Spotlight: YOGA MOXI

Spotlight: YOGA MOXI

Spotlight: YOGA MOXI

By: iana velez

PROFILES

J Miles - Music Love Article

Did you know Yoga Love magazine is available for free at partner studios and festivals thanks to our amazing community and other small business owners like Michele Carrión Yopps founder of the Yoga Moxi app! We asked Michele to share more about starting a small business, her personal yoga/meditation practice and some thoughts on JOY.

What inspired you to start your own business?
The Yoga Moxi app was created based on how I felt when I was a newer yoga teacher ten years ago. There was so much information, knowledge and skills acquired, and an app that provided more of a “road map” on how to use and apply the information would have been immensely helpful.

What is the most popular feature on your app?
Currently, yoga teachers have provided the most feedback on the “Timers”. There are three different Timers that help keep a practice on track to not go over/under the specified class time. The Hatha Timer allows a yoga teacher to set up a class time, and also allows to set up smaller segments within a class. (i.e. Opening = 2 minutes, Centering = 5 minutes, Warm Up = 8 minutes, etc.) The Yin Timer is specific to a Yin Yoga class setup including class time, number of poses, and how much time to spend on each side. The Yoga Nidra Timer can be set up for any amount of time for your practice. The intention is to keep yoga teachers on time – with a Timer created for their specific needs.

What is the best advice someone gave you when you started your business?
The best advice came after the Yoga Moxi app was created…be sure to have solid legal agreements and get app insurance. Both are for more peace-of-mind, and to minimize potential financial loss.

What is the best advice you would give another person who wanted to start their own small business?
Be sure to have solid legal agreements and insurance (according to the designated business industry). Do not rely on generic anything from the internet. This applies to any business.

Do you have a personal yoga/meditation practice? How has it helped you?
For the past few years, I have focused on a morning meditation before starting the day. It allows me to connect with my breathing and focus on myself fully for a few minutes. My yoga practice has changed over the years, and currently I work on an at-home practice two times per week. (For about 20 minutes) The practice is more of a “freestyle” where I center prior to start, and allow the body to dictate how to move.

Share your favorite yoga/wellness social media/web accounts that inspire you?
The majority of accounts that provide inspiration involve positive “quotes” from famous and not-so-famous people. I also enjoy the Yoga Love Magazine account and all the reels regarding “Joy”. There are so many iterations, and the majority really do inspire joy and a smile. (Thank You!)

The theme of our current issue is JOY, how do you inspire joy in your life and those around you?
Hopefully I provide some joy to those around me by smiling when I greet them or interact with them. For my friends and family, the hope is to inspire joy by holding space when needed, and sharing something that makes them truly smile or laugh – like a good experience we shared.

Ashish Arora
Ashish Arora
Interview with Natalia Tabilo

Interview with Natalia Tabilo

Interview with Natalia Tabilo

Founder of Yoga For all Bodies

By: iana velez

PROFILES

You are originally from Chile, is yoga popular there? What differences do you notice in how yoga is practiced and taught in Chile vs in the US?

Yoga is becoming more and more popular in Chile and I would say the biggest difference is that the styles in Chile are really determined. For example, the teachers are really focused on teaching in the tradition in which they studied or were formed as teachers, so there’s a lot of Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and Iyengar in a really purist way. This sadly focuses on making the student fit the teachings, shapes, and postures rather than what I happily see more and more in the USA and adapting the shapes to fit the student (and not the student adapting to the posture).

You did your YTT in English, and you are one of the few platforms that shares yoga classes in both English and Spanish. Was it challenging to adapt your teaching and sequences into Spanish? 
Ohhh yes!! Especially because in Spanish we have so many ways to say one word, and it varies from country to country. So definitely it has been a learning curve, but a fun one! And I’m always learning from fellow yoga teachers, so muy agradecida.

What resources do you recommend for anyone interested in teaching yoga in English and Spanish? 
I invite everybody to check out the Accessible Yoga Association (IG: @AccessibleYoga), they are doing awesome work! And they have part of their work and training in Español.

Also, please check out the book “The Science of Yoga” (IG: @scienceof.yoga)  written by Ann Swanson (IG: @annswansonwellness) which is available in English, Spanish, and more languages! It is an amazing resource.

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is new to teaching yoga?
Always remember your why. Why you decided to become a yoga teacher, why do you want to teach the style of the population you are teaching. If you remember your why, it will inform the way you teach, the words, the cues, the trainings you need to take, the classes you need to say yes to and those who you need to say no to. Remember your why and go for it!

You have been named a “changemaker” in yoga, who would you consider a changemaker in yoga? 
First of all, the teachers who almost anonymously are everyday changing the narrative around yoga and making it truly accessible and welcoming to all no matter their students’ size, shape, abilities, age, health or experience with the practice. These teachers are truly making the difference!

Also, Everyone on the faculty of the Accessible Yoga Association (@AccessibleYoga) and Rodrigo Souza, the Founder of Allihopa Yoga (IG: @AlliHopayoga), he is from Brazil and specializes in sharing yoga with people who are wheelchair users.

Who would you consider a changemaker in the Spanish speaking yoga community? 
Fer Arnaud (@FerArnaudYoga), she is from Mexico, and she is a teacher in a larger body who is sharing the message that everybody can practice the more active and physical styles like vinyasa and ashtanga! Check her out!

And Krystal Perez (IG: @TuMovimientoSensible) quien está haciendo un trabajo maravilloso y tan necesario compartiendo Yoga Sensible al Trauma en español.

The theme of our issue is JOY, how do you create JOY in your life?
I create joy by trying mindfully and consciously to be present where my feet are. Enjoying and cherishing all the moments in real-time, not focusing on the past or planning the future. Playing with my cat Luka Modris and my dog Trixie Pixie, loving my husband and my family in Chile and of course staying true to my mission on this earth that is sharing yoga with all bodies and minds and doing it with all my heart!

Spotlight: MEXICO

Spotlight: MEXICO

Spotlight: MEXICO

By: iana velez

TRAVEL

J Miles - Music Love Article

Mexico lindo y querido! After living 15 years in NY I’m back to my homeland, and it has been a beautiful comeback, this time to the very special tropical area of Mexico, Riviera Maya. It’s full of incredible beaches and nature, but what I find even more special are the “cenotes.” In Maya, “hoyo de agua,” these natural water caves are pure magic, unique in the world, mayas considered them portals to the underworld and sacred source of life. It’s worth the trip just to visit these beautiful natural pools and caves.

We chose Cenote Minotauro, a small but very pretty cenote with Mariel and Adriana, two amazing yoguis devoted to the learning and teachings of yoga based in Mexico. Mariel recently opened a yoga studio built around an old and majestic Kopo tree, hence the name “Kopo Yoga.” She had a dream the studio was to be created there, and the universe conspired to make it a reality. Today, it’s a space for community and yoga practice—you can’t miss it if you come to Playa del Carmen.
Miriam Castillo
@miriamcastilloart

“Joy to me is connection, to yourself, to people, to nature, most importantly to a sense of belonging to something greater than life. To the magic of existing and living on this earth. Once you realize that it exists within, all the time, joy appears instantly, not in the future plans, or big dreams, but in any moment you decide to feel it. It is there as long as you are breathing.”
Adriana Zavala
@adryzav

“How does joy feel? The gentle yet powerful freedom of being able to love what IS. The effervescent trust in whatever is arising at this present moment, beyond expectations and uncertainty. The wholehearted contentment of accepting and embracing life as it unravels… and smiling because we are able to experience it all by being ALIVE.”
Mariel Chapoy
@marielchapoy

“I define joy as an opportunity to see things with the divine grace of a simple smile. To look into the eyes of others, to look at the sky and the stars. To know that I am alive as I feel my heart beating, and to share and laugh with others. To dance, to dream and to remember that every moment in this life is filled with the presence of God.”

BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO

Ashish Arora

Adriana Zavala

Ashish Arora

Miriam

Ashish Arora
Mariel
LATINAS WHO MEDITATE – Interview with founder Natalie Valle

LATINAS WHO MEDITATE – Interview with founder Natalie Valle

LATINAS WHO MEDITATE

Interview with founder Natalie Valle

By: Ingrid Baqureo

PROFILES

How did you end up on this wellness journey? 
In high school, I had an unhealthy relationship with food, and I became very curious about food and fitness. It began as a pretty intense journey with disordered eating and even teetered into a little bit of substance abuse. In college, I really hit a low point. I needed an extra credit for my degree, so I thought I’d just take an exercise elective. I’d do something easy, something that won’t be any work.

The teacher ended up being a yoga instructor, so for a whole semester, I dove headfirst into yoga. I’ll never forget my first savasana. I’ll never forget laying down and feeling so much compassion for my body and such a connection with my body, because historically, my exercise routine was out of almost punishment, right? Like, I want to look this way, so I need to work hard to look this way. Yoga gave me this approach of feeling my body and moving my body and doing it in a way that incorporated gratitude. After I graduated college, I was already on my healing journey. I learned about meditation and that I could soothe my nervous system and find ways to feel better. 

I took a sound practitioner course and on day one of that training, something sparked within me that completely shifted the trajectory of my life. Even though yoga was my first love as a practice for myself, when I stepped into teaching, it was actually sound baths. 

What is unique about being a Latina healer? Do you notice anything different?
Being a Latina in the wellness space, my experience has been unique in the sense that I feel very blessed and privileged. I had a lot of people rooting for me and supporting me. Not everybody has that experience. While I may have carved a seat at the table for myself and I feel comfortable in those spaces, sometimes being the only Latina woman or sometimes the only BIPOC person in the room, not everybody feels comfortable in those spaces. Not everybody feels welcomed.

There are some incredible healers, and we all have indigenous roots. As a Latina woman, pulling from the wisdom of my ancestors has been so potent. We think about smudging, burning a sacred herb like palo santo, tobacco, or sage—this is something that our ancestors did to cleanse the energy, to clear for ceremony. It’s been a really beautiful thing to honor the ancestral teachings and learn about them. When I practice them, I feel connected to them.

I feel proud that as Latinos and Latinas, there is so much medicine that we can tap into from our ancestral roots that is unique to our DNA and our bloodlines. I feel like these practices were gifted to me from my ancestors. As a Latina woman, there was a craving to see more folks that looked like me so I could relate to them. There’s a lot of religion and Catholicism within the Latino culture that perhaps can be a barrier of entry to some wellness practice, so it helps if we can find solidarity and not feel so alone going through it.

Our culture does have religion as an institution and it could cause conflicts based on the ways of our ancestors. So how can you find a balance between both? And at the end of the day, whether it’s religion or spiritual practice, it’s all going to the same path of the divine, of the divinity, of being connected, and just being the best human you can possibly be.

I think the other part of being a Latina in the wellness space that maybe doesn’t get talked about as much is the paradigm that a lot of children of immigrants live in. If you are a child of immigrants or an immigrant yourself, there’s almost this badge of honor of working hard—of earning your place, earning what you have. Because of that, my parents worked really hard. They were immigrants. They had nothing so they really value hard work. Wellness and self-care were never a part of their lifestyle. They were never things that they considered necessary in what they consider a good life. For them, it was like having a good job, a home, a healthy family, food, and really survival. For children of immigrants, it also can be challenging to adopt the mindset of self-care when all our parents and grandparents have known is survival, and that can sometimes hinder people’s self-care. It wasn’t taught at my home because my parents were busy surviving. 

It really is a privilege to be in a place where my whole life revolves around taking care of my mental health and my body. I’m standing on the shoulders of my parents and my grandparents and great-grandparents who sacrificed their lives to make sure that their children had everything that they needed.

Children of immigrants now have that privilege to change the narrative and their wellbeing. How did you come up with Latinas Who Meditate?
The name Latinas Who Meditate came to me at the height of the pandemic. It was almost this spark of inspiration. But I did nothing with it for years—it sat dormant and I forgot it existed. Last year, I was signed by Nike and during my onboarding, we had a diversity, equity, and inclusion workshop. It dawned on me that after five years in the industry, there was a gap in the demographic of clients that I was serving, primarily due to accessibility and inclusivity. I was inspired, and felt now through Nike, I was supported and I had the resources. Latinas Who Meditate popped back into my mind again, and I was like, “That’s it!”

So that’s kind of the creation story of it. It’s very clear now what it was meant to be: a community that lives within the love and alchemy offerings, but takes more of a being of service to the community, to the collective, to empower Latina women on their journeys. It’s so sweet because once you have your network, your network continues to have a network, and it  widens up opportunities.

What are you looking forward to for the future?
I look forward to the reintegration and honoring of the elders. Moving into a place where we don’t learn from the person who has the most followers on social media, we learn from the person who has the most years of wisdom, who has lived studying the teachings of those who came before them. The reintegration of the medicine people into our culture, into our practice. Social media has been such a beautiful gift to give these elders and these wise medicine people a platform to share the medicine that they know now that it is safe for them to come out and be in the public space again.

If you had to pick one word, how would you describe the future?

Regenerative. Regenerative is traditionally known as the process of renewal and restoration, whether that is through the ecosystem or  our own cells and tissues. The way that we’re moving as a species, as a collective, is we need to embrace the natural process of regeneration, to not only heal ourselves from a physical, emotional, mental, spiritual perspective, but also heal our species and our planet. I would like to describe my work as regenerative, to give people space to restore, to renew, and also to contribute to the whole of regeneration.


Learn more:
loveandalchemy.com
@latinaswhomeditate

Yoga Transforms at Bhakti Fest 2024

Yoga Transforms at Bhakti Fest 2024

Yoga Transforms at Bhakti Fest 2024

PROFILES

BEN CLARK INTERVIEW
Transformation will be at the heart of this year’s Bhakti Fest, taking place September 27-29 in the majestic setting of Joshua Tree, California. Producer Bella Silberfein explains how the theme “Yoga Transforms” will spark reflection, growth, and positive change for attendees through yoga and the coming together of the community.

“The transformative power of yoga is core to its teachings and something we all experience on our path in big and small ways,” shares Silberfein. “When we carve out time for self-reflection, yoga, and meditation, we open the door to evolution, building emotional strength, resilience, and self-awareness.”

The physical and mental practices of yoga provide us with tools to work through struggles and discomfort with compassion. Asana helps us better understand where we resist and allows us to release limiting patterns. Pranayama teaches us to regulate our energy and be present. Meditation guides us inward to explore our most profound truths.

Silberfein hopes Bhakti Fest provides an uplifting, transformative experience by uniting us in community. “When we come together around our shared love of yoga, music, and sacred wisdom traditions, it creates an energy that inspires and elevates us all. We walk away profoundly changed, creating a ripple effect.”
An incredible lineup of yoga teachers and diverse music performances will provide ample opportunities to reflect on transformation personally and collectively. Through yoga classes, workshops, chanting, and more, attendees can explore letting go of limiting beliefs, finding new purpose, deepening their practice, and positively evolving relationships and society.

The impressive yoga teacher roster connects us to yoga’s roots, with masters like Seane Corn and Janet Stone joining beloved teachers Shiva Rea, Dianne Bondy, and Nina Rao. On the music stages, spiritual artists like Krishna Das and Radhika Das will stir our souls, while fresh acts like Deya Dova and Marieme will entrance us.

Silberfein beautifully sums up the ethos behind this year’s theme: “Yoga transforms not just the body and mind, but our hearts. When our hearts open up through yoga, we lift the world.”