Chelsea Keenan has her own way of helping others, and it’s how she helped herself.
Keenan, 28, is from Maple Ridge and recently relocated to Vancouver, where she works in corporate communications and teaches yoga.
Getting there, however, wasn’t as simple as taking the highway.
Keenan grew up in Maple Ridge, where she started playing hockey with the Meadow Ridge Barracudas. She moved on to play in Langley, and finished her final years in the B.C. Major Midget league with the Fraser Valley Phantom, as a defender. She graduated from Pitt Meadows secondary, where she attended the hockey academy, then went to the University of Victoria, where she started doing yoga.
But she only stayed at UVic one year.
The following summer, she worked at Meadow Gardens Golf Club in Pitt Meadows, driving carts and serving. She also started golfing and enjoyed it so much she enrolled in a two-year golf management program at Camosun College in Invermere, B.C.
After finishing that, she took a half year off and worked in a leadership position with Lululemon. Then she enrolled at Simon Fraser University and finished her undergraduate degree in communications.
After that, she moved to Calgary for a job in that field, developing corporate culture and employee engagement.
But then Keenan decided she needed to travel.
“I was hoping to find purpose and ease some of the big emotions I was experiencing at that time in my life.”
She first moved back to Maple Ridge and worked at the Greg Moore Youth Centre, as a summer camp support worker.
Then she left.
She went to Australia, Southeast Asia, then New Zealand.
She stayed in Bali for a month, during which time she became certified as a yoga instructor. It took 200 hours.
She was ready to go back home, but needed to find a purpose, a way to bring communities together, to create an aura for mental health.
“That was a big thing for me,” she said.
“I am aware of mental health.”
Anxiety, in particular, she added.
And she wanted tools to help people.
Yoga helped her. It helped her relax.
“I relied on yoga a lot in Calgary.”
When she left for her trip, she booked a one-way ticket.
“I had no idea when I was going home.”
Her journey was unknown, and she wanted it that way. To prove to herself that it’s OK to not have a plan, to adjust when things go awry.
Now her journey is more clear.
She’s bringing people together, to help them and others, through yoga.
Keenan returned to Maple Ridge after her trip, to reconnect with family and friends, especially her sister Carisa and two nephews, Lochlan and Finn.
Keenan also started teaching yoga classes, first in various parks around Maple Ridge – using mats purchased by her mom – then, when the weather got colder and wetter, in the gym at Pitt Meadows secondary.
Then she moved her classes inside Silver Valley Brewery on 224th Street. The classes are by donation, $20 per class, which are limited to 18 participants. At the brewery, donations include a pint of craft beer. The classes are once a month on a Monday. All the money donated goes towards charitable organizations.
So far, Keenan’s classes have made contributions to no less than 10 charitable organizations, including the Tyler Lewis Clean Energy Research Foundation, Youth Wellness Centre in Maple Ridge, Alisa’s Wish and Katie’s Place animal shelter.
For her efforts, Keenan was nominated for citizen of the year in the under-40 category by the Maple Ridge Community Foundation, which also received donations from her.
Recently, Keenan moved to Vancouver to be closer to her new job, again doing corporate communications, developing culture and engagement.
She still returns to Maple Ridge once a month to teach the yoga class.
She also teaches in Vancouver and started a yoga and wellness retreat at Loon Lake in the Malcolm Knapp UBC Research Forest for groups, promoting such practitioners in Maple Ridge.
“When I moved home, I knew I needed to talk about mental health, specifically anxiety, and be open and transparent about my own experience with it. I wanted to help others and provide tools to help deal with mental health issues, all while trying to bring the community together with yoga.”
For her, yoga is about being present, and mindful, a moment to take a breath, to focus on how the body is feeling.
“The body can hold a lot of stress and pain.”
Yoga, she said, helps people to take a moment for themselves.
