We were lucky to catch up with Latasha Flint recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Latasha, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The intention behind Urban Shakti Yoga Studios and Embodied Badassery (podcast in gestation period) is to create spaces in which individuals feel safe to share their authentic expression and engage in empowering each other and feel more empowered to manifest sustainable change within one’s self, community and the world. It is my core belief that we are all deserving of being seen, heard and celebrated in our individuality, and that we are more alike than we are different.
At a very young stage of my business development, I remember coming across an image along with a story, that would become the roots of my mission and purpose. UBUNTU, best described as an African philosophy that places emphasis on ‘being self through others’. It is a form of humanism which can be expressed in the phrase “I am because of who we all are.”
The short story that accompanied the image of young African children in a full circle with their feet touching at the center, expressed that any time one of their village members was feeling depressed, hopeless or otherwise down on themselves, they would be ushered to the center of the village and everyone would surround them and remind them of their inherent greatness and all that they contributed to the community.
This is what we need more of in our world.
When we know ourselves and posses a sense of belonging, anything is possible!

Latasha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Latasha Ann Flint, a California native currently residing in the state of Georgia. Being from California, an active, healthy lifestyle is of second nature to me. At a very young age, I was keenly aware that I was very tuned in to how other’s were feeling, more than most. That awareness prompted a desire to uplift, encourage and inspire other’s to recognize their own light. I was also very bossy, so it was commonly stated that I was a natural born leader. These character traits became my saving grace at a very pivotal time in my life. When I was in 8th grade, my parents got divorced and my mother moved myself and my 3 younger siblings back to Michigan, where she was from and where we had the support of family. I am the oldest of 4 by 10 years, and at that time, I was very driven in academics and track and field. The experience of being uprooted from our home as I was entering high school had a tumultuous effect on me, an effect that would influence me for a greater part of my adolescence. I faltered in both my academic and athletic capacities during high school, faced with the challenges that come with such a shift at such an identity defining period. I would say that I felt lost.
That feeling followed me into my collegiate years, a time where freedom without direction can change the course of one’s life trajectory. It was during that time, as I was officially exiting adolescence, that I realized that I was not making choices that aligned with becoming who I knew I was to be, and that it was up to me to navigate my own ship on a course more aligned with my values, goals and gifts. I chose to take the path of healing and commit to gain a better understanding of the effects of stress and trauma on the mind body continuum.
In 2004, I was teaching Pilates is a Midwest yoga studio, Sangha Yoga, and was invited by the director/studio owner, Karina Mirsky, to attend a 20 hour Yoga Teacher Training. The training was a weeklong immersion into the self and would become my life raft, truly a life altering experience. The space was a safe place to be open and honest in sharing my story and cultivate a deeper listening in others’ sharing. I was reminded of how much more alike than we are different, as we shared our human experience, and how judgmental we are as a society based on physical presentation, academic stature and socio-economic status. We dove deep into understanding the human condition on all levels, physical, mental and emotional and how to apply the teachings of Yoga to restore balance to the whole, in a very practical way. At the end of the weeklong intensive, I walked away feeling self empowered and armed with tools to keep up. I witnessed the power of negative choices, habits and thoughts, having a lessened effect on me and being transformed, cultivating space to welcome new neural pathways to be developed. I was hooked on the yoga high and I knew that I was meant to further my studies and share with others, especially to our youth. I believe that if more young people have access to yoga practices, they would have a more stable ground to grow from and a more clearly defined path moving into adulthood and make better choices along the way, regardless of their background. I believe the same for disenfranchised communities, access to self mastery practices should be widely available to all.
I had found my path and I was whole heartedly committed to deepening my knowledge, self study, and practice. I went on to complete my 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training with Nikki Meyers at Cityoga, study with Krishna Kaur in her LA based Y.O.G.A. for Youth program, dive deep into Hala Khouri’s contribution to Yoga Ed, Mind Body Resources for those considered At Risk, Off the Mat, Into the World Yoga + Leadership among other programs and areas of study, I then commit to bring these practices and educations to my community at large. I have taught weekly classes at community centers, established wellness programs for rehabilitation centers, taught in schools, worked with educators, brought yoga and mind body practices to corporations and to mamas. Accessibility to the healing potential of yoga, movement and mindfulness is my motivation.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Absolutely yes! I am sure most can relate that major shifts accompanied the pandemic shutdown, especially for small businesses. I had a private mind body studio,REFORM, just steps away from the St Joseph river in downtown South Bend, IN. The space was intimate and custom curated with my clients in mind, it was a safe haven from the lightening speed pace of the modern world outside. I’d say that the space was small but mighty in it’s influence-truly a labor of love. Due to the intimate nature of the space, my doors closed, as did many others that year. I was left to re imagine how I would connect with my students and clients at a time that deeply impacted access to connection. Simultaneously, my home life took a major shift. Just as I began to invest in and navigate usage of technology, one of my long time clients presented an offer to contract my work with their family, returning me to my birthplace, Los Angeles, CA. As the world took a standstill, and after several conversations with my son, we were excited for the opportunity to leave the snow behind at the height of winter and head to the sunshine and the ocean. For the next year and a half, I worked primarily with my client and her family, while maintaining a few remote from my South Bend community. My son and I lived in a beautiful, bright and airy craftsman style, Californian home, in a beautiful neighborhood and I was able to introduce my son to my first love, the golden state-and the people that I love and missed. It was a huge pivot for us.
At that point, I had been teaching, leading, mentoring and studying to better serve, full time for over 15 years. Being a solo parent and entrepreneur was the normal for us, Both rewarding and flexible yet presents it’s challenges and requires much time commitment and presence. I am beyond grateful that due to the nature of my work, I could bring my son with me wherever I taught, it was our lifestyle. Juggling home, his studies, schedule, recreational and social engagements and maintaining community relationships, a full schedule of clients, classes and events and finding time for myself-was our way, I hadn’t realized how much I needed to replenish my energy, go deeper within myself for my own healing and restoration,
I didn’t realize I was so tired.
We both found immense healing and a deepening of our bond, amidst moving into throes of adolescence and adapting to new surroundings. I assure you we adapted well, ha! We spent more time outdoors, with family, cultivated new relationships and explored the landscape around us, and within ourselves, respectively. I found a circle of forward thinking, movers, coaches, healers and masterful artists of life and allowed myself to be supported, uplifted, challenged, celebrated and upgraded, to a more expansive version of me.
It was a gift that I didn’t know we needed, and an experience that will shape life and business forever, moving forward.

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

This is such a great question. I’d say that a huge lesson that I’ve had to unlearn is that education equates to mastery and competence. Growing up, my father put a lot of energy instilling the importance of education over vanity. I will note, in a world that emphasizes a woman’s physical appearance over the genius of her mind, I am grateful for. He pushed me to be nothing less than the best that was in me, in all the things that I did. This fired up an inner drive for accomplishment and simultaneously, cultivated a lot of pressure. My dad worked for the California Conservation Corp when I was younger, I was often found by his side, in the community, being of service, for to his team and for our neighbors. He was also my private track coach and tutor, mentor and greatest cheerleader. I developed the importance of servitude, leadership, teamwork and integrity. I am equally as grateful for my Catholic private school education during my formative years. It was during this time that I learned discipline, commitment, accountability, respect for ritual and fostered my curiosity about the world around me. I appreciate the structure, confidence, level of competency and awareness this experience shaped and influenced in me. I am a forever student with an entrepreneurial mindset, you would often find me nose deep in a book (or multiple books), creating something to share or sell, learning, being active or in the community with friends or organizations I was a part of. I was an avid learner of life around me and a self propelled student as I entered Jr. High.
During my high school years, my mom launched her full service staffing agency, Flint Complete Personnel Services. I watched her build her business from the ground up, in all facets. I began working for my mom when I was about 15/16 years old. Assisting with the front desk coverage, administrative tasks, business errands, and community engagements, I began learning what it required of you to work for yourself and grow your vision. Over the 10 years that she would own the business, I progressed from administrative support, to marketing management and sales development to maintaining operations of the South Bend office when she expanded the business to Indianapolis. I learned so much and grew immensely as a soon to be, young woman, yet my grades and academic rigor had progressively leveled out to just passing. It was a difficult adjustment following my parent’s divorce, which led my mom to move us back to Michigan, where her family was. Acclimating to such change had affected my grades, but not my spirit of learning and growing.
I struggled with this dichotomy for a long time after high school, the path of collegiate aspirations vs nontraditional education. Armed with a strong foundation of both education and experience acquired at a young age, I felt that a non traditional path was better suited for me, yet there was an overarching expectation to continue with collegiate education as the pathway to success. It was then that I decided, that I would study and learn from the greatest of teachers in any field of study that was of interest to me, if I was going to do something, I would dive in with my whole mind and heart. I had to let go, over and over again, the idea that my success was solely predicated on a diploma and that I would not be as recognized for my knowledge and skillset nor compensated as rewardingly, if I didn’t hold a degree. My body of knowledge is vast and deep for following the nudge to go the unconventional path, and I hold several degrees of recognition and completion. Most important, is that I am always growing and expanding in what I know and learning continuously from others and from my own mistakes.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/em_bodiedbylatasha
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/urbanshaktiyoga
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShaktiTV108

Image Credits
Obi Uwakwe, Loves Cover Over You Photography Myriam Nicodemus