right? He was just a character. And I said, “Of course I do!”
He started taking out these books and telling me how passionate he was about them. And he asked me questions about what I was interested in reading. He handed me two books and he said, “I really think you're gonna love these books. And if you read them, here's my card, and we could talk about it.” I thanked him for the books and the opportunity to talk, and then he said, “Oh, I need a $10 donation for the books”.
I think I even had to go to an ATM machine to pay him.
Eka Pada Shirasana, Foot Behind Head Pose
The funny thing is, I still have one of the books. It was “Beyond the Illusion of Doubt” by the founder of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. His devotees would ask him questions, and then he answered them. They were all questions of different philosophers throughout history. Like “Plato said this and that, how does that jive with your philosophy of Krishna?”. And then he would talk about the differences. At the same time, I was taking Intro to Psychology and Intro to Philosophy classes. And so it was connecting with some of the stuff that I was reading at the time. That was really cool. And I liked this guy, just an interesting guy.
I read so much of this book that I felt I should contact him. The card he gave me didn't have a phone number on it— just had an address. So I had to write out a letter, which forced me to take my time to be intentional and intelligent about my response. The whole experience invited me to look at the book and the philosophy in a more critical way than I would have otherwise.
And at the same time, there were some other women at college who were going to a Buddhist temple—a Zen Center in Ann Arbor. They asked if I was interested in going, perhaps because of a paper I wrote or something like that. And I think I only went because I was getting the attention of two women in my class. I went for a while to the Zen center, and they would do postural yoga between the long sitting in the formal meditation poses. Then to rest your back and your legs, we would do some yoga. And that was the first time I actually did some postures and heard somebody say, “this is a yoga posture”.
I just really loved it. And I liked the sense of how it was fitting into these two books that I read just prior to that.
And so yeah, it was the two of those experiences that kind of came together, right around the same time. That really kind of lit that flame.
Ian: I remember around that same time ‘97, my senior year in college, a friend took me to a yoga class on campus, somewhere in the gym. The teacher led us through Sun Salutations. There was no memo about what to wear, I showed up in khaki pants and a button-down shirt. I heard people talking after class about how great they felt. All I could think was how uncomfortable I felt doing yoga over-dressed. My point here is that there were no yoga studios in 1997 in Nashville at the time. At what point did you come across a yoga studio and then eventually hot yoga?
Gavin: So, this is interesting. I was at the mall in one of those nature stores, the kind with polished rocks and those zen gardens where you take a little tiny rake and make a design in the sand. I was looking for a Valentine's Day present for my girlfriend at the time. They had like three VHS videotapes of yoga. It was like Patricia Walton and Rodney Yee, I think. It was billed as Yoga for Strength on one tape, and Yoga for Flexibility and one was Yoga for Relaxation, maybe. I found out the people on those tapes were from Iyengar school. So I got the Iyengar book “Light on Yoga”. But I still didn't have a studio for maybe a year. I was just studying from that book.
Angustasana, Finger Stand
In 1999 (or maybe 2000), I was working in Southfield when they opened a Center for Yoga. The first actual class I took was Linda Kay's class. I remember thinking that she was just so lovely. And I wanted to hold everybody's hand at the end of that class. I just thought it was such a sweet, sweet class, and I was touched. I was touched. I just fell in love with it.
Then I started practicing at Namaste in Royal Oak and that's where I took a Teacher Training for Basic Hatha and Ashtanga Yoga. And it was right after I finished that Teacher Training, that the first incarnation of Bikram opened in Farmington Hills in the Spring of 2002.
I was just starting to teach when Bikram in Farmington Hills opened up. I remember I asked the other people I was teaching with if they would want to try it out with me, and the response I got was “Oh, that's not the pure yoga”. There was this rhetoric about how it was an Americanized hybrid of yoga. And that piqued my interest even more. I was like “what does that mean?!”
It’s just this “My way is the best!” game that people kind of get stuck in. And that is more interesting to me because there was this negative stigma from some of the teachers I was working with at the time. I think I went right around the grand opening. I remember this when Erika’s mom Ursula was singing.
And, just like you felt in college, I was way overdressed. I was not expecting to sweat that much. It was more than I’d ever sweated in my life. And I just loved it. And I didn’t see whatever kind of difference there was nor was I deprived of a sense of a ‘pure practice’.
But I loved it. I really liked the people that were teaching there. And you were there at the time! All the teachers there were just really great and I got along with them really quickly—so I was going there whenever I could. And this is saying something because the studio where I was teaching at the time would let me practice there for free. I wasn’t getting paid much, but I found the money to go to hot yoga.
And at some point early on, I think the studio owner, Melissa, said that I could work in the studio to pay for classes and that endeared me to it even more.
“I remember hearing people use the word “grounded” and not exactly knowing what that meant. And then feeling that on a really visceral level— feeling, you know, connected to the earth and connected to the people around me. That was the biggest thing.”
Ian: Do you remember how your body felt after that first hot yoga class?
Gavin: I remember. Yeah, I do. I remember hearing people use the word “grounded” and not exactly knowing what that meant. And then feeling that on a really visceral level— feeling, you know, connected to the earth and connected to the people around me. That was the biggest thing.
I've always had issues in my own life with hyperactivity. When I was in elementary school, I had teachers that told my parents I probably should be medicated. And for a long time, my parents were trying to regulate my diet, like removing sugar to see if it had a positive effect. That first time was, I think, the first time of really feeling just stable and present and connected.
You know, energetically, I think it was the heat— and maybe a combination of exhaustion and exhilaration at the same time. Like I had really done something; I'd accomplished something. I used up that energy, and at the same time, I wanted to high-five everybody in the class.
Ian: Do you remember who your first Bikram teacher was?
Gavin: I don’t recall his name, but I believe it was the teacher who would often have a poem about a tree that he would recite during Tree pose. I thought that was really cool.
“I think what prompted me to continue and to teach in the Bikram style were the teachers. I felt a connection with the people that were teaching there—a really strong connection.”
Ian: At some point, you must have had the thought “I want to become a teacher of hot yoga.” Can you tell us a little bit about that transition?
Gavin: I think what prompted me to continue and to teach in the Bikram style were the teachers. I felt a connection with the people that were teaching there—a really strong connection. We started practicing on our own together, just the teachers, and that was really meaningful to me.
I was also really interested in yogic philosophy at the time, and I felt like there were other people that wanted to talk about that and were just as interested in it as I was. So it was more about the community. I love the practice, and I still love the practice—and that specific part of the practice of the Bikram lineage to Bishnu Gosh is all part of the practice. But the teachers were what made me want to continue to be a part of that group.
Ian: So at some point you found yourself in Los Angeles, take Teacher Training with hundreds of other hot yogis.
Gavin: Yes. 2003 training, 20 years ago.
Bamanasana, Short Man Pose
Ian: Over the last 20 years, the Bikram world initially saw a massive expansion around the world, and then a big collapse. The Michigan economy has had its major ups and downs, not to mention the Pandemic shutdowns and painfully slow recovery. And yet one constant over the years is that your classes are always full. There's something about your teaching that magnetizes Saturday mornings at Thrive in Farmington Hills, and you're at the heart of it.
I'm curious, what does it feel like when you’re at the front desk before class, and you see 40 or 45 people charging at you from the parking lot with their yoga mats?
Gavin: Most of the time, it feels like “Oh, my friends are here! We're gonna do some yoga together. We're gonna practice together.”
Ian: What motivates you to continue teaching after 20 years? What keeps you going?
Gavin: I think in the beginning, I was learning a lot about the practice, and I was really eager to share what I was learning. There are so many facets to studying yoga. It can be a study of the postures. It can be a study of the philosophy. It can be a study of the history and how it has evolved. It can be a study of all these great teachers and lineages, and the underlying psychology of how balance in a posture is symbolic of balance in life, and balance in diet, and work-life balance. And getting a sense of that constant flow, of recognizing the illusion of seeing things that are impermanent as permanent and the kind of opening to life—and the shift away from the resistance that comes when you get a sense of what that means.
So, all that, and wanting to share my level of comprehension of that. And in wanting to share that level of comprehension, coming up with different questions, and hearing different questions from students and wanting to understand that more. And with my own self-inquiry, the Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi practice, the “Who Am I?” You keep asking it, and it keeps expanding out, and keeps coming into a new answer and a deeper unfolding.
Something like that!
Ian: When you think about the Thrive Hot Yoga community today, is there anything that feels unique to you?
Gavin: Well, on one hand, I've known some of these people for as long as I've been coming there—and we both know that’s a long time. Some longtime practitioners come to practice, and I know that certain things will be taken care of that’ll pave the way for newer students.
Two new students came last Saturday and Rochelle noticed that one of them didn't have water, and they came in late. She got up and got them water. Because with 40 people, I don't always get to all the questions while I’m at the desk. I’ll often overhear long-time students answering questions, a kind of fostering for those new students. It feels like an open communal space. I see that stuff all the time at Thrive.
With all that support, it’s like there are multiple teachers in one class who support new students, whether it's like “hey, you can do this, you can actually do this,” or “you may need to set up here” or “you can start by doing a couple of postures and then sit down for the rest of it” or “this is my story, this is what I went through, and you can do this!”
So there is this bolstering of the new people coming in, this next generation of the community. I see it when I'm teaching. I see it when I go to practice. I see it all the time. I really do. And I don't think that that is a terribly common thing, at least to that extent.
Ian: We know that hot yoga can be a little intimidating for new students because as soon as you say 105 degrees, most people want to run away. Do you have any advice or encouragement for the brand-new beginner, who is likely anxious or intimidated to start?
Gavin: Yes! Give it a shot! Feel it out. It's like any new thing, there's always a sense of clumsiness and foolishness and awkwardness when you do something new. I think there's something really good about that—that willingness to put yourself right in that spot. Especially after a certain age, to still play that part. When there are things in your life that you can do well, and you can do them with a level of competence and confidence, to still be a beginner, I think there's so much growth in just that.
Also, bring water and a towel. And don’t wear a button-down shirt and office slacks!
“I’ll often overhear long-time students answering questions, a kind of fostering for those new students. It feels like an open communal space. I see that stuff all the time at Thrive.”
Meet Gavin and get inspired every Saturday!
Gavin teaches 90-minute Original Hot Yoga classes to a packed house every Saturday morning at 8 AM and 10 AM in Farmington Hills, with a rare exception of taking a day off (ie for his birthday!). February 25th is when he resumes teaching on Saturdays. Save your spot in advance here!
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