Sonya Patel

 

Founder of Zenworks Yoga

 

by Amara Surrell, crew 3

 

 

Have you ever met a CEO from Cleveland? One Cleveland CEO is Sonya Bapna Patel. She runs her own company, Zenworks Yoga, to help kids relax.

 

Patel got the idea for her company when she was a teacher. She taught second and third grade in New York for two years. When she was teaching, she noticed that the students were nervous and stressed. That’s when she thought she should teach yoga because they had no recess and gym class only twice a week. “During testing time we started doing yoga in our classrooms and we really thought it helped our students,” Patel explained.

 

When she got married and moved back to Cleveland for the great culture and good food at restaurants, she also wanted to give back to the community, so she opened Zenworks Yoga. Her mission was to provide yoga opportunities for kids and young adults at no cost. Patel has to do a lot when running her own business. She has to find instructors, do marketing, and look over paperwork. She finds instructors through referrals from other instructors.

 

She explained that yoga helps people calm down, and she even commented that it gives you better mental health, but some people cannot afford this. The hardest part of her job is that the work never ends when you run your own business. The best part of her job is when someone comes there and makes class fun for them. She said she enjoys getting positive feedback and the program and classes. Patel’s favorite yoga pose to do is savasana, which is done lying down to relax.

 

Patel was born in Cleveland and grew up in Solon, where she met her husband in high school. Now they have a two-year-old daughter, Layla. Patel sometimes does yoga with her daughter. Patel’s parents first lived in India and then when they were in their 20s, they moved to the United States. Her parents speak Hindi, and when growing up, she learned to speak the language. Patel described that when she was younger, she was daring and courageous, but now she is more mature and has good time management and is organized. Patel started doing yoga when she was younger and ever since then, she has done it regularly.

 

In 10 years, Patel would love to make a gluten-free restaurant because her daughter Layla has never been able to eat gluten. She commented, “I would love to open a restaurant that is vegetarian and gluten-free. I love baking so I would love to sell my goods.”  She hopes to still be with Zenworks. She also wants to wants to travel more places. She has already been to Canada, Mexico, Brazil, India, Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, France, England, Switzerland, Italy, and the Netherlands.