Native American Heritage Month: Teacher Q&A

At CorePower Yoga, we know that it’s the unique and diverse voices within our communities that make CorePower what it is, and we are dedicated to uplifting and amplifying these voices every day. We want to share stories that enrich the CorePower community and expand perspectives by sharing other people’s points of view. In recognition of Native American Heritage Month, our CEO Niki Leondakis sat down with Denver teacher, Vanessa Ybarra. They discuss Vanessa’s journey to become a yoga teacher, what inspires her and how yoga has impacted her life. Enjoy!

Niki: Hello Vanessa! It's wonderful to meet you. And I’m grateful for the opportunity to get to know more about you. I would love to start by learning about your yoga journey and how you became a teacher.

Vanessa: Hi Niki! I appreciate you doing this, and I’m excited to take part. So, there’s quite a story here. When I moved to Denver in 2015, I was freshly out of college and my roommate was a full-time yoga teacher and studio coordinator at the Cherry Hills CorePower. And so whenever I could, I would jump into her classes. Fast-forward to 2019, I was taking Sculpt classes regularly, and the one I took the most was Kat’s class at Grant St. I loved Sculpt, and I think I took her class consistently for about a year. One day after class, she stopped me and asked if I’d ever considered doing Teacher Training. I told her that it had actually always been in the back of my mind, and that I had been telling myself I would sign up the moment a teacher approached me saying that I would benefit from it. That was all I needed. My Teacher Training experience started a couple months later.

I think what made my Teacher Training experience special to me, and why I just love being a teacher, was what was going on for me leading up it. One month before the program started, I had a really bad panic attack in the middle of the workday. I had never experienced something like that, and thankfully, I've never experienced it since. But I think what had ultimately fueled the panic attack was the fact that I really wasn't taking care of myself. I wasn't eating while I was at work, due to a comment that was made to me by a coworker, and I was trying to compensate for that by fueling my body with way too much coffee. (I haven't had a sip of coffee since.) And I was also doing a lot of negative self-talk. So all of that came to a head and it was so bad, and so scary, that I wasn't physically able to go to work for about a week and a half.

Knowing that Teacher Training was coming up I decided I needed to get in a better space, physically and mentally, so that I could fulfill my commitment and get the full benefit of the experience. I started relearning how to take care of my body and reframing how I spoke to myself. Then once Teacher Training started, I took away a lot of other tools to continue getting myself into a better spot. For example, one of the first sessions we had was about breathing exercises, and how impactful your breath can be on your mindset and even your stress levels.

Throughout the entire Teacher Training journey, I walked away with tools not only for my yoga practice but also for my own physical and mental wellbeing. Tools like breathing exercises and the power of journaling. And by the end of the experience, I felt a sense of pride within myself. I realized I hadn't felt proud of myself in a while. I didn't realize it at the time, but I think I needed a sign from the universe to do Teacher Training, and having Kat ask me about it was that sign for me. And it's been so impactful. It's really opened the door for me to be able to pay it forward to all those teachers, like Kat, my roommate Sarah, and all the other ones who I would regularly take class from and perpetuate that positive impact.

Niki: Wow, that’s quite a journey. I can feel your energy as you talk. Clearly, it was hugely impactful for you.

Vanessa: It definitely was. After Teacher Training ended, I went back to Kat and told her the story of what was happening in my life leading up to Teacher Training and I got to thank her for reaching out and asking me that simple question because it meant so much to me.

Niki: That’s wonderful, Vanessa. Those moments of seemingly simple human connection, just checking in with one another, can be so powerful. And Teacher Training is such an accomplishment. Tell me, outside of that, what accomplishments are you most proud of?

Vanessa: There are two that stick out to me. The first one is becoming a horse owner earlier this year. I've been involved in the horseback riding world since I was about six, but over the last few years, horseback riding has been a little more difficult. Last year, though, I got to show a horse for my trainers back in California to help them sell her. Once my husband saw how much of a passion this was for me, he agreed it was a really positive thing for me and we decided to lease a horse. We thought we’d put our toes in the water before we buy one. Ultimately, we ended up in the right place at the right time and I was able to buy a horse for myself earlier this year. It’s just what we said we weren’t going to do, but we should have known that by putting it into the universe it was going to happen. So that's been a really fun journey. Scary sometimes, because I'm not always sure I know what I’m doing, but I'm really proud of the fact that I've worked hard ever since I graduated high school to make this dream happen. I just competed last week with my horse at the Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show, and we got top 10 placements. So that's been a very exciting accomplishment for me to look back and reflect on this year.

Niki: Amazing! I ride horses whenever I can – especially when I travel to different places. But I want to take lessons. It’s on my bucket list. You said there were two, what’s the other?

Vanessa: Yes, thank you. The other accomplishment that I wanted to mention was the big career change I made a couple years ago. After college, I worked in finance and became an annuity wholesaler. After a few years, I switched into the tech industry where I was also in sales. Ultimately, it started to feel less fulfilling and not what I wanted to give out to the world. So I actually just made the switch into recruiting. I can still use my sales foundations, but now I feel like the fulfillment piece is very much there. It’s something I’ve been really proud of myself for doing. To recognize what I want and then figure out how to accomplish that. Honestly, I think a big part of it has to do with teaching yoga. You have a platform where you can make a positive impact on somebody’s life. Realizing that I can do that with yoga, helped me think about how I can take this into my career as well. I could have stayed the course with something I knew how to do, because making a switch like that feels scary and risky, but I feel like I absolutely thrive in recruiting.

Niki: Very exciting! Lots of transition. I hear so many similar stories about people making major life changes and career changes, after doing teacher training.

How do you foster a safe and inclusive environment for your students during your classes?

Vanessa: I don't like to make assumptions about students. You know, there are so many different energies people show up with when they're checking into class. Instead of thinking, they don't actually want to be here, or they don't like me – I remind myself there could be a million other things going on in this person's life that I am not privy to. The best thing I can do is show them compassion and kindness. I think a lot of my past experience allowed me to view students with that lens. And so, no matter what an interaction looks like, I'm going to treat my students with compassion. I'm going to check in with them after class, make that connection and understand that they're - we're all - multifaceted. Even if it's somebody that I see every week in all my classes, there are things I don’t know about them. So I try and create a space where everyone feels welcome. Where people can be vulnerable and get what they need. I try and support and lift that up for them.

Niki: That’s so beautiful, Vanessa. I think making assumptions is such a baseline for all of us with every interaction. Our brains want to organize things, and we have to resist that impulse to make people fit into something we know or are familiar with.

What's one piece of feedback that you've received from a student that makes you feel great?

Vanessa: Anytime someone compliments my music, I get so happy. When I am putting together a playlist for my class, I am very intentional about putting together the right music, the right timing and everything. There was one student a few weeks ago who noticed my playlist because there was a lot of music from one particular band. I knew this band was going to be touring in Colorado that same month, and they had recently released a new album. So my playlist was very heavy with that band. This student said the music made her think of seeing them perform recently, and how much it had pumped her up and got her so motivated for class. That was one hundred percent why I did it! Music is such an important part of me and how I express my moods, so whenever students pick up on it, I'm to the moon.

Niki: I love it. What kind of music do you gravitate to?

Vanessa: I guess it’s club music or DJ/house music. It's not instrumental anymore these days, but essentially music with really heavy pronounced beats. I'm a big fan of Odesza and they use a drumline in a lot of their performances. For some reason that really gets me going, so I put a lot of their music in my playlists in the hopes that other people will feed off of that energy. People can expect a lot of that in my classes.

Niki: Now, I’m so motivated to take one of your classes - next time I’m in Denver for sure. I’m curious to learn more about your teaching and classes. What was your biggest unlearning from Teacher Training?

Vanessa: I think being able to move away from the base sequence that we learn. I'm a very habitual person, so when there is a process, I decide it must go like that. Over the last year, it's been a big goal of mine to have more unique sequences and be comfortable mixing things up, like throwing cardio in a place where students aren't going to expect it. It’s been a really big challenge for myself. I took a ton of different classes from teachers I knew who have creative and unique sequences, so that I could get more familiar with them. I still sometimes find myself comparing or reverting to the base sequence, so it’s a work in progress.

Niki: It’s really easy to fall back into something that’s comfortable, so good for you for evolving and pushing yourself to mix it up.

What do you look forward to as a yoga teacher?

Vanessa: I look forward to seeing the progress in students. You know, I've been teaching at the Cherry Creek studio in Denver for about a year now. I've gotten to the point where I have regulars who come. And it's always been really exciting to notice the simple progress that they've made. Noticing that someone has done more push-ups than they did last week, and is getting a little bit stronger. I love being able to see that, and it's even more exciting when students notice the progress in themselves. I had a student a few weeks ago tell me that she’s noticed that she’s getting stronger. I love to be able to see that. Or the student who comes in and out of your class a little bit more inconsistently and you notice that they’re in the front of the room, when last time their mat was in the back. Just noticing the subtle changes – that's always really exciting to see.

Niki: Yes! It's so meaningful for a student to be recognized by their teacher in this way. I feel this too in my own yoga practice. When I’ve been working on a pose or how long I held my handstand, it means so much to have a teacher acknowledge that progress.

Vanessa, is there anything else you’d like to share with our community?

Vanessa: I just want to say that I think the practice of yoga can have such an impact on somebody. It can drive a lot of positive change beyond the four corners of somebody's mat, especially if they open their minds up to that happening. From all the different mantras that I've tried on, from all the different teachers, over the last seven years that, I've gained the confidence to accomplish a lot of things that I had doubted in the past. I've gotten promotions because of using the mantra, yes, I can. I've watched myself become a better athlete – a better skier, a better horseback rider - because I'm more aware of my body. I can break down challenges in my mind in the moment. There are a lot of exciting changes that can happen, if you carry the things you thought about in class and apply it to the rest of your life. There's so much that yoga can do beyond just providing a good workout - which in and of itself is huge. But there are a lot of other doors that can open, and I hope other people see that. And if they haven’t experienced that, maybe my story can change that perspective for them.

Niki: I couldn’t agree more. I often find myself thinking about the lessons from yoga. I was even riding a bike the other day and was reminding myself to relax my shoulders down my back, unclench my jaw and engage my core. Sometimes they’re big lessons and sometimes they’re small. We just need to keep paying attention to them.

Vanessa, it’s been such a pleasure meeting you and hearing about your accomplishments and your yoga journey. Truly. These conversations fill my cup. Thank you for your time and for sharing your inspiring story.