Yogi Spotlight Series - Cynthia

Cynthia

Instagram ID: _nappyheadzoe
Location: Chicago, IL

Occupation: Student

   Cynthia is a 24 year old Haitian American who loves watching cartoons (Spongebob and Bob’s Burgers are her favorite). She has a B.S. in dietetics and is looking to become a certified holistic health coach. Nutrition is her number one passion! Currently Cynthia is a pescatarian and plans to  transition to a plant-based diet. Other than yoga, she loves taking pole classes and  hope to be soon taking boxing classes.

Yoga is peace. ~Cynthia

 How long have you been practicing yoga? 

I am going on 2 years.

Do you attend classes or are you self-taught?
 I have attended a couple but I am a self-taught yogi.  I did recently start going to classes for help on alignment and to take in how the teachers instruct.  

How often do you practice? 

       I practice almost every day, but if I am on a trip I may only do a quick stretch on the bed or on my mat if I brought it along.

How did you discover yoga? 

I discovered my love for yoga when I stumbled across LadyDork’s Instagram and fell in love with the poses she did. 

       What has yoga taught you? What yoga has taught me thus far is that you need a lot of patience, not with just yoga but in life. As long as you are consistent you will progress a little more than you did the day before to get to where you want.  Yoga has also taught me to love my body and showed me what I am capable of doing. Yoga has taught me that fear is in the mind and as long as you trust yourself you can do it. I was always scared to try a handstand but once I got the right mindset, I did it! I learned that there are many types of yoga practices, so just because you don’t include handstands, backbends, crow, etc in your own practice doesn’t mean you are not good or a yogi.

What keeps you motivated throughout your practice? When I notice my progress it motivates me to keep pushing further.

       What do you think about the increase of black women getting into yoga? I love the increase of black women getting into yoga! I recently went to a yoga festival on the Southside of Chicago and before attending I read the reasoning behind the event. The organization that had the event wanted to bring yoga into new communities and introduce the benefits of yoga to the black community.  

       Do you have any fellow yogi inspirations? I have many yogi inspirations but my main few on Instagram are LadyDork, Yogalola_ and Koyawebb.

      Please share any advice you would give to someone interested in getting started doing yoga? I have had several people ask me about how they should start doing yoga and I always tell them just get a mat! Going out and buying a mat is what I did after being inspired to start. Once I bought the mat I laid it out next to my bed and every day I would get on it and just move. I would usually hop on Instagram and try to copy some of the moves that Ladydork did and take advice she had in the description. I use to get frustrated but I learned patience. It really was encouraging and helping to see Ladydork's as well as other yogis' progress pictures; so that told me okay you will eventually get there just keep pushing.  

I also recommend using all of your free and non-free resources that include YouTube, yoga books, Instagram, and beginner’s yoga classes.  Not everyone is the same so you have to focus on your own practice and the amount of time it takes you to get something. Another piece of advice is that you don’t have to be flexible, athletic or a certain body type to start! That is the beauty about yoga, anybody can do it! My flexibility has increased tremendously since I’ve started. Yoga is for any and every one willing to give it a try.

I still consider myself fairly new to yoga; I started about a year ago. I am so happy that I started this practice because it is one of the things in my life where I feel I have been most consistent and find peace within myself.

Contact Cynthia:

Cynthia_coriolan@yahoo.com

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Edited by Vanessa L.