We were lucky to catch up with Curt Darling recently and have shared our conversation below.

Curt, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

FlowGarden Answer:

Corporate America often approaches the wellness industry—especially yoga and meditation—with a commodified mindset, treating it more like a product to sell than a path to inner transformation. The focus becomes metrics: class size, profit margins, brand aesthetics, and social media growth, rather than the heart of the practice, which is connection, healing, and presence.

One story that stands out: A friend of ours taught yoga at a major gym chain. She was told to “keep the energy up” and “skip the quiet parts” because members complained that long holds and silence made them feel like they “weren’t getting a workout.” She was essentially asked to turn an ancient healing art into a glorified cardio session. Eventually, she left—and came to teach at FlowGarden instead.

That shift matters. Because when yoga is reduced to a trendy commodity, people miss the deeper benefits. At FlowGarden, we see what happens when someone walks in burned out and walks out more whole—not because we hit a target heart rate, but because we held space for their nervous system to finally rest.

Yoga and meditation should be about coming home to yourself, not about performance. Corporate America often misses that. But we’re here to bring it back.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

For Curt Darling

I’m Curt Darling—yoga and meditation teacher, sound healer, and founder of FlowGarden Yoga, a wellness sanctuary I built in my own backyard after decades of world travel, spiritual searching, and personal transformation.

I didn’t grow up in a spiritual household. In fact, my early life was chaotic—marked by constant moves, a turbulent youth in Seattle, exposure to drugs, and the pain of losing my father and later my brother. But I was also deeply curious. Martial arts gave me early discipline. Buddhism gave me inner direction. And later, acting and method work cracked me wide open to the depths of human emotion. My path to wellness wasn’t linear—it was lived, raw, and hard-earned.

I first began teaching yoga and meditation informally on film sets, offering sunrise sessions to casting crews during high-stress shoots in the Dominican Republic and Panama. The feedback was so powerful that when I returned home, I decided to dive in fully. I earned my 200-hour yoga teacher certification in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, and haven’t looked back since.

At FlowGarden Yoga, I offer:
• Restorative and Vinyasa Yoga
• Sound Baths and Meditation Events
• Private and Small Group Sessions
• Retreats and Community Gatherings
• Online content featuring Kranti, our yoga mascot pup

What sets me apart is that I don’t teach from a script. I teach from experience. I’ve walked through fire—addiction recovery, spiritual crises, career reinventions—and emerged with tools that actually help people come back to themselves. FlowGarden isn’t a “yoga brand”—it’s a lived, breathing community where people feel safe to rest, release, and reconnect. We’ve grown from a tiny sunrise practice with my wife and her friends to a thriving backyard oasis complete with a yoga tent, infrared sauna, and healing energy.

I’m most proud of the way this work has evolved authentically. There’s no pretense at FlowGarden. We chant, we stretch, we cry, we laugh. We welcome everyone—because we’ve been through something too.

If there’s one thing I want people to know, it’s this: you don’t have to go to a mountaintop to find peace. You can find it right where you are. That’s what FlowGarden is all about.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

For Curt

Absolutely. One of the most defining stories of resilience in my life happened in 1997, when everything I’d built at that point went up in flames—literally.

I was living in a 1920s loft above the iconic Torung Thai restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. It was one of those dream spots—creative energy, vintage charm, right in the heart of L.A. But one night, the building caught fire. My entire home was destroyed. I lost everything—clothes, work materials, personal belongings. What mattered most to me, though, were my two boxer dogs, Weezy and Skier.

One of them jumped from the roof and broke a leg. The other had to be rescued by firefighters. Miraculously, both survived. I rushed them to my ex-wife’s place for safety, and the very next day—still in shock—I boarded a flight to Bangkok. It wasn’t a vacation. I needed space to process the loss, the chaos, and honestly, to survive myself.

That fire was symbolic. It marked the end of one version of my life and the beginning of another. I could have spiraled. But instead, I leaned into the fire as transformation. I ended up spending time in monasteries, deepening my Buddhist studies, and walking straight into the spiritual path that would later guide everything I do today.

Resilience isn’t always loud. Sometimes it’s boarding a plane with nothing left but your breath and the will to start again. FlowGarden wouldn’t exist without that moment. That fire burned away what I thought I was, and made space for who I really am.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

For Curt

A big lesson I had to unlearn was this: “You have to hustle and suffer to be worthy.”

I carried that belief for decades. It was ingrained in me from a young age—moving around constantly, surviving rough neighborhoods, proving myself through martial arts, and later, grinding in the hair industry, acting, and even my spiritual path. I thought if I wasn’t pushing to the edge, I wasn’t doing it right. That somehow, suffering was proof of commitment. It was noble to burn out, to stay in pain, to keep chasing.

But that mindset nearly destroyed me.

I was years into sobriety, working crazy hours, teaching yoga on the side, constantly creating—and one day I hit a wall. Not physically. Soul-level exhaustion. My nervous system was fried. I had all the tools: the breathwork, the meditation, the mantras—but I wasn’t letting myself rest. I was still living like peace had to be earned.

The shift came slowly. It started with restorative yoga. Laying in stillness, allowing myself to feel held. I realized that healing happens in the quiet, not in the push. I started building FlowGarden not as a brand to chase success, but as a space where people—myself included—could learn that rest is sacred, and ease is not weakness.

Unlearning that hustle mentality was hard. But it changed everything. Now, I teach from a place of balance. I hold space for people to let go—not prove something. And I remind myself every day: we are already worthy. Peace isn’t a reward. It’s our birthright.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://FlowGardenYoga.com
• Instagram: @flowgardenyoga
• Facebook: FlowGarden Yoga
• Linkedin: Curt Darling
• Yelp: FlowGarden Yoga

Image Credits

Curt Darling