When yoga instructor Leah Novak steps into the studio at Hillsdale College, peace seems to follow her. Her voice is soft, yet commands a room, and her gaze is bright and hopeful. You wouldn’t know she had lost her infant son to a rare birth defect or grown up watching her mother fray from decades-old trauma –– both of which taught her one life-altering truth: the body remembers even if the mind doesn’t.

“Our bodies are constantly trying to heal –– they’re not our enemies,” Novak said. “The longer we suppress trauma, the more it shows up later –– in illness, in pain, in fatigue. That’s why it’s so important to face it and heal.”

Through many hardships, Novak found her calling as a yoga instructor for Hillsdale College. She offers one-credit beginner and intermediate classes, as well as breathing classes that purify the body through oxygen intake. She defines yoga as a mind-body practice that combines body postures, breathing exercises, and meditation to improve flexibility, physical health, and mental well-being. Novak currently resides in Hillsdale County as a wife and mother of two.

“Yoga means union between the body, mind, and spirit,” she explained. “It allows people to come as they are, to take what works for them, and leave behind what doesn’t.” 

At Hillsdale, she teaches with this delicate inclusivity in mind. 

“People here tend to live in their heads, so I try to help them ground themselves in their bodies,” Novak adds. “For me, yoga is more about mindfulness and awareness.”

Novak’s belief is written into her family’s story.

She said her mother, who was the daughter of Mormon missionaries in Africa, suffered sexual abuse from trusted adults between the ages of 9 and 13. 

“She didn’t even remember it for most of her life,” Novak said. “When I was a teenager, her memories started coming back, and by that time, she developed one of the first cases of fibromyalgia and dissociative identity disorder.” 

Fibromyalgia is a chronic health condition that causes widespread pain and induces stiffness, insomnia, and fatigue. Additionally, dissociative identity disorder is a mental health disorder that causes individuals to alternate between different personalities. Novak explained that her mother’s multiple personalities were of children.

The connection, Novak realized, was clear. “It was all from a chronic amount of stress in the body that had been suppressed for such a long period of time,” she said. “Our bodies remember. The way her body expressed things, because she didn’t know for so long, manifested into disease.”

Her mother’s suffering became an important moment for Novak and her decision to help others relieve pains that live in the muscle, bone, and breath. 

“So many people move without realizing what they’re doing,” she said. “Yoga helps them reconnect with what’s stored inside.”

That connection between body and memory took on even greater meaning when Novak and her husband, John Novak, became parents themselves. In 2017, her first son, Johnny, was born in Hillsdale with a severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia. “He had about an 8% chance of surviving,” she said softly. “The doctors recommended that we abort him, and we told them no. That is not an option for us.”

Despite months of medical interventions, Johnny died from pulmonary hypertension. 

“We knew going in he had a very small chance to live, but we wanted him to have the life he was going to have,” Novak said.

Eight months later, Novak read a report that the water on the Marine base in Okinawa, Japan, where she and her husband had lived for three years, was contaminated with chemicals and fire retardants known as “forever chemicals.” The revelation shocked her.

“I’d been an instructor for ten years. I knew sleep, diet, and exercise were important, but this was a whole new piece of the puzzle,” she said. “It opened my eyes to environmental toxins and how they affect our health.”

She began to wonder if the toxins that accumulated silently in her body over the years might have played a part in her son’s condition.

The grief propelled her deeper into understanding the body as both vessel and storyteller. She began studying “body burden,” the buildup of toxins in tissues, and replaced her cleaning and beauty products with non-toxic alternatives. 

“You can’t do it all at once,” she said. “You pick what’s most important –– maybe food, sleep, or clean products – and make changes slowly. You can’t live in fear. Relationships and peace of mind matter more than perfection.”

Through her loss, Novak realized that she was meant to become a yoga instructor. The same way sweat releases toxins from the body, yoga, she believes, helps release emotional and spiritual toxins from the heart.

“Our biggest challenges often become our greatest teachers,” she said. “Painful experiences, like loss or trauma, can reveal powerful lessons if we’re willing to examine them instead of burying them.”

Yoga, for Novak, serves as a refuge to God, away from a world that forgets to feel. 

“The world tells us a lot of lies, like how we always have to become something to have value,” she said. “But our worth doesn’t come from achievement or appearance: it comes from God.”

Novak shared her life’s philosophy. 

“Gratitude is foundational for cultivating peace and joy,” she said. “Even listing a few things each day transforms your outlook. The Bible tells us to give thanks in all things, and it’s true. Gratitude grows peace.”

Novak said her story shows how perseverance through movement, mindfulness, and faith can release long-term trauma.

“Healing doesn’t mean you stop hurting,” she said. “It means your pain becomes a teacher instead of a captor.”