Pamela Collier

Pamela Collier may have been born and raised in Upstate New York, but she now considers North Carolina home. She moved here in 2011, and it seems she has been making up for lost time. Since she moved to Raleigh, she met the love of her life and got married, became a stepmother, completed her RYT-200 certification (she's currently working on her 2nd RYT-200), began teaching at Alchemy, bought a house at Lake Gaston, and started Lake Gaston Yoga in 2021.

She attributes her daily yoga practice to her ability to overcome the stresses of a full-time job (Pam is a paralegal) and everything else that comes with her hectic life.

Although Pam was a fit, long-distance runner, she was looking for something to put less strain on her body while achieving the same "runner’s high.” In 2015, Pam’s cousin inspired her to take a hot yoga class, and the rest is history. Throughout that first class, Pam kept thinking "OMG, what is this; I think I'm going to die?!" Of course, she didn’t die, but what she did experience was something that she couldn't quite put into words. She's been hooked ever since.

Pam says she found yoga when she needed it most, even though she didn’t know she needed it. When she started her practice, she would cry towards the end of most classes. Not that anything bad happened that day, or there was anything specific that warranted her to do so. That end of class release that she was experiencing was her realizing that she was holding on to so many things. Yoga gave her a way to process and release all the stressors that were building up in her life. From that point forward, it all clicked and her practice went from going for the "workout" to going for the ability to release what was no longer serving her.

That realization ignited a passion in Pam to learn more about yoga’s mind-body connection and led her on a quest to get her teacher’s certification. She learned that she could use her body to affect her mind through yoga, and she had to share this with others. Pam found that yoga is an amazing way to dealing with life’s challenges, but it isn’t something most people are ever taught. “It’s not therapy, but it is extremely therapeutic,” says Pam.

In Pam’s hot yoga classes, she likes to be the "weird teacher" and teaches to keep students in the moment. To do this, Pam breaks up standard yoga patterns of movement and keeps her students on their toes. You can’t predict where she is going, her next move, and she keeps you focused. Pam says the mind-body connections happen when you stay physically and mentally present in the moment.

Pam keeps up the intensity throughout each class but, as she sees it, “My job as a teacher is to get you outside 'your box.’ We can do anything we put our minds to, and growth comes from pushing our limits both on and off the mat."

In addition to teaching at Alchemy, Pam also loves being on the water. She takes her teaching philosophy to her dockside yoga and stand-up paddleboard yoga classes at her Lake Gaston Yoga business. Imagine the boundaries pushed in that!

Join Pam at Alchemy Hot Yoga in Wake Forest for her 6:00am Hot Vinyasa Express. She also teaches a “Master the Chaturanga” workshop once a month.

About Pam

Owner & Founder, Lake Gaston Yoga, dockside yoga in Lake Gaston, NC (Henrico, NC)
Certified RYT-200 instructor through Indigo Hot Yoga, May 2019
Reiki Level 1 certified
Married to Ben, with a stepson Brixston (10)

These are Pam's regularly scheduled classes. Check the schedule for any changes.

Weekday	Time	Class Name
Wednesday	6:00am	Hot Vinyasa Express