We were lucky to catch up with Yesica Rodriguez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Yesica, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Although I teach many styles of yoga, I want to talk about my experience as a prenatal yoga teacher and co-founder/lead teacher of Lovely Birth Prenatal Yoga Teacher Training. I have never been a yoga teacher without being a mother and I would not have gotten far without support from my community. As a mother of two, I was also very aware of just how much our society tries to take power away from mothers, women and birthing people. I’ve heard so many stories of women having traumatic birth experiences where their needs were not listened to and their voice was invalidated. On top of that, our culture tends to tell us we are doing it wrong, no matter what we are doing or how we are doing it. It is often so subtle that we don’t even notice it, but it is internalized. I decided to take my prenatal yoga teacher training soon after my youngest son was born. I was able to bring him with me so it made this type of training really accessible for me. A topic that was often discussed was what it means to have an empowered birth. As I immersed myself in the world of prenatal yoga, I began to notice that this tendency of disempowerment was just as prevalent in “crunchy” spaces as it was everywhere else. While there was more focus on having an “empowered birth”, the way this was often defined was actually disempowering. I made it my mission to bring a different approach to my prenatal classes and trainings about what it means to have an empowered birth. To me, an empowered birth means that the birthing person is the head of their birth team. Everyone else involved is there to assist. How birth happens does not have to take away that power. My hope is that class by class and training by training, I can help facilitate some small change to how we approach birth, motherhood and parenthood. I hope to bring more awareness to how birthing people are treated in our society.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I began teaching yoga more than 10 years ago after falling in love with the practice. I learned that yoga brought me back home to myself and I wanted to share that knowledge with others. In the beginning of my practice, I was more interested in the physical aspects of yoga. I wanted to master what I considered the challenging poses. When I became pregnant with my first son, I was forced to alter my practice. No more handstands and forearm balances for me! At the same time, my body was speaking to me louder than ever before as my baby grew inside me. I continued to practice throughout my entire pregnancy but my practice changed a lot. It became more of an inward experience and I wasn’t as worried about mastering the hard physical poses. Learning more about my inner self was a gift that I took with me after giving birth and have kept ever since. My practice is so much more meaningful than it was before and the real challenge is in truly knowing myself. As a yoga teacher now, I focus my classes on that inner knowledge. The physical practice of yoga is one of many pathways to the journey inward. What you can feel in your body, you can experience in your heart. Moments of discomfort, challenge or ease in your physical practice can help you know yourself better. Because of this focus, I find that my public classes are quite diverse in ages of students, yoga experience and ability. This is another cherished gift to me because I enjoy creating a space that is accessible and welcoming to anyone who wants to participate. I love that a vibrant 25-year-old student can enjoy the same practice as a vibrant 73-year-old student and that a person who is attending their first class can feel at home in the space I hold for them. It’s such a beautiful and dynamic community. They are all getting different things out of the practice and that’s what it’s all about. It’s their practice and my job is to facilitate and hold space.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Integrity, intuition and an abundance mindset have been constant guides in my business journey. When I was a new yoga teacher, I was actually afraid to sub out my classes because I worried my clients would prefer the sub and I would lose opportunities. Some good friends helped me to trust that my people would always find me and that I would always find my people. Not everyone is for me and I’m not for everyone. In situations where I’m not a good fit, I can help clients find someone who is. I have been offered opportunities where I knew I wasn’t the best person for the job. In those cases, whenever possible, I recommend someone who is. If I don’t have a recommendation, I am open about my skills and abilities and together, we can figure out if I’m right for the job. I have also learned that sometimes, letting go can open up new opportunities. It seems that whenever I open up space in my life by letting go of what isn’t a good fit, the empty space gets filled with opportunities I would have never thought possible. This is a tricky practice for me because it can be scary to let go of a sure thing for uncertainty. You might end up regretting your decision but, sometimes, you just have to take that leap. I also truly believe in uplifting others. Whenever I walk through a new door in my journey, I hold it open for those coming up behind me. When you trust in your own light, you know that illuminating the path for someone else does not dim its brilliance. I would not be where I am now without the support of friends, family, colleagues and my community. I pay it forward by offering that support to others who need it.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
When I was young and first moved to California, it was not to teach yoga. I got a job as a Wardrobe Supervisor for some TV shows that were filmed at a local production studio. It’s hard to describe that experience. It was so many things at once. It was exciting and fun. It was also exhausting and, in the end, heart breaking. I worked so hard at that job. I literally gave it my all. My team was great and we worked incredibly well with our production crew. I will never regret that time in my life but it ended with a rude awakening. In spite of the fact that I did a great job and gave it my all, when push came to shove, I discovered I wasn’t really valued or appreciated for my work. This along with the exhaustion of working 16+ hour days drove me to a mini breakdown, which is eventually what led to me yoga. At the time, I really believed that if I did a great job, I would be appreciated. I learned that I needed to advocate for myself and draw clear boundaries at work. I did not need to burn myself out and that I needed to find more balance in work, life and self care. It is not up to others to treat me how I want to be treated. It is up to me. While it’s still a practice for me, that experience taught me so much and without it, I would not be here teaching yoga right now. While advocating for myself was a major lesson in this experience, the most important lesson was that everything is a learning experience. I was able to look back on that difficult time in my life and learn and grow from it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.yesyogalove.com/teacher-training
- Instagram: @yesyogalove, @lovelybirth108
- Facebook: @yesyogalove, @lovelybirth108
- Twitter: @yesyogalove
Image Credits
Camila Badaro, Jen Lacey, Karina Morales