We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Claudia Cárdenas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Claudia, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

When I was 26, I got married, and as the time was going by, I started felling not so well in this new life. When I was little, I heard that all you had to do in life was study, get a stable job, then get married, have kids, continue studying to get a master´s degree, build a successful career, buy a house, buy a farm and this would be enough to live a good life. No one told me that I needed to discover myself, my true being.
Inside, I stared feeling frustration and I did not want to be married, I felt asphyxiated and out of breath, and I had no Idea what was happening to me. After a few months I got depressed and I talked to a psychiatrist and he immediately asked my family to put me in a psychiatric hospital. I stayed there for almost 20 days and when I was there I told my psychologist that I wanted to get a divorce. She said that it was not the right moment to make that type of decision, so when they let me go home, I spoke to my husband and I made the decision to get divorced. I didn’t do it before because I grew up in a culture where you have to endure everything life brings you, where you have to follow everything the religion says such as you have to stay married in good times and in bad times, until death do us part. So for the first time I went against my culture, against my religion and one month later I tattooed my back the word “courage”.
I took the risk to get divorced even though my salary was not enough to cover my expenses. After that, I continued taking some risks in life that have allowed me to be what I want to be and to be my true self.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My first degree was in Business Administration, then I went for a master´s degree in Marketing. After that I studied Color Psychology and I was working in my own business making decorative lamps, furniture and curtains. In 2008, I got my second big crisis in life and I made the decision to go to India, just for fun, to see the beautiful colors of this country, to meet the elephants and the camels, as well as to walk the streets. Before I left my country, one of my aunts told me to visit Aurovalley Ashram and meet a Master Yogui, so I did. I had the plans to stay in this place for only for 8 days and I ended up staying seven months. In this place I learned about the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, about life, and I started braking all the beliefs I used to have because of my culture and my religion.
When I made the decision of going back to my country Colombia, I was a different person, and after that, I decided to be honest with my true being and devote my life and be more connected with the Divine. After a few years, I continued studying the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Then, I moved to Argentina and I went to USAL University in Buenos Aires and I studied Yoga for two and a half years where I obtained a University Technical Degree in Yoga. This immersed me more into de yoga field. When I was there, I started taking people from Argentina and Colombia to India with a friend who had been my teacher at the University. The trip combined tourism with expansion of consciousness, and in 2015, I started teaching yoga and meditation. In Colombia I also got 200 more hours of Yoga training, I study healing, I took a course in breathing which helps people be more conscious of themselves. Later, I took another 200 hours of Traditional Yoga training at the Atmabodha Institute from Argentina which is part of the Lonavla Institute from India.
Now I have completely dedicated myself to live life in “yoga mode” because I learned from Sri Aurobindo, a great Guru, that “ALL LIFE IS YOGA.” Here, I don’t mean this yoga as a posture (asana) I am talking about yoga as a way to live life.
I now dedicate myself to guiding people in their process of opening, changing and transformation with consciousness, for those people who want to change something in their lives. I combine yoga, meditation, special breathing sessions, and other practices.
I also organize retreats in different parts of the world, where I teach people how to live life in presence and with consciousness.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Since I was a child I have gone through several difficult situations in my life. My mom died when I was 12 years old, my dad got remarried and this for me was very hard to accept but I had no choice. I got depressed in 2001 and I was hospitalized, I took medication for 7 years and when I traveled to India in 2008 I was able to stop the medication because I trusted and felt protected by the Divinity. Since then, I have not taken medication, not even for the flu. I went through a divorce process twice and I made the decision to continue my path in yoga even if I had difficult economic times. I prefer to be independent, to have my own time, to travel, to share with my family than to employ myself for a “safe” salary that cuts my wings to continue expanding consciously. Several times I have left my comfort zone because I have made the decision to live in other countries outside of Colombia (Canada, Argentina, India and now the United States).
My last challenge was to come and live in the United States where English is not my first language and where I know very few people with whom I can interact and continue sharing my knowledge and life experience.

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

I personally don’t believe in “success” or “failure,” they are two modern terms that we have been culturally taught that don’t allow us to understand who we truly are.

If I had to choose an idea, I would choose to live well on a daily basis not only in my field, but to live 24 hours a day in presence and with awareness. For this you need to know yourself, to know what you are made of and what you are not. Consciousness is the ability to be aware and that we cannot change what we do not know.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cambia_tu/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/claudia.cardenas.37819959
• Linkedin: – www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-cárdenas-lara-cambia-tu
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CambiaTú