Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #16 – Trauma Informed Yoga – Yoga in Costa Rica with Sharon Brenes 

Welcome to Episode #16 of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast! This week, I welcome Sharon Brenes onto the show. She is a yoga teacher from Costa Rica, the lead yoga teacher at SoulWork, the Director of the non-profit Shakti Seva, and the founder of  Karuna Tribu a yoga venture focused on bringing retreats, trainings, and yoga to Costa Rica.

Sharon is a trauma informed yoga teacher, and we dive into what that means and some tips and cues yoga teachers can give to hold safe space for their students. As Sharon says, “Trauma informed yoga offers us as teachers and as holders of these transformational spaces, tools to invite people to enjoy their practice.”

She also poses these powerful questions: “How can I cultivate more love right now? How can I remember who I am from the deepest space with me?”

Our conversation stunned me. Each minute was filled with truth. Trust me, this is a podcast episode you don’t want to miss!

Are you in? Yoga in Costa Rica here we come! 

Tell me more about Sharon Brenes

Sharon Brenes is a Trauma Informed Yoga Alliance Certified 500hr Yoga and Meditation Teacher in Costa Rica. She began her yoga practice in 2008 and continued her path trained as a facilitator under the Akhanda-Shakti methodology, which fuses the tradition of Hatha Yoga from the Himalayan teacher Yogrishi Vishvketu, with the empowerment, creativity and feminine divinity approach of Adi Shakti.

Sharon has focused on the study and practice of traditional yoga. In 2019 she made her first trip to India, learning directly from teachers of the Hatha, Vinyasa, Iyengar and Akhanda traditions, integrating breathing, philosophy, movement and energy, with the intention of transferring what she learned while facilitating spaces for self awareness and transformation.

In 2017 she created her the Karuna Tribu; a hispanic yoga community based in Costa Rica, offering Yoga Teacher Trainings, Workshops, Retreats and lectures on the integration of Yoga in the modern lifestyle – which she combines with her other professional area: social communication.

She is a lead yoga teacher at SoulWork, Director of the non-profit Shakti Seva, and runs the Spanish Programs offering Yoga Alliance Certified Yoga Teacher Trainings in 200 and 300 hour and Prenatal Yoga formats.

What to expect in the Yoga In Costa Rica episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast

Sharon Brenes first began yoga when she felt called to heal after the death of her mother. She needed to connect to mother nature and to herself— so she headed to the jungle. She took on the radical responsibility of doing the inner work, and while she never imagined being a yoga teacher herself, she used her “shadow” as a path to follow her dharma. 

In this episode of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast, we dive into Sharon’s vision, passion, and mission of making yoga more accessible and inclusive for Latin America Community. 

Yoga in Costa Rica is on the rise. With the abidance of natural beauty, surrounded by jungle, mountains, volcanoes, nature, and plenty of wild life— Costa Rica is becoming quite the hub in Latin America for yoga and wellness centers, retreats, and activities. Sharon’s venture, the Karuna Tribe, holds online and in person yoga based events, courses, and trainings in both English and Spanish so make sure you tap into her offerings!

For the skimmers – What’s in the Costa Rica episode?

• Using Your Shadow As a Path to Follow your Dharma
• Going to the Jungle 
• Radical Responsibility To Do The Inner Work
• Yoga as a Path to Self Knowledge, Self Awareness, and Self Regulation
• Trauma Informed Yoga Allows You To See Yourself In Your Practice
• The Path of Yoga as Love 
• Mission of making yoga more accessible and inclusive for Latin America Community

Favorite Quote From Sharon Brenes

“The path of yoga is a path of love. Learning and re-learning how to love ourself better because as I love myself, I love you too.” 

Connect with Sharon Brenes

www.karunatribu.com

https://www.instagram.com/sharonbrenes/

https://www.instagram.com/karunatribu/

 

Want more?

https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

BOOK: Yoga and the Art of Mudra (2019)

CD: Pranayama: May our Breath Be Our Prayer (2005)

Want more?

https://wildyogatribe.com/thepodcast/

Everything you need is just one click away! Check out all the resources here: https://linktr.ee/wildyogatribe

JOIN ME FOR LIVE-STREAMED YOGA CLASSES!

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast Episode #16 – Trauma Informed Yoga – Yoga in Costa Rica with Sharon Brenes 

[00:00:00] Lily Allen-Duenas: Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. I’m your host, Lily Allen-Duenas. Together, we’ll talk about the world of yoga and we’ll talk to people from around the world. Join us for authentic conversations about the global yoga ecosystem, and we’ll cover yoga philosophies and methodologies along the way.

[00:00:28] Inhale. Exhale. We’re about to dive in

[00:00:36] Namaste family, and welcome back to the Wild Yoga Tribe podcast. This week, I am delighted to welcome Sharon Brenes onto the show. She is a yoga teacher from Costa Rica. What a beautiful country. I could definitely use a little bit of Costa Rica sunshine right now. Um, but she is here with us tuning in and as the guest for this week.

[00:01:00] So Sharon Brenes is a trauma informed yoga alliance certified 500 hour yoga and meditation teacher. She began her yoga practice in 2008 and continued her path to be trained as a facilitator under the Aconda Shakti method, which fuses the tradition of Hatha yoga from the Himalayan yoga teacher.

[00:01:22] You’ll agree. She Vishuddhi. With the empowerment, creativity and feminine divinity approach of the audit check. So in 2017, she created her venture, the Karuna Tribu Hispanic community based in Costa Rica, offering yoga teacher trainings, workshops, retreats, and lectures on the integration of yoga and in the modern lifestyle, which she combines with her other professional areas.

[00:01:53] Social communication. She is the lead teacher at soul work director of the nonprofit Shakti Seva, and [00:02:00] runs the Spanish programs offering yoga alliance, certified yoga teacher training in both 200 and 300 hours. And in prenatal yoga. So as you can see, I think Sharon is going to make for a wonderful guest and I’m so excited for our conversation to begin.

[00:02:18] So let’s welcome Sharon onto the show. Thank you so much, Sharon, for being here. 

[00:02:24] Sharon Brenes: Thank you, Lily. I’m super excited and grateful to be here sharing with you and your listeners.

[00:02:32] Lily Allen-Duenas: Yes. Thank you. Thank you. So let’s just get started with, how did you start your yoga practice?

Sharon started her yoga practice

[00:02:37] Sharon Brenes: Well, I was really young actually. I was, I moved from San Jose, like the main city in Costa Rica to the Pacific coast in the Hakko area.

[00:02:51] Which is a really touristy area in Costa Rica. And I was working a lot. I wasn’t studying a lot and I needed to do [00:03:00] something I needed. I always liked movement working out everything. But I had a five to eight job, an eight to five job. Right. So, I couldn’t do a lot in nature and I found these yoga platforms in the middle of the jungle.

[00:03:19] And I was like, I may try this. And I remember my first class, it was magical. My teacher back then was a beautiful change, introducing me to the practice and back into town, 2008. I was sure that. I wanted yoga to be part of my life and I wanted to study more. So then I moved back to San Jose to finish my career and finished everything with college and all that and.

[00:03:50] I found a place again to continue my practice and in 2015 when my mom passed away. I [00:04:00] knew that there was no other tool. There was no other team that was going to help me with this grief process. But connecting with myself again. And you know, like all the hustle in the city, you get used to this crazy schedule of doing a lot, doing, doing, doing, doing, doing, and ingredient processes.

[00:04:22] You have to stop. You have to give yourself time to heal, to listen to yourself, to process everything. And I decided to book a retreat. I remember Googling, Costa Rica yoga retreat. Somewhere. And it was a yoga teacher training, actually. And I was like, oh, okay, this is perfect. I can just take myself to the jungle again, study, profoundly the yoga philosophy and have some time for myself.

[00:04:52] Because again, when you are grieving, it’s common for you to just wear a mask and pretend that things are [00:05:00] fine, just because you don’t want to talk a lot about that with people and people at work and all that. I think till the time I took myself to the jungle for a month and that’s when the teacher.

[00:05:12] path started somehow. I never imagined that I was going to become a yoga teacher, never, never in my life. And I rather see that as being facilitated, facilitating spaces for. People to connect with themselves again, to transform. And of course, honoring the tradition honoring the ancient knowledge that yoga has brought to us in this side of the world.

[00:05:41] And suddenly why was my shadow, like the biggest pain I ever felt in my life became a clear path for me to follow my Dharma and now pretty much like 13 years [00:06:00] after my first practice or something like that. I am grateful and I see the grays in how these tools, this practice came to my life and how I can offer that now to people who may be struggling with life things, or maybe needing some tools for them just to reconnect with themselves.

[00:06:23] And this is how I started. 

[00:06:26] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, that is a beautiful story about how yoga came to me in your life. I am sorry for your loss. I know no matter how much time goes by it’s it’s still, I still want to offer that to you. 

[00:06:40] Sharon Brenes: Thank you.

[00:06:42] Lily Allen-Duenas: But I love that you just went to the jungle. Like those words to me seem so like, I don’t know, like they just touch me.

[00:06:50] They’re primaral. Or see their grounding. It’s like, you literally took yourself out of the hustle and bustle of the city, as you said, out of everything, [00:07:00] artificial out of the masks, out of the space where you could kind of hide and then use that, I’m going, I’m going raw. I’m going real. I’m going vulnerable.

[00:07:09] I’m going to the jungle. Wow. 

[00:07:12] Sharon Brenes: Yeah, totally. Any suppresses, you know, and now. When I, when I look back then, I can see how this metaphor of the onion really, really happens. You know, like shedding those layers, like, how is grief supposed to be? Because I remember people telling me, like after three months, you should do or supposed to be doing this and that.

[00:07:38] And then like, there is no formula. Unless you connect with yourself unless you know yourself better, unless you forgive yourself for the things you haven’t looked at yourself so far too. And I think the jungle offers that space in which you can connect again with mother earth, with the elements with, well, here.

[00:07:59] [00:08:00] Our weather is always crazy. So mornings may be super sunny and then in the afternoon it’s raining and cold. I didn’t need it to be in contact with nature. I needed even to be with strangers, you know, like knowing that there was no judgment around and everyone was in their own experience.

[00:08:22] Right. Because it’s, it’s not easy to be an empath with people while they’re in any kind of grieving, I’m not just talking about someone you loved in the past or I don’t know, like some sort of relationship ended. Grieving is there. And sometimes we don’t even know that and then it stucks in your body and then it stucks in your mind and you try to continue and continue, but you are still stuck.

[00:08:54] Right. And it’s important to do the work. And I think that yoga offers [00:09:00] us a lot of tools and pretty much that’s what the practice is. Right. Finding yourself again, knowing yourself better. So you can interact with nature more freely, right? Like understanding that we move through cycles, which is important to an, all these cycles make us grow and make us understand another layer of ourselves.

[00:09:26] And these cover that layer of ourselves with love, compassion, and something I really appreciate about this practice. Is the tool of observation, of being a witness of my experience and knowing that it’s temporary, that it will pass, that it will bring lessons and growth to my soul and to what this human experience means.

[00:09:50] For me today, not thinking that much about tomorrow. Why did I have this experience today? What I am experiencing, where is this coming from? How [00:10:00] can I take radical responsibility for my inner state as I understand my path and love my path or cultivate that love for my path. And when you do that inner work, which is every day, right?

[00:10:20] It’s not solving a yoga retreat or in a yoga class. It can not be fixed when you understand that you don’t have to be fixed, but do the work every day. I think that all that weight that comes with the processes in life gets a little bit lighter. Because then you change that for compassion. Then you change the fear of love.

[00:10:44] What’s beyond fear. What you don’t know, what it’s unknown to you. So coming from a place of spiritual work of love of compassion makes things a little easier in this human experience. [00:11:00] 

[00:11:01] Lily Allen-Duenas: Oh, my goodness, Sharon, that was intensely eloquent and just so well said. I can’t agree more. And I love the tools as well that you brought up. The self-awareness and the knowledge that things are temporary, because I feel like either there’s those, we create like a cork in a bottle, you know, we just bottle things up and pretend things don’t exist or in the opposite direction.

[00:11:27] We’re feeling like we’re drowning in it and it’s never, ever, ever, ever going to end. And I’m going to feel horrible forever and ever. It’s like those two gifts of being able to, to watch what’s happening and to say, all right, this is going to change because if you observe yourself and, and even every morning, like one hip is more flexible than the other.

[00:11:45] And then my shoulder hurts one morning and it’s just, everything is so different and we need to make sure we pay attention when they change. Which I think sometimes when we move so quickly, we forget to do that. So I know Sharon that you [00:12:00] create these, these spaces, these retreats, and these lectures, and these teachings on the integration of yoga in the modern lifestyle, which is, you know, what we’re talking about.

[00:12:11] Could you tell me more about the Karuna Tribua and about what you’re, what spaces you’re creating?

About Karuna Tribu

[00:12:18] Sharon Brenes: Yeah, of course we’ll love to do that. Well, um, I started Karuna Tribu in 2017 when I completed my 500 hour certification and, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew that I wanted to hold space for people as someone holding that space for me to and it was really interesting at the beginning because I was just offering like, you know, donation-based classes.

[00:12:46] And in that moment. It was beautiful and lovely to notice how many women were coming to my class. That looked a lot like my mom, not only physically, but in different ways, in different stories that they were sharing with me. And it just helped me to reconfirm what my Dharma, what my path was and that it just should, and I just should.

[00:13:13] Trust in that. And then suddenly, I started supporting my teacher Addi Shakti in the jungle with her trainings. Then I became part of the faculty team and nowadays of course, with all these crazy things happening in the world and the revolution of virtual teachings and all that. We opened the Spanish community for Soul Work, which is that we’re our sister brand.

[00:13:44] Karuna’s  sister brand. And now like this past year, everything became more even accessible for these teachings to be part of their Latin American community. Because I can tell you, like in Latin America, [00:14:00] It’s hard to find high quality yoga education, just because of the language barrier. And it’s really common for, I dunno, like the US, Canada, and even Europe to find good quality yoga teacher trainings, which is the first step for a person from America, you know, to.

[00:14:24] depends on their practice, probably. And for Latin America, there were not many options. And it was a privilege for something, or it’s a privilege for someone to go to India or do a yoga teacher training because most likely they’re offering English. So I have the mission to continue expanding the knowledge and teachings of yoga.

[00:14:53] In my language, right. Spanish. So Karuna has [00:15:00] grown a lot the last couple years because of this mission of making yoga more accessible and more inclusive for the Latin American community. And it means offering it in Spanish. Like the same quality education as I received from my teachers. And also in terms of price, it’s different, the access that we have here in Latin America than in the North America area.

[00:15:30] And then, you know, like it has been beautiful blessing after blessing. Everything has started opening up again. People were starving for in-person contact things, right? So I decided to open a space for retreats again and in-person activities. And now it’s been a beautiful experience the last year, just to know that the Latin [00:16:00] American community is growing, that Costa Rica is already a wellness destination.

[00:16:06] And now I have the opportunity to bring both things to my country, right? Latin American people that can come retreat, find themselves in the jungle. And also, everything that Costa Rica has to offer in terms of wellness, beaches, jungle, adventure on self connection with mother earth. So it’s been a little mix of everything that has happened.

[00:16:40] I like to think it has happened because of divine grace and the class of half unfolds beautifully to continue offering all these tools, meditation, yoga, prana, yum, Mundra, and trauma informed spaces. So we all can have the [00:17:00] tools to support people in their journeys. For me, it’s really important to understand that and teach that yoga.

[00:17:07] Is not only about the headstand. I’m not only about the perfect alignment warrior two. Yes. That’s basic lean and part of their physical practice. But when we study the ancient texts, Asana. It’s like the last mentioned part in the yoga practice, right? It’s more about self knowledge.

[00:17:31] Self-awareness, self-regulation and I think that from a modern perspective, we can, we need to understand that not everyone is just seeking a for a spiritual. Experience, right. Like, yeah. I am finding enlightenment is not only about that. That’s part of the journey. I guess I haven’t met anyone enlightened yet.

[00:17:59] I am [00:18:00] not right. But I understand that this path of growth can be supported by these tools that yoga offers. I mean, on the other hand, we have a lot of things going on, you know, our modern lives. Overstimulated by everything, by our jobs, by our family, by our obligations, by what we are supposed to be doing.

[00:18:25] And I think that having this perspective of yoga sensitivity can help us to move through these layers that we are discovering, through ourselves with more love and compassion from the people that it’s teaching that to us. Right? So this, this sensitivity to trauma has been. Wonderful tool for yoga teachers to, to hold safe spaces for people that want to come to yoga, understanding that yoga is not a [00:19:00] therapy, but it’s a way is a path is a tool to come back to our normal reading, to our sensations, to this phases, to connect to our minds, our heads, our memories from.

[00:19:16] A more sensitive space. 

[00:19:21] Lily Allen-Duenas: I’m so glad you brought up trauma informed yoga and also helped kind of define it. Do you want to expand upon it a little bit more and talk about how you also integrate it into your offerings and teachings? 

Trauma informed yoga

[00:19:32] Sharon Brenes: Yeah. Yeah, of course. Well trauma can be left as a way as if we were trapped in an event, right?

[00:19:43] Like things happen to us as humans. We have traumas, right? Some of us have like more, like heart events that have happened to our lives. Some of us haven’t. [00:20:00] As teachers don’t know, what’s the story behind the person that is coming to a 60 minute class, right? We don’t know what has happened. What is their recurring thinking process?

[00:20:13] We don’t know if they can even register what’s going on in their bodies as we guide them to move and flow into the practice. Right? So trauma informs us, offers us as teachers, as holders of these transformational spaces, tools to invite people to enjoy their practice, right? Because no trauma is less or more than anything, right?

[00:20:42] We all, we all have our own life experiences. So if I invite you to do a movement it will be different than if I ask you to do something. It can trigger any kind of memory to the person that is coming to the class. I know it’s important [00:21:00] just to have the tools to use invitational language, like having awareness of the space, where we are, and how long the class will last.

[00:21:09] Because for people with anxiety, for example, we don’t know what that, where that anxiety is coming from. Just knowing that we will be in the space for 60 minutes, that there is the bathroom. If you need to rest, you can do it. If you need to have your eyes open the whole class, that’s okay. So pretty much letting people know that everything is welcome in the class.

[00:21:35] Like there is no obligation to do anything, but what feels comfortable in their bodies, in their movements, in their minds to trauma-informed spaces are created for offering modifications, variations, and options for everyone. It allows you to see yourself in your [00:22:00] practice, from where your body is reacting to something, discovering what sources you have for yourself, that you can source yourself, that you can, respond.

[00:22:13] These kinds of triggering from the present moment, understanding that you are here, that you are not in that story, that you are not reliving the trauma that you are here to listen to yourself, connect with yourself, hold yourself and accept the moment of the present. And we talk about that in yoga a lot, being present and being the present, but what’s really being present means if someone is experiencing trauma, Sometimes for them being in the present means going back to their memories because they’re trapping that.

[00:22:50] And also our body talks a lot about things, an energy that we have [00:23:00] storage in our body, just because we, as you said, right, we keep putting things on their carpet and then they’re the carpet. So understanding the language in our own body. Talk to us, help us to better understand our needs, our emotions and move with intuition, move with love, with compassion.

[00:23:22] And of course, something I love about this practice is not only how spiritual it is. but also the science behind that. Right. And, and, and it’s important to mention that because of course yoga helps us, with everything I have said before, regulating, self regulating and coming back to our center, understanding where we are right now.

[00:23:48] And in the science part, it also helps us with all these hormone regulation, right. Helping us with all the cortisol release, [00:24:00] reducing inflammation, helping our nervous system. To just try to self regulate to, and therefore all the benefits that come from that, you know, supporting our immune system, helping us, with stress, with stress response, with anxiety.

[00:24:18] We have all these modern things that we have more information about today. Yoga can be a great space for people that have suffered any kind of trauma, any kind of PTSD, any kind of present moment is stress to understand where that’s coming from in their bodies or that’s coming from in their emotional layer too.

[00:24:43] And use the practice to cultivate the awareness to come back and self regulate. So yoga is using yoga as a tool for self regulation. Nowadays, I [00:25:00] think of having to integrate these trauma sensitivity language, this trauma informed spaces. So we all can be safe in the practice. And also that reminds me of listening.

[00:25:14] Some of my students are talking about adjustments, right? Like not everyone likes to be touched. Not everyone feels comfortable being touched or being adjusted by someone they don’t know. And also us as teachers, right? We need to understand what our energy is in the class. And part of holding that space is honoring our physical boundaries, physical limits.

[00:25:41] And knowing that it is not about the Asana is not about the pose. It’s not about the alignment, it’s about safety too. So pretty much, that’s a little introduction about what yoga inform is and how we can integrate that in [00:26:00] our yoga classes.

[00:26:02] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much, Sharon, for expanding on that, because I do think trauma informed yoga is absolutely, as you said, necessary in our current climate of the world with so much kind of chaos and grief and trauma going on, but I do think that.

[00:26:21] As you brought up alignment, energy, our invitational language, the space that we’re creating, there’s so many elements to it. And I think unless you are really just a natural, mindful, empathetic, you know, spirit, it can be difficult to. To comprehend that you could be making a mistake or making an error.

[00:26:45] And unless you have done some trauma informed training or work to understand. Cause I know that I’ve seen other teachers and in classes I’ve been in, adjust students in ways that would freak me out. I would just panic. If someone [00:27:00] touched me, you know, in that aggressive, pushy way or one time, I did have a student, as you brought up with your example, a student who needed to keep her eyes open throughout the whole practice.

[00:27:11] And I just thought that she was ignoring my instructions. I didn’t even think it could be something. And so when I went over to her very quietly, you know, just, you know, gently and just said, oh, are you, can you close your eyes? And she said, no, I can’t. Oh, okay. And I felt so guilty that I hadn’t picked up on that.

[00:27:27] So I do think there’s so much worth and, it’s just so needed this trauma informed yoga. 

[00:27:36] Sharon Brenes: Yeah it is and I see you there. Like I remember when I started teaching, students would enclose their eyes. I was like, maybe they’re not connecting with the practice. And you know, like that watcher stage.

[00:27:50] Keep cultivating. Right? It’s like, I am judging myself as a teacher. When I think like that, people are not connecting, maybe they are not, and that’s fine. [00:28:00] Right. They’re discovering that at that moment. Probably they are like, I’m not here. I’m thinking about these, that, that, that, you know, monkey mind. But sometimes that monkey mind is not about, oh, I forgot to do this.

[00:28:14] I forgot to run that errand. Sometimes it’s like, I can close my eyes because I have memories, right. Um, and actually like, yes, there are lots of teacher training or yoga teacher training, and would focus on trauma informed, but also there are a lot of resources online that we can search and find some tapes that we can integrate as teachers.

[00:28:41] Right. And I think that’s part of the responsibility as teachers, as I said before, sourcing outward self with continuous knowledge and learning all the time. I like to bring yoga [00:29:00] down to earth. It’s not about unicorns and flowers and rainbows. It’s beautiful. Yes, you can feel that way sometimes, but we are humans.

[00:29:12] We are. I like to think that we are right now in this moment that humanity is experiencing because we have a mission and now we understand better. Now we understand that trauma exists. We understand that it’s important to support people as they are in their paths, not forcing anything, not wanting them to do a headstand before their bodies and minds and spirits are ready for that because then we start separating.

[00:29:52] We started doing the opposite. We start practicing from our egos and up from our heart. And it’s [00:30:00] features. I think that’s one of the things I have learned a lot throughout these years of practicing offering the tradition of yoga is to always see myself from that space of witness and see what I thought.

[00:30:21] As I was teaching, oh, I was judging myself because this person wasn’t connecting, or maybe I could have done this better. I could have cued this better. How can I bring that one hour experience out of the month to see how much I have grown just by looking at myself with more love instead of judgment.

[00:30:45] And it’s common for people to think that yoga teachers know everything, can do all the poses and can understand what all the Sanksrit, right? And we are just [00:31:00] humans doing the work, holding a space for others. As we continue to heal, as we continue to know ourselves better, we are here with a mission and connecting with that purpose, with that Dharma.

[00:31:14] It’s something that ‘s free for everyone, it’s available for everyone. Right? So definitely, definitely business spaces can create a lot of transformation for everyone. The person that decides to sign up in a retreat to just come for a dropping class for the teacher that’s supporting and holding the space.

[00:31:36] That’s where I see that union where we can. Just be there as souls and understand that we all are doing the best we can with the tools we have, and we can also help each other sharing tools, sharing experiences that may just [00:32:00] inspire us to find that authentic place and move from that authentic place in our actions, in our thoughts, in our words, in our acts of service for others as well.

[00:32:16] Lily Allen-Duenas: I love that. I love that. The bringing yoga down to earth, and to kind of take out some of those misconceptions about yoga teachers being perfect at things, or knowing a ton of stuff. I know I’m going to be a student of yoga for the rest of my life and yeah. Keep learning every day. And that is our mission and our, and it’s our responsibility.

[00:32:38] Absolutely. To keep on learning. And being better and better, more informed yoga teachers. So Sharon, since you, you do bring yoga down to earth and you take out the rainbows and you take out the unicorns. I’m curious, how do you define yoga?

Sharon’s definition of yoga

[00:32:56] Sharon Brenes: It’s so broad. It’s so big [00:33:00] because I actually love reading a lot about yoga and philosophy. And one of my favorite lectures when I teach is the history of yoga, actually. So yoga goes beyond the asanas and as yoga goes beyond just the 60 minute class, right. It’s important to understand that yoga is self study.

[00:33:28] Yoga connects us with our souls, understanding that out of all of the souls that are right now on this planet, in this earth, in this universe are interconnected and that we are learning from each other. So for me, the biggest lesson or the biggest way to connect with yoga for me is seeing everyone as a teacher.

[00:33:54] And that’s what yoga means for me. If I find some [00:34:00] sort of quote or book or I read something, I like to think that it’s a teacher for me. If I see someone acting in a way that I wouldn’t act properly, that’s a teacher for me. If I go to a class with another yoga teacher and I find myself judging that teacher judging myself in my experience, that’s the yoga, right?

[00:34:23] Like that self knowledge, that responsibility to understand where we are, who we are. What’s that person? What’s the situation teaching me and really important on the other hand, detaching from that, knowing that yes, I learned a lot today and I can feel proud of that. Oh, that’s my teacher. That’s the lesson.

[00:34:50] And then releasing that to go to bed at night, knowing that. I can be grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, God. Thank you. Thank you, universe. Thank [00:35:00] you, body. Thank you, person. Thank you, teacher. Thank you, lecture. Thank you, everything. And I can also release that because as I feel that I know everything today, I know nothing.

[00:35:11] And when, when I under, I understand that before going to bed or in the morning in my meditation. I think it’s easier to move through what yoga really means, which is union, right. Releasing all those layers, releasing all those barriers. I know more than you. No I don’t. Oh, I understood this. I am more knowledgeable now.

[00:35:38] No, no I’m not. I think I know, but I don’t. I think I am healed, but I’m not. I think I am a teacher, but I’m a student. Right. So just releasing those evil layers, and I’m working on detachment every single day helps me to move through my [00:36:00] own personal yoga practice. And of course I hope that. What I transmit to others, as I facilitate this space, can at least, inspire people to understand that we are just a spirit in this body, just a spirit with an intellect that can connect us with our higher wisdom.

[00:36:25] But this intellect, this mind is thinking mine is just a tool for my spiritual transformation too. So that’s what really yoga means to me. 

[00:36:39] Lily Allen-Duenas: Great definition. I am grateful that you shared those thoughts. Cause I do think they’re relevant for me to hear every single day. I think I need to tell myself detach, let go.

[00:36:51] Probably, you know, at least 20 times a day. I think so many things have claws practically, like tiger claws [00:37:00] that just like to stick in us so deeply. And we have these mental formations, these habits that we have, these patterns, these neural pathways, we have built up over, you know, 20 years or 30 years before we’ve started that journey of self-awareness and of observation.

[00:37:18] And I’m kind of checking, oh, should I, you know, Wait that’s judgment. I don’t want it. Let’s release that judgment. You know, it’s such a practice. And I think having compassion for ourselves when we struggle, because it also isn’t a linear path ever. It’s one step forward, 10 steps back, four steps forward, 30 steps back, you know, you know, it’s just such a, you have to have compassion and hopefully a sense of humor around it.

[00:37:46] Sharon Brenes: Yeah, totally. And also understanding like, you know, like this is a spiritual path, you just mentioned patterns, right? Samskaras. So we all are born with samskaras. We all are born [00:38:00] with patterns that come from the yoga philosophy that comes from past lives. And also we choose our parents. We choose our souls, choose our parents and we learn a lot.

[00:38:13] Patterns from them, from our families, from society. So taking radical responsibility for our journey is learning to see those patterns with love, because I really don’t conceive. How can we heal without loss? How can we forgive ourselves and others without love? Right. So the path of yoga is a path of love.

[00:38:42] Learning, relearning how to love ourselves better. Because as I love myself, I love you more too. I can love my partner. I can love my family. I can love my friends. I can love even a person that I don’t know that I haven’t connected with. Because that’s [00:39:00] the spirit of these practices coming back to your center, coming back to your Atman, to your soul, to your center of love.

[00:39:08] Every single moment. Doing that work can only happen if you sit with yourself and see your  samskaras and see yourself in the mirror and notice how hard you are with yourself, because we are so hard with ourselves that we’re thinking minds are just trying to self-attach sometimes, right?

[00:39:32] So coming from that space of love, using meditation as a self observation tool to understand where am I today? What do I need today? What are my needs? Am I feeling ugly from the viewer? How can I try to cultivate more love right now? How can I remember who I am from the deepest space [00:40:00] within me, and that’s a hard job, that’s a hard thing to do every day.

[00:40:07] But then what else can we do to track ourselves with other things? Yes, of course. And the world is full of distractions. We, as humans have created this Maya, this illusion, this has spaces in which we think we have to do, do do, do do every day. And actually what we need to do is integrate that self knowledge with our human normal things to do.

[00:40:37] Right. Because it doesn’t mean that in order to move through the path of yoga. You have to go in a cave, meditate all day long and yeah. The basic things, right. You can continue to have your life. You can drink wine, you can go and dance and have fun and all that. But if [00:41:00] yoga is part of your life as a tool, then come back to your center.

[00:41:04] Then remember who you really are. When this body is not here. When you are in your spirit, when you are in that inner space of connection with your higher self. 

[00:41:22] Lily Allen-Duenas: Absolutely. I agree with that. You need to come back home to yourself and you can absolutely live your life, how you want it. I think people can fall into that.

[00:41:32] I’m, you know, can I really live a, you know, a path that follows a path of yoga if I still want to go out and as you said, dance, or drink wine. And I think things will naturally be if we stop fighting them and questioning them and poking and prodding and resisting, and it’s just, just follow what feels right.

[00:41:51] Let it flow, let it go. And then I think things will reveal themselves as you tap into your center and stop fighting so hard, fighting [00:42:00] ourselves fighting what’s happening. It’s these battles we wage, I think take such a toll on us in our, in our energy, in our path. And as I love the word sabotage, I definitely use that as well.

[00:42:13] In my teachings to explain that we are our own worst enemies. 

[00:42:17] Sharon Brenes: That’s true.

[00:41:18] Lily Allen-Duenas: It’s rough. Sharon, I do want to ask a little about Costa Rica though. So how was the yoga industry perceived and developed in Costa Rica? 

Yoga developed in Costa Rica

[00:42:31] Sharon Brenes: Well, I think it’s crazy how the last few years, the yoga industry has become a thing here.

[00:42:40] Like when I talk about Costa Rica with people that live here, it’s like, oh yeah, wellness, retreat, it’s beach, you know, and I think that Costa Rica has a lot to offer. In terms of spaces for connecting with yourself and if you come [00:43:00] here. I know a lot of people that have come and he’s like, I don’t want to leave.

[00:43:05] How can I make a life here? Because it’s the […] life, you know, that’s our, yeah, I think it’s the slogan, […] means pure life and that’s the way we live here. We are surrounded by […], volcanoes, rivers. We have the blessing to count with both sides of the ocean, you know, the Caribbean side, which is like, wow, it’s amazing.

[00:43:33] Um, like all these jungle bikes, you can see slugs everywhere, monkeys and you can just find yourself in a little house in front of the beach. And either watch the sunrise or sunset on the Pacific side. I think that Costa Rica has a lot to offer in terms of the spaces to connect with yourself. And with [00:44:00] being said, the thing also is that lots of people from other countries are moving here.

[00:44:06] And offering spaces for people from their countries or whatever part of the world they’re coming from to come and experience that with them. They want to share that with their communities too. So if you go to any of the touristic areas in Costa Rica, you will find such a mix of culture and people coming from around the world.

[00:44:32] And it has created lots of space for the wellness and yoga industry in general too, yeah. Set up four offerings, you know, like yoga retreat centers, hotels that are already offering yoga daily or meditation daily, or like even, you know, yoga studios everywhere. So it [00:45:00] has become a thing here in Costa Rica.

[00:45:02] I’m glad and grateful and blessed that I can leave that in my own country. I live in San Jose, which is the city, but I’m just like one and a half, two hours away from these spaces in which healing and transformation is happening too. 

[00:45:20] Lily Allen-Duenas: You definitely made me want to book a ticket. I definitely can use some of that right now.

[00:45:27] Sharon Brenes: Yes. Please, please come, come.

[00:45:33] Lily Allen-Duenas: Sharon, I know one of your huge missions is making yoga more accessible and inclusive. Or the Latin American community by providing so many offerings in Spanish, I would, I wanted to ask, do you have any offerings that are available in English? I know our listeners may be curious about checking out your website or taking an online course with you.

[00:45:54] And I just would love to hear about those online, or of course, in person offerings as well.

Sharon’s offerings in English and Spanish

[00:46:00] Sharon Brenes: Yeah, actually, I try everything that I offer in Spanish. I try to set it up in English too, or the opposite. If I come up with something in English, then I’ll make it available in his Spanish too. So pretty much all of our offerings are in both languages.

[00:46:16] I am blessed and privileged that I can speak both languages. Of course I will be way more fluent in Spanish. But I’m working on being more comfortable with my English too. And definitely like these, these offerings are available in both languages. Now we have different courses like prenatal yoga, 200 hour yoga teacher training available, recorded in English.

[00:46:46] And they are not offered as a certification, but more like a self-study bundle. So people that are more interested in learning, deepening their practices and not [00:47:00] exactly becoming yoga teachers can take those courses too. In Spanish as well, everything is available online and actually we have a couple, beautiful yoga teacher training coming up next month for the Spanish or Latin American community.

[00:47:17] And then finally, next year we’ll be going back to in-person life yoga teacher training in English, probably in Spanish too. And they will be happening here in Costa Rica. So people can find everything on our website, […].com. And if they want to come to any of our retreats, both the Spanish and English, they can find all the information on my website and we have scholarships available because it’s important.

[00:47:50] Also to make it accessible in that way. I understand Costa Rica. I tell you it’s not a really cheap country. It’s kind of [00:48:00] expensive somehow, right? Something that yoga has given me is creativity. So we are constantly evolving and offering new spaces, new retreats based on what the same community asks for us to give them.

[00:48:22] So, we are usually posting everything on social media so they can follow […] on Instagram or myself as SharonBrenes on Instagram too. 

[00:48:33] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you for sharing all that information. And dear listeners, of course, all of Sharon’s links will be here in the show notes, wherever you’re tuning in, as well as on my website, wildyogatribe.com.

[00:48:45] So everything’s linked there. You can just click and magically be transported digitally to Sharon’s world, which I’m sure we could all use some more up right now. So thank you so much, Sharon, for joining me for this conversation today. [00:49:00] It’s been just a true joy to be with you and to share this space. Thank you.

[00:49:03] Sharon Brenes: Thank you, Lily. Have a blessed day. Everyone who has listened to us too, thank you for your time and your energy. And I send you all lots of love.

Wild Yoga Tribe Podcast outro

[00:49:21] Lily Allen-Duenas: Thank you so much, dear listeners for tapping into this episode with Sharon Brenes from Costa Rica, I hope that you found this conversation to be just touching, right. There were so many eloquent and beautiful things that Sharon said about using, you know, your shadow elements as a path to follow your Dharma, going into the jungle, to connect to mother earth and to connect with your own spirit.

[00:49:47] And also we talked about radical responsibility for doing inner work, as well as all the elements that go into trauma informed yoga. There was so much more in this episode, of course, and I hope that you [00:50:00] enjoyed every moment of it. Thank you for the precious gift of your time, dear listener. Be well.

[00:50:12] Feel like getting social? Connect with me and the Wild Yoga Tribe on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Head on over to wildyogatribe.com to tap into some pretty awesome resources to meditate with me on Insight Timer, a free app on Apple and Android devices. And join me for a yoga class on YouTube.

[00:50:34] Jazz up your week and get a bit of yoga in your life. Remember to hit subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And if you feel called, please share this episode with someone that you think could benefit from it. Leaving a review would also be so appreciated. Thank you again, dear listener for being with me, may your day be light and bright.

[00:50:55] May you be peaceful, and happy and led on the right path, free of suffering [00:51:00] and free of sorrow. Be well, dear one. Be well.

Copyright © 2022 Wild Yoga Tribe LLC. All rights reserved. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Kindly check the corresponding audio before quoting in print to ensure accuracy.

The Wild Yoga Tribe, LLC, owns the copyright in and to all content in and transcripts of the Wild Yoga Tribe podcasts, with all rights reserved, including right of publicity.

What’s Okay

You are welcome to share an excerpt from the episode transcript (up to 500 words but not more) in media articles (e.g., The New York Times), in a non-commercial article or blog post (e.g., Elephant Journal), and/or on a personal social media account for non-commercial purposes, provided that you include proper attribution and link back to the podcast URL. For complete transparency and clarity, media outlets with advertising models are also welcome to use excerpts from the transcript per the above.

What’s Not Okay

No one is authorized to copy any portion of the podcast content or use Lily Allen-Duenas’ name, image or likeness for any commercial purpose or use, including without limitation inclusion in any books, e-books, or on a commercial website or social media site (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, etc.) that offers or promotes your or another’s products or services. Of course, media outlets are permitted to use photos of Lily Allen-Duenas from her Media Kit page or can make written requests via email to receive her headshots folder.