Roman Szpond
Founder of Gratitude Hot Yoga & Creator of The Gratitude Way
Most people don't come to yoga because they're looking for yoga.
They come because something in life isn't working.
Stress has become their normal.
Their body hurts.
Their relationships feel strained.
They've experienced loss, burnout, anxiety, illness, or simply the quiet feeling that somewhere along the way, they lost themselves.
I know that feeling because I've lived it.
For more than two decades, I've dedicated my life to helping people reconnect...not just with their bodies, but with themselves.
What began as teaching yoga has evolved into something much bigger: helping people develop the awareness, resilience, and gratitude needed to navigate life with greater clarity and purpose.
That journey became The Gratitude Way.
'The Gratitude Way' Founder and creator
~Roman Szpond
The Hardest Chapter
Before Gratitude Hot Yoga ever existed, I received news that changed my life.
I was diagnosed with cancer.
Like so many people who face an unexpected challenge, my world became divided into two parts: life before the diagnosis, and life after it.
During that time, yoga stopped being something I practiced and became something I relied on.
It taught me that peace isn't found when life finally becomes easy.
It's discovered in how we meet life's most difficult moments.
That experience forever changed the way I teach.
People don't need someone to simply tell them where to put their feet.
They need someone who can help them find solid ground when life feels uncertain.
From Practice to Purpose
Over the years, I had the privilege of studying with many of the world's most respected yoga teachers while traveling extensively throughout India and immersing myself in a variety of traditions and philosophies.
Each teacher offered something valuable.
But one realization became impossible to ignore:
Yoga doesn't transform people because of the poses.
It transforms people because it changes the way they relate to themselves.
That insight became the foundation for everything I've built since.
The Gratitude Way isn't simply a yoga method.
It's a practical framework for living with greater awareness, emotional resilience, personal responsibility, meaningful relationships, and purposeful action.
Whether someone steps onto a yoga mat, walks into a coaching session, or simply reads one of my articles, my hope is always the same: That they leave with a different relationship to themselves than they had when they arrived...a higher, deeper and broader one.
The Gratitude way
Today, The Gratitude Way has become the philosophy that connects everything I do.
It brings together movement, breath, neuroscience, psychology, leadership, mindfulness, and the everyday decisions that shape a meaningful life.
Whether I'm leading a class, coaching an individual, mentoring a teacher, speaking to a room, or writing Beautiful Human, my mission remains remarkably simple:
To help people become more aware.
Because awareness creates choice.
Choice creates freedom.
And freedom creates a life lived intentionally rather than automatically.
I don't believe transformation happens because we master yoga poses.
I believe transformation happens the moment we become willing to see ourselves clearly...and respond differently.
That's the work.
And it's the work I'll continue to devote my life to.
"The goal was never simply to build more yoga studios. It was to help more people come home to themselves." — Ro
Personal Power Yoga is the evolution out of Inner Strength Studios
Pradhana was the 1st Inner Strength inspired yoga studio that Roman helped to create.
Inner Strength Studios evolved out of Inner Strength Yoga
Roman acquired Gratitude Hot Yoga in 2019. This was their logo.