This is Carlo. He has been a great supporter of Dew Yoga through it’s first incarnations, at the Dojo and now at BVSA. He also happens to be a truly kind and bright soul. When you read his answers to my questions, both of the above statements are quite evident. Thanks Carlo for being a part of the Dew Yoga community.
I asked him a few questions about Yoga. Here is what he has to share with us.
Q: How long have you been practicing Yoga?
A: About 15 years – 14 of them with the same yoga mat. I even forgot it in Nashville once and got it mailed back. When you find the thing you love, why part with it?
Q: What fills your time off the mat?
A: I’ve been immersed in my new profession as a psychotherapist. This career change was influenced by my yoga, as have many of my choices in recent years. Like yoga, therapy aims to raise awareness and shift perception about ourselves, especially about our inner pain. It asks us to accept ourselves with compassion, without judgment, and to find the teacher within. I teach my clients meditation, which I also learned through yoga. There is a natural complementarity and synergy between yoga and therapy that I hope to explore with the yoga community once I open my private practice – hopefully next year. Stay tuned.
Q: How has your yoga practice affected your life off the mat?
A: Yoga has changed my life by subtle steps so that I did not recognize for a while how the changes day-by-day have mounted to a crescendo, a driving wave that propels my vessel into new and unfathomed waters. The primary change has been a shift and heightening of awareness – awareness of the subtleties of my physical body, my emotions, my thoughts, my social interactions, and the choices I make about each of them. They have been better choices. Financially, yoga’s been a good investment too as I haven’t been to the chiropractor in years. Oh, and I’m happier too. Maybe my yoga mat is more like a magic carpet sweeping me off to a different sort of Mecca? No wonder I’ve held onto that old mat for 14 years!
Q: What would you like to share with others about Yoga?
A: Yoga is also about the people you connect with. Most of the yogis I’ve met haven’t told me about their jobs, their families, their histories or their struggles. Yet when we breath together, when we chant together, when we stretch our bodies and our souls together, I find I have met them at a deeper and more intimate level. I have been inspired by many fellow students, but especially by dedicated teachers. The word inspire also means to breath in. I like the thought that I have breathed in and been enriched by them all – by all of you.
If anyone would like to connect with Carlo professionally, let us know, we will put you in touch!
Fellow Kripalu Yoga teacher, Ronnie Oster-Falkenburg will be a presenter at Kripalu this summer in the Anita McFarlane program, Kid’s Summer Fun, July 20 – 25th! Yay Ronnie!
My spiritual mother often talks about the power of redemption and her belief in it. Many movies are about redemption. Dead give away: The Shawshank Redemption. 
