Path to dream career leads to unexpected business venture

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A Cincinnati firefighter and paramedic is living her dream, but the journey it has taken her on is one she never planned for.

Blu Cauthen says it’s always been her dream to become a Cincinnati firefighter and paramedic, especially after saving her grandfather as he was having a stroke when she was a child.

She made that dream come true four years ago.

When there’s an emergency or a fire sparking in Cincinnati, Cauthen is often one of the first people on the scene.

Two years ago, she helped rescue a woman from a burning apartment.

“It was a big kitchen fire on the walls and on the refrigerator and everything,” recalls Cauthen. “It was smoke packed down, couldn’t see through it. “That was an awful fire. I am just glad I made it. I didn’t think I was going to make it.”

When Cauthen isn’t hosing out fires, the mother of five with two more on the way is igniting her chakras at her yoga studio, InoarG in Madisonville, which will celebrate its second year in February.

“I’ve had people literally cry at the end of classes and just to be able to feel what I’m offering them it’s beautiful,” said Cauthen.

She says her love for exercise started while she was studying to be a firefighter.

After six months of rigorous training and testing, it was beginning to take a toll on her mental and physical health.

“I was very stressed out and I didn’t even know I was stressed out, so I started going on like Instagram and doing all these different yoga poses and challenges and stuff and was like, woah this is cool,” explains Cauthen.

In those moments Cauthen learned to be still, pausing the worries around her while focusing on herself and her true value.

“It showed me one, I’m in control of how I feel, I’m in control of being happy or being sad,” she says. “Nobody can make me happy. I can allow them to.”

A feeling that she says she wanted to give to others as well.

So, she became a certified yoga instructor.

It was also her mission to create an inclusive space for people of color which she says was hard to find during her yoga journey.

“This is a place where you can be comfortable,” Cauthen says. “I always say this where your thighs can rub together. Your edges are curling up and everything here. Here, you can be you and be transparent and vulnerable within yourself in a safe space and let go.”

Teaching movement towards purification within, which is the meaning behind the name of her studio, InoarG.

While being a firefighter and a paramedic put her on the path to helping others, teaching yoga has allowed her to be of service in another way - advocating for mental health and wellness.

Leading a yoga movement across the city that hasn’t gone unnoticed. Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval even declared Aug. 28 as Cincinnati Yoga Day.

Being a newer yoga instructor, she says she’s amazed by what she has been able to accomplish so far but is just getting started and is working on a greater outreach to the Black community.

“We have our vices: our partying, alcohol, drugs. And that’s it, you know, kind of like just forgetting about our issues, forgetting about our problems, trying to let them go or suppress them, instead of actually sitting and being in them, and then releasing and letting go of them,” says Cauthen. “And to be able to be that staple in the community that allows them to let go or to see that this is an alternative method for your physical and mental health. Like it’s beautiful. Like I’m really, I’m really helping people like I’m really really truly helping people long term.”

Cauthen says when you look good you feel good, which led her to launch a new athletic clothing line as well.

She says each piece is not only comfortable, but it keeps you dry during your workout.

You can visit her website to sign up for classes.

Breaking Through Series

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