Teaching yoga gave Charlene Brodie the confidence to enroll in law school at the age of 40. Photos: William Armstrong, Armstrong Photography
Charlene Brodie brings lessons from the yoga mat to her law practice.
For Charlene Brodie, the path to becoming an attorney in a later phase of her life was a winding one, shaped by resilience and self-advocacy.
After Brodie’s family moved to White Bear Lake when she was 5, “[My mom’s] job here was with a local attorney, working as a legal secretary at Fleming Law,” she says. Hours spent at the office, watching her mom and the attorneys at work, piqued her interest almost from the start. Still, a legal career felt out of reach. “Growing up, we didn’t have a lot of resources for education, so I worked really hard in school,” Brodie says. “Even the consideration for law school was just a dream. I didn’t really actually think I would do it.”
That dream stayed in the background for years. Brodie studied Spanish and international business at the University of St. Thomas and dabbled in various jobs. Then, an unexpected discovery changed everything. One day, walking down a Minneapolis street, she saw a “free yoga” sign. “I just walked in,” she remembers. “It opened up so much emotion for me and so much sense of freedom. I went back every single day … and immediately decided I [wanted] to teach yoga.”
Charlene Brodie teaches at CorePower Yoga several times a week as a way to find balance in all areas of her life. Photo: Susan Song
Getting her yoga teaching certificate and eventually opening her own studio—which she ran for 20 years—built something Brodie hadn’t always felt: confidence. “There is something about getting in front of a group of people and being vulnerable and guiding them that creates, first, a sense of fear,” she says. “But once you see the impact that you’re making on other people … that experience is life changing.”
Yoga became her foundation for self-belief. “I needed that fear. I needed that yoga community,” Brodie says. She says her personal narrative changed from “I’m small and insignificant” to “I can find a connection with someone and improve their lives.”
“Through yoga, I finally got to a place where I believed I could go to law school,” she says. She was 40, and she knew the time was now or never. Twenty years after she’d first graduated from college, Brodie passed the LSAT and enrolled at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul. In 2022, she opened Brodie Law Office in White Bear Lake, where she specializes in estate planning and trusts. “I’m not an argumentative person,” Brodie says. “I like to get to know people. I like to meet them where they’re at and put them in a position that they feel comfortable.”
She still teaches yoga several times a week at CorePower Yoga. “It’s what brings me back to balance,” Brodie says. She encourages others to slow down and find a practice—whether it’s yoga, reading, running or something else—that brings them in touch with themselves. “Taking time for movement, whether it’s rigorous or soft, is so important in resetting your energy … You can show up in the other areas of your life with more grace and more focus,” she says.
