Daria & Yoga: My Story

It wasn't love from the first sight.

I used to treat yoga as an excercise, without all that woo woo stuff. I thought that I'm not a "yoga person" (wearing baggy linen clothes, singing mantras and speaking with a low freaky voice).

Until I discovered that yoga is a path of liberation and acceptance. And you just become and magnify more of "you", whether that "you" wears feathers and beads or not.

I've started training regularly in Barcelona in 2014, just taking yoga classes in my gym. It was Ashtanga yoga with the fantastic teacher Yana Selitskaya. The dedication and strenght closed in that petit human body was incredibly motivating and inspiring! In that period yoga helped me build discipline, release stress, reduce back pain and just take my mind away for 60min, which worked just fine for someone working full time in an advertising agency. 

I developed the typical sinusoidal pattern here: training for 3 months, not doing yoga for 4, getting stressed and coming back obsessively for 2 months etc.

I didn't love it, I wasn't entirely sure if that's exactly "my thing".

The shift happened in Aug 2019 when (again, being super stressed and searching on Instagram for some mindfulness practice) I signed up for a a weekend "Yoga Creative Sequencing Workshop" with Nathalie Comas. That's where I learnt that the starting point in yoga practice is being real, just like in any other area of life.

Thanks to Nathalie's creative approach to yoga and flowy dance-like intuitive Hatha Vinyasa yoga sequences I've seen there is something more than the dogmatic Ashtanga approach. And that you can only teach what's "yours", what's your truth and that this comes from your heart. And that you don't need to be ascetic/vegan/buddist kimono-wearing/barefoot individual to be a yoguini. (Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against doing any of the above, I actually do some of those). I can stay loud-laughing, raw, sexy and feminine, earn money in the office and it doesn't make me any less of a "yoga type".

I've done my non-dogmatic 200h Yoga Teacher Training Certificate in Jan 2020 in Samma Karuna. Spending 1 month on the beautiful island of Koh Phangan (Thailand) was a life-changing experience. I can't talk enough about the amazing teachers (inspiring Amanda Capobianco, and my fav brain tickler Warren) and students I've met there and how valueable and transformative the course itself was for me.

I came back to Barcelona and the Covid 19 pandemic hit. 

I decided to share what I've learnt to help people soothen their fears a bit during those difficult times and started with online classes.

Inspired by Mukti, one of my TTC teachers I've self-studied more of neuroscientific aspects of yogic practice which lead my interest towards other, calmer styles. As a result, during lockdown I've accomplished 50h of Yin and Restorative Yoga Teacher Training with Steph Mitchell.

"Stay home" days were less repetative with some complementary online courses from Yoga International.

When lockdown loosened up I kicked off with Vinyasa and Yin Yoga classes in person.

And that's what I am now: a (bit of woo woo) yoga teacher.