We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Vanessa Siren. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Vanessa below.
Hi Vanessa, thanks for joining us today. Setting up an independent practice is a daunting endeavor. Can you talk to us about what it was like for you – what were some of the main steps, challenges, etc.
I started my own yoga journey at a young age of 19, when I was modeling for work all around the world. Yoga wasn’t as hip and all around us as it is now. Yoga was something I could take with me as I travel, and it didn’t require much. My love for yoga grew and I learned how to practice it throughout my entire life, during my pregnancies, and during hard times too.
Fast forward to almost 30 years later, I became a yoga instructor teaching for the past 10 years now and am trying still to establish my own business. I created my LLC just this past January and have been focusing on teaching private sessions, yoga parties, bachelorette yoga parties, hike and yoga, Sound Bath and Yoga, as well as Water classes that can be mixed with Barre, Yoga and Sound.
A good advice for those starting now (and if I had to do it again) is immerse yourself in trainings, but don’t be afraid to get out there and start teaching! Make sure you value yourself and take time to make connections. I wish I had created my google listing in the beginning and had collected reviews way back then. Find your support tribe, those who believe in you and can give you honest feedback.
Take feedback (good and bad) with a grain of salt: some will be helpful feedback, some will be just personal opinion and not necessarily helpful. Keep your smile during hard times and remember, teaching yoga can help both the students and the teachers. One wise teacher has taught me the principle of “SEVA”, a word in Sanskrit that translates to “SERVE”, of “SERVICE”. Your best job is to serve others.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My love for yoga came about a personal choice to keep myself both strong and sane. Yoga has helped me so much to maintain a balance between the chaotic challenges of life (including 5 beautiful children but not limited to them!) and my own sense of wellbeing. From there I envision trying to help others to feel the same as yoga made me feel. Trying to help them discover that being in the present moment is hard, but it’s always worth trying. The practice is just that, always coming back to your breath and to the “trying”.
I help my clients see that yoga doesn’t have to be serious, there’s a lot of joy in it, and I sprinkle laughter even amidst a challenging pose or shape.
I adapt to what my clients need and want, even that can be a calm meditative session followed by a Sound Bath (a mix of instruments played by the teacher with intuition, love and to the client’s needs) or a powerful vinyasa flow, a session that includes lots of intense movements, core challenging and/or balancing and inversion postures.
Some of my offerings are a one on one, at the client’s home, assessing exactly what his/her needs are and creating a program that is personalized to those needs are.
I offer bachelorette yoga, family reunion yoga, corporate yoga, hike and yoga, so many offerings and very popular is also the water sessions.
I want everyone to know that in that hour that we schedule for you or your group you are the most important thing to me, how you connect to your body and breath and how you feel connected to your soul . How you remember that the session made you feel.
There’s lots of information as well in my website, www.sirenyogaaz.com
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I grew up in Brazil, lost my dad at 2 and a half years old so times were very hard financially in our home, it was just my mom , my sister and me. My mom was pregnant of my sister when my father passed away and this made us grew up tight and seeing my mother work so hard. She got her psychologist degree and had to really work hard to raise us alone. Her strong working ethic made me a very competent worker, and I strive to do things in a “perfect” way. I realize there’s no perfect, yoga in itself is a “practice” and not perfection. Learning English on my own at an age of 19 was also challenging- this is much prior to the internet and app nowadays that can help you study. I wanted to know so many things, and traveling the world also gave me huge life lessons. I wanted to help my mother and sister financially as well. I believe resilience can be found in even every day micro lessons. Some of us might be building gigantic mountains, some of us are trying to get out of bed. There’s room for everyone.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
I believe it is very helpful to be kind to find successes in this area. People might not remember if you forgot a pose in the second side of the body, but they will remember how you treated them and how you made them feel. I have had so many challenging experiences with yoga – even more challenging than the modeling business itself! But remembering the why I do what I do keeps me coming back. How you can touch one person, and guide them to feel and become more inward and find themselves is the biggest take away for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sirenyogaaz.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siren.yoga/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sirenyoga
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanessa-siren-528105237/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUb1_5UUrk57DaKCRdfRDig
- Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/home/OCfl2c7LMDb2Xfa4Wsme_Q/?utm_campaign=claim-flow-y4bweb&utm_content=login-cta-header-btn&utm_medium=y4bweb&utm_source=y4bweb-header
- Other: Google: https://g.co/kgs/7JzTrgJ
Image Credits
I own all of the photos shared