Yoga On And Off The Mat, And Out In The Ocean
Ryan introduces Sara Cecilia, a Yoga Instructor living in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, who shares her journey from New York to reconnect with her Mexican heritage. Sara discusses her initial vulnerability as a teacher and the importance of creating a safe space for students. She emphasizes the value of exploring different yoga styles and the significance of finding what resonates personally. Sara also touches on the sustainability of yoga teaching, the spiritual aspects of yoga, and the impact of nature on her practice. She highlights her experience with stand-up paddleboard yoga and her ongoing exploration of quieter, more subtle practices like Yin yoga and yoga nidra.
You might be interested if you are have a curiosity about teacher training, various ways to follow the path of being a yoga teacher or maybe just to get to know a little bit more about Sara Cecilia as someone within your community.
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Ryan 0:00
Hi. Welcome to another episode of fit well fusion. This is Ryan here, and I have a guest, Sara Cecilia with me, who actually lives, uh, nearby from me. And I, I found what she does very interesting, and I wanted to share her with you. So let's have Sara introduce herself just about a little bit of information about where she's from and what brought her to currently be living. Where I'm living, Laura and I are living in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Welcome, Sara, yeah, thank you, Ryan. Again. I'm very grateful to be on your podcast, and,
Sara Cecilia 0:43
yeah, I'm happy to share. So I came to Mexico because, well, so this is the second time for me living in Mexico. I was born in Albuquerque, but all throughout my life, I've kind of come back and forth. Because, you know, my heritage is Mexican, and you know, circumstances have always brought me back. And most recently, I guess, three years ago, I was wanting to find a connection to my roots again, be closer to family. At that time, my dad was living in Guadalajara, which is, as you know, pretty close to Vallarta and and I just wanted to be close to nature. So at that time, I was living in a different type of jungle, a concrete jungle in New York. And although I love New York, and always will, I was just looking for, you know, those types of connections, like the ones I just spoke about, and, and, yeah, just something was calling me to to come back here.
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Ryan
Awesome. So Sara is a Yoga Instructor in many different ways, and that's a big reason I wanted to share Sara with the audience, especially if there's someone out there who's looking to become a yoga teacher, maybe wants to take a yoga teacher training. We did do an episode on yoga earlier, just about the different styles, and in 30 minutes, you cannot cover what yoga is. That's why we'll have, yeah, see Sarah is laughing. We'll have multiple episodes on it. But I wanted to expose you guys to someone who's doing various styles of yoga and has been a yoga teacher, and I was lucky enough to be in two of her classes so far, when it comes to teaching yoga, I wanted to ask you first, because this is my personal projection of my experience. I felt very vulnerable at first. No matter how big the class was, how do you feel about maybe, maybe, after being a teacher for a while, it changes, but initially, maybe, if you can think of initially when you became a teacher, the aspect of being vulnerable in front of a group, did that have any impact, and Was that something you had to overcome at the beginning of teaching? Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like even to this day, you know, I've been a yoga instructor for almost nine years, and I still feel like a little bit of butterflies whenever I get in front of, in front of a brand new group of people and and that's, you know, very vulnerable because, well, I see it as a vulnerability in multiple ways. You know, first of all, it's, it's me as a teacher, as a person, as a human being, being vulnerable and stepping up in front of a group of people who you know can be strangers, especially if it's you know, in a retreat setting, people that I've never met, and kind of sharing very personal and intimate experiences that I've had with my practice. And so it's it's about my practice and what you know, maybe something that I've learned or something that I've reflected upon, ways to be in my body and ways to experience being a human and in hopes that I can connect to others in that way. And so then I also see it as a vulnerability on their part. So it's almost like a mirroring back, because, you know, they're also being very vulnerable. You know, maybe it's their first time being in a yoga class, and they might feel maybe anxious or nervous, and they're kind of exposing themselves right to be a beginner and and there's a lot in that because, you know, they're they might be brand new to moving their body in a certain way, or maybe they're very. Connected from their body, or maybe there's, you know, there's so many things that could be there that you're that are unseen, right? So there's this container that you're trying to create and the space that you're trying to create so that both parties feel comfortable and feel open and relaxed. And there's like, this trust. So I yeah, there's absolutely a vulnerability there, right? And I feel like when I initially started, yeah, the whole the concept of holding space took a lot of time and work for me to really reach that point where you are holding space for others, rather than bringing your projections and your expectations and your nervousness, not just physically into the class, but like energetically, the words you use, the space you give. For example, in conversations, some people can't give a gap of space because it makes them feel uncomfortable, but that's their projection of their discomfort with space. Maybe the other person needs that space. So like you said, I know for sure, even after years of being a student, there was always especially with a new teacher, there was always some discomfort. I was unsure what was going to happen. There's a lot of poses that make people feel vulnerable. They don't talk about it, but you know, one of the main poses most people do is downward dog or Child's Pose, and that can be a very vulnerable position for someone who's never stepped foot into a yoga class and then you have a teacher walking around behind you, talking and yeah, To hold space correctly for a class, takes a lot of skill, and I have a lot more respect now for any yoga teacher I meet. I wanted to ask you about your experience with working in the industry. I guess you could say of yoga, because I'm picturing somebody who wants to become a teacher, and they're unsure of what the scope would be, of what they could do, and the way I see you teaching in various ways, I think can be quite inspiring to others, to see that there's a variety of modalities, there's a variety of ways to approach it, there's a variety of ways to get clients to have classes with so do you want to maybe share just a couple of the ways you're currently or maybe even in the past, as well teaching yoga yoga to people? Yeah, for sure. So I think one of the best pieces of advice that I ever got, you know, and this was in 2013 when I finished my first teacher training, my teacher told us as a group, she said to, you know, go out there. And this was on our graduation, right when we were getting our certificate, she said, to go out there and experience as much of different types of yoga that you can. And I'm very grateful and feel blessed that I discovered yoga in New York, because there's so much yoga there. There's so many different styles. And that's not to say that you can't find that anywhere, but particularly in urban settings where, you know, there's so many, so much diversity and offerings and teachers. And so this teacher, she told us to go out there and go explore, go take classes with lots of different teachers, with lots of different styles. And back then, there was this thing called Yoga passport. And so this was before class pass, and it was like a booklet that was good for a year. So it was actually like a printed out booklet. It wasn't an app or anything, and it had like coupons or or like, like gifts passes for different studios and different formats. And thanks to that, I discovered you know different modalities and different ways to you know experience yoga. So, yeah, I think, I think if you can try to explore and and see what's out there, because you know, you might find something that resonates with you more than you know the first thing that you come across. So I think it's all about finding what feels authentic to you, what makes you feel the most yourself, like the most genuine. And because, after all, it is a path about like, finding who you are and and what it is that makes you feel the most you right? And Lada and I talk about this a lot, the idea of things resonating with you. So if a class concept, or, let's say, you try something new, it can be scary, especially when you hear. Something like restorative or Yin or yoga nidra. What the heck is that? But if you go try that out, and then it resonates with you, I mean it with a with sound healing, it could literally resonate with you, but basically
Ryan 10:18
it deep down, it feels right, or there's just this sort of tingling or hint that, okay, there's something here. Then you know, you could follow those subtle hints and that subtle energy that might lead you to the yoga that works for you, because the yoga that works for me is not the same as you. So if I said everybody should go do power yoga, that's just my projection of what I enjoy. Somebody who says that, by the way, might actually need a lot of Yin and restorative rather than power. But yeah, thanks for sharing that. Now I have a question about teaching in the long term, perhaps somebody becomes a yoga teacher when they're physically in their prime, something like that. They even do something like Ashtanga, something more challenging at first, but then things change. Their body changes, their lifestyle changes, and then they might have to in order to continue the practice, they might have to adapt their yoga modalities. So do you feel, as someone who's taught yoga for a while that being a yoga teacher is a long term sustainable practice, or do you feel like maybe you have to apply adaptations as you age. I I'm I'm asking because I'm asking myself this same time, and I'm hoping for advice on that too, because I'm unsure if my body, all of a sudden, doesn't want me to do power yoga classes. I don't want to be sitting there like, what? What else can I teach? I'd rather adapt earlier and become an expert at those things, rather than just saying, Oh, I can't teach to the I can't teach anymore. It's done because I have some injury. So have you, have you considered that, or thought about the sustainability of the idea of being a yoga teacher? Oh yeah, for sure. I
Unknown Speaker 12:17
do think about it.
Sara Cecilia 12:20
And I think that for me, it's been a little bit of a blend in that, you know, I started thinking about that when I was realizing how much I was teaching. Sometimes I would teach, you know, in when I was living in New York, anywhere from like 12 to 15 classes, maybe even more some weeks, maybe, you know, like 17 or 18, which then it's kind of like, okay, that's a bit much. And it's such a physical can be such a physical practice, especially if you're demoing and you know, like going from studio to studio, or, like, biking from studio to studio, or, wow, yes. So it can be very physically demanding, but I think, you know, like, that's kind of the point when, not only was I thinking because I'm I feel like I'm a very curious person, and I'm interested in lots of different things, and I want to learn more, and I want to find out more. So I think naturally, I started wondering about, like yin yoga, and wondering about, kind of like these more subtle and quiet kind of practices. And so I think it was kind of like they were informing each other. But at the same time, I started getting interested in in functional training and functional movement, right? And, and trying to figure out ways that could make, you know, being in this physical body sustainable and, and maybe thinking about other ways to to stay healthy, right, and so and not just physically right. So thinking about how to quiet down and how to be still and, and actually, that's kind of where I've been going now with my practice and, and I think it was just kind of a natural evolution, but I think it's also very important to just stay mindful and like asking yourself day to day, okay, what do I need today to make me feel like myself, or make me feel whole? And sometimes that is more fire, or maybe that is, you know, more of a restorative practice. Or, you know, whatever it may be, maybe it's the sound bath, right? But I Yeah, so I really appreciate you saying that, like the rajas and the Thomas and the the fire and the water, so balancing your energies. And my coach would call it, working in and working out. So, you know, a. Having a broad scope of what you practice physically, let's say it could include just something like breath work that could be part of your physical practice, because it restores you, so you have enough energy to do the more physical things. But I do encounter a lot of people who go to one end of the spectrum or the other and like to hang out there, because they consider that their comfort zone. But the way I see it, the universe is going to put you right back in the middle some way, and you don't want it to put you in the middle through an injury or a crisis. So having that balance, I think, is really valuable. And I think maybe your initial experience might be something that people commonly have as yoga teachers, they, at first, they expose themselves to the asana and the you know, like I said, maybe more Ashtanga, maybe more aggressive yoga types and stretching. And then they realize, okay, I need to broaden my scope here. I need to take a breath and step back and see how long this can last in my life, because I want it to be a part of my life. I want my life to be yoga, which, if you really look at it, your life, you can make yoga your life. It can cover all aspects. When you apply the principles of the sutras, you can really apply yoga anywhere, anytime. You don't even have to be on your mat, in my opinion. So yeah, thanks for sharing that. So I just wanted to add one more thing about holding space. So you know, in addition to creating this space that's a place for people to feel safe, to open up to their vulnerabilities and to feel that trust, I think it's also a place to feel a connection and and I've actually been thinking about this, and today, I came across this beautiful quote that really reminded me of how art and spirituality can really have a lot of kind of overlap. So I just wanted to read this quote about connection and finding that connection within a yoga class and just being seen and heard. Okay, reading from ocean Vong is that what art is to be touched thinking what we feel is ours, when, in the end, it was someone else in longing who finds us. So I just think that's a very beautiful way of thinking about connecting and connection and feeling seen and heard, which I think is kind of at the heart of
Unknown Speaker 17:48
creating space or creating that container.
Ryan 17:51
And what would we need more in life than right now, than connection? You know, like, thank you. That's amazing. We actually just recorded an episode on quotes, because we have i So I tend to listen to things and read things, and I have a little notepad thing where I've written down, written down, probably like 100 quotes, and just from all different people, even just if someone's having a conversation with me, and I pick out something beautiful that they said they're quoted.
Unknown Speaker 18:25
You know, it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 1 18:28
Even sometimes in movies, I know it sounds cheesy, but sometimes some words hit you a certain way. Yeah, for sure. So I appreciate you sharing any other quotes you want to share. You know, we feel free that I love having exposing people to quotes, because it can really like you, like we talked about earlier. It can resonate with people. And when something resonates, that's when the energy starts to flow much more naturally. I feel, yeah, so I'd like to, I'd like to talk about
Unknown Speaker 19:02
the spiritual aspect of yoga.
Speaker 1 19:05
Yoga can be, can represent a bit of a challenge, I think, for depending on someone's religious background, because it can be tied to spirituality, to Hinduism, to Buddhism, whatever it is, and there might be some misunderstandings that people have about it, but regardless, people tie when someone thinks yoga and knows nothing about it, they think spirituality, right? And you can't detach those two thoughts. It's like consensus norm. But I'm just when it comes to the spiritual aspect when you become a yoga teacher, I've seen a couple examples of this where there's a yoga community and certain members of the community feel this sort of holier. The only way I could describe it is holier than now. An attitude of being one step ahead than the others on whatever path we're imagining. Have you experienced anything like that? Yeah, well, I mean, I think that that it is possible, you know, especially with, like, Instagram culture, and especially with associating yoga with purely a physical practice, and you know, other other pitfalls, or, you know, for lack of a better word, but I do think it is possible to get caught up, perhaps in getting caught up in in something that's not authentic, and and getting caught up in in a path that maybe is not as humble, yeah, I for sure, I've seen that, yeah, so I guess you could consider it something like compartmentalizing yoga and and, and taking the, let's say the power yoga element of it, and being like, Oh, this is, I'm making a patented power yoga program that's the best in the world. And you're only gonna you know, the traditional yoga is old school and outdated. You know, I think we've seen this with the martial arts. Traditional styles of kung fu that I used to practice would be mocked by the mixed martial arts community, for good reason when it comes to the practical application of being in in a in a cage right now, but there's still value to those practices, so maybe at least that's what I've seen when people compartmentalize yoga and say, like, well, I'm the best at this, and you know what? I've improved on this. I've taken yoga and I've made it two point
Unknown Speaker 21:59
any of that I see what you're saying yoga 2.0
Speaker 1 22:02
is what I'm trying to comment on. Whether you've seen that kind of thing. Like, you know, people always need a sales pitch, and yoga sells a lot of sells a lot all over the world. So it is a good sales pitch to say, look, I took yoga and I boosted it, or I made it applicable to the modern Western world, or whatever it is. But I was just curious if you had any experience or opinions on things like that in your time in the yoga space, especially in being in a big city and then in the small city things like that. Mm, hmm. Yeah. I mean, I think that that there could be some ego that gets involved, you know, like, we, we all have, or are familiar with, like, these big names of, you know, like, you know, without naming names of, you know, taking yoga and, like, just making it, like, a certain amount of practice or poses, and then calling it something, and then really kind of capitalizing on that. And a lot of that could be ego that's involved, and not to say that there's anything wrong with with making money, right? So it doesn't mean that you need to struggle just because you're a yoga instructor. But again, I think that as long as you're you're still in your truth, and you're still practicing yoga beyond the asana, you know, as you were saying, like the sutras or the eight limbs of yoga, and really practicing what you teach, right? So really staying in alignment with with the eight limbs of yoga, practicing the the yamas and the niyamas and and staying in alignment and ethically that way. Because, as you know, practicing yoga goes beyond just being on your mat. So I think as long as you stay grounded and you have a way to, kind of, like, check yourself and like, have a way to anchor back down into kind of keeping yourself in check and staying grounded in alignment with who you are and who you want to be, and and making sure that that's Um, staying within that path, you know, like the
Unknown Speaker 24:23
honoring and being true to your word and true to your intention,
Ryan 24:26
right? So I just want to share with people the eight limb path of yoga. If you haven't been exposed to that, you could definitely find, I haven't checked, but I'm sure there's some YouTube videos of people explaining the eight limb path of yoga, or at least, there's articles. So if you just Google eight limbed path of yoga, you'll see what we're talking about. Or you could look up the Sutras of Patanjali in terms of being exposed to the more spiritual you. Even deeper spiritual aspects of yoga, I would recommend a book called The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, which don't worry about the name. I'm going to post a link in the screen in the description. Good luck writing that down correctly, but thanks for sharing that. So I really like that you tied that to the the yamas and the the niyamas, because I review those quite often, and saucha and things like that. I try to apply in daily life, even if there's no yoga mat, even if you physically can't go to a yoga studio, or you don't feel like doing Asana that day, you can practice all different elements of yoga, even just non violence to yourself, is one of the, one of the great ones that I try to practice all the time. So along those lines, have you, if you'd like to share it, have you had a what, what I would consider a tangible spiritual experience resulting directly, resulting from your yoga practice at any point and again, only if you'd like to share it. Yeah, for sure, I think that's what brought me to yoga. So it's kind of what led me to become a teacher. I was, you know, this was before committing to a teacher training, and I was, I kind of had a casual relationship with yoga. And this was at a time in my life, when I was living in New York. I had just graduated from grad school. I was working freelance, mostly in advertising. And I knew that I was searching for something and beyond that, I was maybe not beyond that, but also I was looking for a practice that that I needed, like something to ground me. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but so I tried lots of different physical activities, and, you know, and then I had been introduced to yoga before, but it wasn't until, you know, like, I went to this particular class in this Yoga Studio in in Williamsburg, New York, that's, you know, known for, like, donation classes and, and it was In the middle of winter, and it was about like 50 people in this yoga studio. It was really hot, really
Unknown Speaker 27:27
like cramped in there.
Sara Cecilia 27:30
And so, you know, I had, I went through the motions of the yoga class, and then at the end, coming out of shavasana, I realized that I felt very peaceful, and I hadn't experienced that in a long time like it just felt very pure and a very quiet and stillness and and at that time in my life, I didn't really know how to get to that place on my own and and so I, I was just very curious and intrigued, and I wanted to learn more. I wanted to find out, because it felt magical, and I wanted to learn more, like what that magic was. And so in a lot of ways, that's what led me to to seek out a yoga teacher training and to understand it more and to become a teacher eventually. Wow. Yeah. So the what I like to say is the most important pose, the shavasana, the laying down at the end, and really not the trying to let your muscles go, because in our awakened state, our muscles hold tension naturally, because we need to be prepared for movement. And so shavasana could be very challenging for someone, especially if you're in an environment surrounded by strangers, you don't know what's going to happen if something could happen. So I think the better a teacher holds space, and the better the space is for that environment, creating that environment, then a student can often shavasana can be the one pose that that triggers something. And then, of course, I saw that in you. I knew there was something, because I don't think you could do yoga the way you do without that tangible knowledge, that resonance inside of you, if you didn't have it, I don't think I would have felt the way I felt when I saw you teach, and I've seen a variety of people teach, and maybe I'm just projecting or hinting. But I think I've seen some people who have not had that tangible experience. They they've they've sort of, they've come, they've rationalized it, and they've they've learned the materials and said, Well, you know, this is spiritual, and this and that, and they've justified it to themselves. But. It's so very different when you're basically on the other side of it, once it, once you've had that experience, then nobody can take that away from you, because it's it's your own and you know, it's real, especially if for someone who's grew up in sort of a science minded background, it can be very challenging to open up to that kind of spiritual realm, especially when you're around a bunch of strangers, like I said, in a dark room, and you you don't know what the heck's going to happen. You don't know how long to hold the shavasana, right? A lot of students might start freaking out a little bit because they're like, how this feels? Like I'm here for hours, when, in reality, it might have just been a few minutes, right? Yeah, well, I really appreciate that. That's a huge compliment, you know? I i hope that when I'm teaching, I'm coming from that place of wanting to share and wanting to perhaps, in some way, connect to another person that is perhaps needing that, or looking for that, or whatever it is that brought them to their mat that day. And and I would say that, you know, I feel connected to my yoga practice pretty often, and that's what keeps me coming back, you know, because otherwise you know, why do something for so long? What What keeps you interested and what keeps you intrigued? Right? It doesn't have to just be a tool for you to make money off of others. It can be a tool to connect to others. You can do Karma Yoga. You can do your own like you said, you can go to your own space and do your own practice when you need that support. So it goes it has value for and and in my most recent 500 hour in the training, there were a lot of people talking about how they weren't planning to become a teacher at all, but they were doing the training right, and that's because they're connecting deeper with self and connecting, maybe just with people in their community, offering free classes, finding a healthier way to approach themselves and others, because maybe the methods that they were using before weren't working, and they just Need a little bit of additional support. So if anybody out there is interested in yoga teacher training and they're thinking, I don't need to become a teacher, that's totally fine. There's tons of people who do the training just for their own knowledge. Yeah, right. Adult education, you know, is self directed. You don't have to. You don't have to pick from a list of what the school says you do. You do whatever you want to do. You educate yourself however you like. So yeah, yeah. And I would say that, you know, when I've experienced that, I didn't necessarily have in mind become a teacher. I think I was just wanting to explore that subtle space. You know, at the time, I didn't have the words for it, but eventually I became a teacher. It kind of unfolded in that way, and and I'm happy that I did, and I'm happy to because it continues to grow from there, you know? Yeah. And one thing is, you might have to be compassionate to other people who hear you talk like that and think that because they haven't had the experience themselves, they think that you're kind of making it up or or trying to, like, going back to that holy That's why I brought up the holier than now thing before, to ensure that there's some humility and vulnerability, and we're being honest about it. And even like regarding your teaching, I appreciated, even without doing your classes, I would have noticed because you had vulnerability and humility about what you were going to offer for the class, and you were really thinking about it. You just weren't walking into it saying, Oh, I know what to do. I'm just going to wing it. You know that you're putting the preparation and the mental energy into it, and having respect for people, bringing their energy to you for an hour of their time, and trusting in you to hold space for them. So I I really like seeing that in a practitioner of whatever it is, right? You'd want the same from your doctor. You'd want the same from anywhere you go. The same concept. You want somebody to be present. Have some humility and always be learning right and maybe even practicing it themselves, yeah, exactly.