West Des Moines Yoga Teacher 'Hears' the Beat of Her Clients

Lithesome as a willow, Lily Hou weaves noiselessly among the women, save the soft, almost whispered, reminders to watch their breathing, to slow it down, to shut off their thinking.

The women — half of them pregnant and the other half new moms — are among about 200 metro residents Hou leads in yoga practice from her studios in West Des Moines and Clive. She assembled the group thinking the synergy between pregnant and postpartum women would create a better experience for all.

She wasn’t wrong, said Rochelle Hiles of West Des Moines, who was 20 weeks pregnant when she began yoga with Hou. Her second child was born in June 2010, but she still practices with the group. Hou has a knack for “reading” what her clients need, Hiles said.

Although an accomplished practitioner of yoga, Hiles jettisoned the routine during her first pregnancy. Today, she’s not sure why.

“Yoga made a huge difference,” she said. “It helped with back pain and relaxing in stressful situations. It was just a good way to, once a week, regroup and recharge, be more flexible and get through some of the discomforts of pregnancy."

Literally translated, yoga means “union.” Longtime friend and client Jan Dickmeyer said what Hou does for her clients goes beyond teaching a sequence of yoga poses that, practiced regularly, can deliver physical and emotional benefits.

Hou “reads your psyche and your physiology incredibly well,” said Dickmeyer, who, since moving to Omaha a few years ago, regularly travels to West Des Moines to practice with Hou.

“She tells me things about myself that are realized by only a few very closely,” Dickmeyer said.

It’s a matter of Hou “listening and hearing” the beat of each individual. The talent, Dickmeyer said, serves Hou well in one of her friend’s other life passions: helping new Iowans find their way in adopted homelands.

Hou, who immigrated to the United States from China in 1993, reminds newcomers of the importance of simple things, like learning American English, far different from the formal British English many of them learned as a second language, and to get to know their neighbors. Her outreach has been formalized with a board of directors position with Iowa International Center, a nonprofit group working to build cultural understanding among Iowans and people from around the world.

Hou likes to think of Iowans’ acceptance of the sometimes misunderstood ancient Indian tradition of yoga as a metaphor for their willingness to embrace people of other cultures once they come to know them.

“Yoga is a tradition from Asia, so it’s not a very foreign concept to me, but sometimes people have a fear of yoga, and think it’s a religion,” Hou said. “But the more they hear of the benefits, the more they bring in their spouses, in-laws and friends.”

Clients come to Hou for all sorts of reasons, among them, increasing flexibility, relieving pain, managing stress, improving balance, or, as is the case with the new and expectant mothers, building and maintaining strength before or after childbirth.

Hou turned to yoga 16 years ago to relieve the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, which she has suffered from since she was a teenager. “If I didn’t do something, it would have gotten worse,” she said.

She started her business in the basement of her home in Urbandale nine years ago, opened a studio in Clive five years ago and opened a second studio in West Des Moines two years ago. Accredited by the National Yoga Alliance, she is an avid traveler and has taken instruction from yoga teachers around the world.

“I love and live yoga,” Hou said. “When I travel around the world, the first thing I do is look for a yoga workshop. It’s always fun to see how people do yoga differently.”

About Green Yoga House:

Address: 4800 Mills Civic Parkway, Suite 104, West Des Moines

Hours: Classes scheduled daily except Mondays and Fridays

Known for: Yoga tailored to individual needs.

Cost: Ranges from $17 for a single class to $450 for a class meeting weekly for three months

Phone, website: (515) 991-6266, greenyogahouse.com