Yoga instructor has Hollywood background
After leaving a career in film, stage and celebrity public relations, Cat McGowan found her way to Bella Vista, where she became the owner of Fire Fly Yoga and Reiki School.
She moved to Bella Vista four and a half years ago after going through a divorce and wanting to leave Los Angeles.
“I basically had to find a new career,” she said.
Her first experience with yoga was when she was in her early 20s. Her friends had suggested she try it because she had been struggling with depression, anxiety, and back, neck and hip pain due to previous car accidents. She did not think she would like it because she thought she was not flexible enough and couldn’t sit still, however, her experience surprised her.
“I felt really good …” she said.
She fell in and out of classes over the years and tried many other kinds of exercises, but never understood why she felt so good after yoga classes. Upon moving to Bella Vista, she was suffering from terrible PTSD from a traumatic experience. She started going to yoga classes, and they were the only thing that made her feel better, she said.
“I was on therapy and anti-anxiety meds. Therapy helps, but it’s a long process to heal when you’re doing talk therapy. The pills are just a Band-Aid,” she said. “Yoga was amazing. I wanted to investigate why did this form of exercise make me feel so much better every time I went. I would be having a panic attack on the way to class but leave feeling calm.”
This path eventually led her to yoga teacher training at Yoga Gypsy in Springdale and Bee Well Yoga in Rogers.
She had wanted to go to law school, but in trying to purchase a home, the mortgage lender told her that she needed to establish two years of income and that the law school debt would hurt her chances of getting a loan. She also applied for jobs in nonprofit work, but nothing worked out.
McGowan began taking yoga teacher training classes and, upon acquiring some experience, began building clientele, teaching private lessons in people’s homes. She also looked into reiki training.
She explained, “Reiki is a Japanese energy healing system. In Eastern healing we are two bodies, the physical and the energetic body. In Western medicine we only focus on the physical. Reiki is an energetic healing.”
She noted reiki originated in Japan in the early 1900s and was almost abolished after World War II because reiki healers were required to register and went underground. One healer named Takata was American-born and brought it back to the U.S., she said.
Becoming certified in reiki, McGowan began teaching small groups in her home. Then the covid pandemic hit, she said. She lost all her clientele and was out of work eight months because of covid. Then she taught some with Bee Well Yoga in Rogers and with the Bella Vista Property Owners Association.
“Slowly, when things opened up again, my clients started contacting me to set up lessons,” she said. “What I was building fell apart when covid hit and I had to build again.”
She began looking for a home for her business and found one at 1719 Forest Hills Blvd. She signed a lease and was supposed to open in September, but due to covid and high demand for materials and distribution issues, the opening was pushed back to October. Then the city inspector said the bathroom needed to be rebuilt, so the opening was pushed to November.
“I’ve had a lot of bad luck, but it’s also been a great blessing in disguise,” she said. “I was pre-selling vouchers, and on the day I opened I had enough members to cover the rent. That’s probably unheard of for a brand-new business, especially because yoga is not a necessity.”
She has done a lot of handing out of flyers, advertising, pounding the pavement, etc., she said, and it has paid off. People are bringing their friends, neighbors and spouses.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” she said.
At the school
The school offers a variety of classes, including slow flow, chair yoga, power flow, yin, beginner class, restorative and sound bath. There is a masseuse on staff, and all staff members are reiki trained.
Sound bath requires minimal stretching and mostly involves lying on the floor listening to various sounds. McGowan plays sounds such as gongs, crystal bowls, sea drum, rain stick, etc.
“Sound vibrations and sound frequencies heal the energetic body,” she said. “It’s another form of energetic healing.”
She went on, “A quarter of the people pass out snoring, others go into a meditative state, some get uncomfortable because it brings up stuff, some feel completely relaxed.”
After one of McGowan’s sound bath classes, Nancy Spielvogel of Bella Vista said, “I could feel tingling up my arms. Sometimes it feels warm. At the end I always feel calm and energetic.”
Angela Horton of Bella Vista said of sound bath, “Every time I come in it’s completely different. I might have a meltdown but I’ll be stronger later. It’s worth it. It’s also a supportive group if you’re looking for a place to belong.”
Members of a power flow class, the school’s most advanced class, also weighed in on their experiences.
Kery Miller of Bella Vista said, “I like the calorie burn because I burn sometimes 200 calories in a class. I’m building on those harder poses. I did it in Little Rock and then I moved here and found this, so I’m happy she’s here.”
Jim Klinger of Bella Vista said he likes yoga in general for the flexibility it brings. He said he attends about eight times a week.
“What’s so great about it is you have everything from this slow flow sound bath to power flow. You can pick and choose based on your abilities,” he said.
Addison Trunick of Springdale said she enjoys power flow because it is higher energy.
“I can’t really do the sound bath because I fall asleep, but this gets my body moving, but it still relaxes me,” she said.
McGowan said, “I’ve built such a beautiful community, and they are kind, generous, welcoming to new members, really encouraging when people come in and they’re struggling. Just a wonderful group of people. I’m very blessed.”
She said her school has a wide range of ages and abilities, as well as one-third of her students being male, which is a high number, she said.
“I think I speak to a wider range of people and make it much more accessible,” she said. “My mission is to make yoga accessible to all people and they’re coming for them, not for me. The big part of me sharing yoga is because of what it’s done for me. I rarely take a medication for my issues. I haven’t had a panic attack in a long time. My back, neck and hip pain from previous car accidents, I don’t even feel any pain as long as I’m still practicing.”
She said she encourages everyone to try yoga, no matter where.
“It’s really helpful for not just the body, but for mind and spirit. It does make you happier on a daily basis,” she said. “Every time you practice yoga, the brain chemistry is healing. It’s raising serotonin levels, which is a mood enhancer. It raises dopamine. It raises melatonin so you sleep better at night. Also on a spiritual level, it doesn’t matter what religion, what denomination of Christianity you’re coming from. The more in balance you are, the more in tune you are to your faith. That’s why you hear in yoga: mind, body, spirit.”
She continued, “Practicing mindfulness is part of it, and a daily practice of gratitude. It’s not just going for exercise, and that’s a misconception. Because all these other things are happening when you attend a class. Something as simple as practicing gratitude every day has been scientifically proven to help you feel happier. Just like in Christianity you’re always thanking God for things in prayer, you’re saying thank you to God or the universe for things in your life.”
Nonprofit
McGowan also runs a nonprofit organization, Fire Fly Yoga Warriors, Inc., which she created to fully fund Bella Vista police officers and firefighters for free yoga classes. She received a $1,000 grant in the Momentum Pitch Competition by WinRock for minority women business owners, and she donated those funds to the nonprofit, she said. So far, she has raised $2,500 for the nonprofit.
She is seeking Bella Vista police officers and firefighters who are interested in yoga or who suffer from back pain from their work and gear or may suffer from extreme stress or sleep disorders, she said. Anyone working for the departments, including dispatch and administration, may inquire at info@fireflyyogareiki.com
or call 479-323-2200. Any person or business who would like to sponsor police or firefighters for yoga will receive a 100 percent writeoff on their donation, she said. Mail checks to Fire Fly Yoga Warriors Inc. 501(c)3 Attn: Cat McGowan, P.O. Box 3041, Bella Vista, AR 72715.
Background
McGowan was born in Manhattan and grew up in the Boston area. She went to Emerson College in Boston, which is known for communications, and started out as a broadcast journalist. However, the O.J. Simpson trial was going on at the time, and she became disillusioned with the world of broadcast journalism because every story seemed to be laced with opinion rather than solely based on facts. She changed her major to creative writing with a minor in film with a focus on screenwriting.
Upon graduation, she and a number of her classmates moved to Los Angeles. She was a struggling actress and held a number of different jobs. She worked a short while in celebrity public relations, as well as working in feature film marketing and distribution. She never quite broke into film and television, she said, but she was a touring stage actress with a show called The Joy Luck Club.
She had a small co-star role on Days of Our Lives,
was a co-star on Opposite Sex, was a guest star on
Discovery ID on Discovery Channel and appeared in
Belle’s on TV1, she said. She co-created a TV animation series with her ex-husband, Darin McGowan, called Cat Boxed for Disney that was in development for three years but never got made. She also wrote and cast a pilot for her own TV series called Defining Mel, but it was never made because her close friend died of brain cancer, and that is when she quit show business, she said.
She assisted in casting a couple of independent features and cast a lot of short films, and films that she cast won a lot of awards at film festivals, she said.
“I walked many red carpets. I got to walk the red carpet for Oceans 11, The Matrix, Swordfish, Training Day, Zoolander, Miss Congeniality, Three Kings … when I worked in feature film distribution,” she said. She also worked in feature film marketing in international film distribution for Village Road Show Pictures.
Upcoming events
McGowan said for February she has a special for new clients of 10 yoga classes for $31 that expires 14 days after the date of purchase. In March she will celebrate March Madness with discounted yoga classes. Every Saturday in March from 10-11:45 a.m. she will lead 110 Sun Salutations (breaks welcome) followed by sound bath for 20 to 30 minutes. Discounted price is $40 for all four Saturday classes. For more information on regular class pricing, go to fireflyyogareiki.com.