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Taiga Yoga students Chandra Venables and Henry Wong stretch their backs. Behind them is the Taiga Yoga logo. The eight branches signify the eight limbsof yoga. - Lauren Mckeon/NNSL photo

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - After a year of running Taiga Yoga, Judith McNicol has learned a thing or two about mixing it up.

"When you're a small town, you can't offer one specific kind of yoga," said McNicol. "You really need to diversify."

While the 13-year yoga veteran may have her favourite styles, like Yin Yoga and Hatha Yoga in the Vinyasa Flow style, she recognizes there is a need to teach much more.

That's why McNicol's centre offers everything from restorative yoga to yoga geared toward specific parts of the body, such as the neck and upper back. In her second year, she said she plans to introduce more variety.

Into 2009, McNicol has plans to hire two more yoga teachers, in addition to her current six, and to start classes like pre-natal yoga and yoga for kids. It's all about making yoga for everybody - and so far it's making Taiga Yoga one popular place.

"Most people that come, come back," said McNicol, adding "I couldn't have wished for it to be any different in the first year."

Not only do students come back, but many also followed McNicol when she left her old gig teaching yoga at the Racquet Club to start the new venture into her own business.

"A lot of (yoga) is building trust with the instructor," said Henry Wong, one of the students who followed McNicol to Taiga.

Wong started doing yoga five years ago after a series of sports injuries began to cause him pain.

But like Chandra Venables, who started yoga for similar reasons, Wong said yoga is not all physical.

"It's helped me a lot mentally," said Wong, who said yoga is calming.

"I'm one of those people that seems outwardly very calm," added Venables. In reality, she said, her "mind is always racing."

"Doing (Judith's) class gives me time to rest," she said. "It's like a retreat; an oasis of colour and peace."

Another student, Ingrid Kritsch, began one-on-one classes with McNicol in 2006 when Kritsch started treatment for breast cancer.

"It was a way of finding tranquillity and strength," said Kritsch.

She said the practised breathing learned in yoga helped her get through parts of her treatment. She now takes classes regularly at Taiga.

Classes cater to all different levels, said Venables.

"You don't need to be self-conscious."

Yoga "is about accepting where you are and what you can do," said Wong.

To celebrate her one-year anniversary, McNicol is holding an open house on Feb. 28 in the afternoon.

Massage therapist Starr McLachlan and esthetician Jill Peterson, who run their practices out of the Taiga studio, will also be on hand.

"We're all queens in our own right," said McNicol, commenting on the talents of both McLachlan and Peterson.

The open house will feature draws for free yoga passes, live music and catering. McNicol will also showcase her new retail items, including yoga bags, mats, blocks and bandanas.

"It's going to be fun," said McNicol. "It's a great space ... our little sanctuary."