Meet Maureen Lantz of MOSA Yoga And Massage in DTLA Arts District

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maureen Lantz.

Maureen, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Growing up in a suburban part of Southern California filled with orange groves and an ostrich farm or two in view, I had a love of exercise science and movement from an early age. I was an avid runner, and completed a marathon (which was such a wonderful experience), played volleyball, basketball and ran track; but, after college, as I entered my early twenties, I found a lightness and freedom in the meditative practice of yoga and found my way to a community yoga class in Orange County.

Upon my move to Los Angeles in the early 2000’s, I became a member of a Downtown LA studio and continued my yoga practice as a student. Not long after, I was on the path to training to become a certified yoga instructor—I became certified in 2001. I enjoyed teaching immensely and saw reward in that the more individuals I had the privilege to teach, the more their personal experiences could inform my teaching style and help me learn and grow. Eager to develop my practice and add deeper levels of anatomical and physiological understanding of the human body, I completed my massage certification at Hands on Healing Institute in Tujunga in 2014. I continued my advanced education at the same school (HOHI) in John F. Barnes’ style Myofascial Release. In my ongoing yoga education, I have taken multiple hours of training in ayurvedic yoga through Shiva Shakti School of Yoga and Healing Arts.

There’s nothing like connecting the dots between these two therapeutic practices of both yoga and massage.

I opened MOSA Yoga and Massage in early 2016.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
With the pandemic, it has given me the opportunity to expand my student and client base across the country and internationally. By teaching yoga and meditation online, in any given class, I might have students from London, to India, to right next door to my studio space. I’ve also hosted a number of workshops online blending both elements of massage and yoga to provide tools to the students to make their way dynamically through their life and work and help them to explore new elements of joy in their lives.

Please tell us about MOSA Yoga And Massage.
MOSA Yoga and Massage is tucked away in the Arts District of DTLA, adjacent to Little Tokyo, in a large loft space.

I specialize in blended yoga flow classes, sprinkling in elements of Qi Gong, Vinyasas, Kundalini Yoga and even massage, reflex point and sound therapy.

I label the class types for signing up online in a simple way because each class is tailored to the needs of who shows up for the session and where they are at in their world that day. An evening flow class might include everything from a Kundalini kriya, to reflex point therapy, to arm balances—the students inform the class.

My massage practice is just as diverse. I incorporate in an individual session all the elements needed for the client to move closer to wellness, providing their bodies with the forum to heal, drawing from Lomi Lomi, Swedish Massage, Pre-natal and Post-natal massage, Reflexology, Myofascial Release, Sound and Vibrational Therapy and more.

I also bake and create all kinds of organic goodies from rose pistachio brittle to dark chocolate salted brownies as offerings to my students and clients, along with MOSA-made skincare from lip balms, to fragrances to belly balms for the pregnant mamas.

I love my little DTLA oasis and enjoy all that I’ve learned from the students I’ve met over the years and the massage clients who enter the space.

What’s your favorite memory from childhood?
Our family-of-seven summer road trips bring back the fondest of memories for me. We would sing along together in the car to Judy Collins and Alan Sherman, praying that we wouldn’t get car sick, especially if you were the unfortunate one to get stuck facing backward in the way way back of the family station wagon. We made up our own rhyming word games or played “out of state license plate” along the way and, eventually, after a 10-hour day of sitting in a hot car, we would hop out as we reached the end of each day’s journey and feast on our homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while we sipped our strawberry sodas and explored our surroundings, which usually included tours of most of the National Parks and Forests of the United States. In California, we trudged through many a trail in Lake Tahoe and Muir Woods, visited Joshua Tree and the breathtaking rock formations at Pinnacles National Park just to name a few.

Contact Info:

• Address: MOSA Yoga and Massage
  837 Traction Avenue, Studio 301
  Los Angeles, CA 90013
• Website: https://www.mosayogaandmassage.com
• Phone: 213-534-1755
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credit:
Nadya Balitskaya, Anton Sanko

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