My Story

My name is Claudia Helena.

I am a heart-centered, movement curator currently based out of Miami, FL.

Never in a thousand years did I think I’d end up here. With gratitude for every single part of my life that has led me to where I am today I share with you my story.

The Disconnect

By the time I was 19 I had my first corporate job as an Office Administrator. I was soon wearing a lot of hats and under a lot more stress than I would’ve liked to admit at the time. The adults around me, who I considered to be successful managed their stress through smoking, drinking and eating. By the time I turned 21, I had adopted the unhealthy habits of my mentors. Overworking myself to exhaustion, eating and drinking to manage stress. I had goals of climbing corporate ladder that I wanted to achieve before 25 so regardless of all the red flags I pushed forward.

The Discovery

In 2018, I took my first yoga class. I wasn’t particularly interested in yoga but a friend roped me into supporting another friend who was starting to teach community classes at a park nearby after work. For the first time in what seemed like months I had left work early to go move my body - something I hadn’t done in a really long time. I loved the experience of the first class and started going weekly. I was hooked. The first thing that shifted for me was my mood, I found myself fighting less and smiling more. The second thing that shifted was the pain. I had a hip and low back pain from so many hours of sitting that started to go away little by little. The last thing that changed was that less frequent were the times that I’d turn to food to soothe.

The Downfall

Life, as it usually does, happened and I stopped going to the park classes. By the time I was ready to go back the teacher had also decided to shift paths. I felt too insecure and self conscious to try a yoga studio. I thought that I wasn’t good enough at yoga to be able to participate in other studio or group classes. The time that followed was more and more of the same bad habits that had brought me to the initial disconnect. Truth is I didn’t like being in my skin, I was bored of life, couldn’t find a purpose outside of the office so I buried myself in office work to give my life some kind of meaning. And kept pushing forward.

The Dawning

Two years later I decided enough was enough. At this point I was weighting 250lbs, my body was tight, I couldn’t dance more than 2 salsa songs without losing my breath and I didn’t want any of that anymore. My dreams of climbing corporate ladders shifted into dreams of being able to physically climb mountains, go on runs, be able to go to the gym without feeling like everyone was judging me. The time to change was now and so I started with what was familiar - yoga.

The Downward Facing Dog

Since I took that decision my life turned upside down and sometimes that’s all you need - a shift in perspective. I realized my priorities had been all wrong for the longest time and that I had to start putting myself first. That’s when all of my personal growth work started. I attended the first online Chopra retreat due to the pandemic, did Sadhguru’s Inner Engineering online course, started a meditation and journaling practice. Due to closures I was doing my yoga practice at home, but also started walking and dancing. By April, I had lost a good chunk of the weight, I felt younger, healthier than I had in years and all together had stopped experiencing physical pain. Not only that but I was a better human, my relationships had gone to the next level as I was now able to show up differently, I was a better coworker and leader, someone who inspired through aligned action. I felt anger less often and started feeling peace more often.

Destiny

Some may call it destiny, some may call it fate but one day one of my favorite teachers asked me if I would consider signing up for teacher training. My first initial answer was straight up no. And then, just as before, life happened. The job where I was at was no longer aligned with me and I decided it was time for me to part ways. I felt I had hit a wall with my healing and so I agreed to do teacher training as my next step towards healing. Soon after I said yes my dad suffered an injury that pinched a nerve on his back causing him major pain but also preventing him from moving about as he normally would. The doctor said the only thing left to do was wait for the muscles to relax and the inflammation to pass but that could take days or months. I had a gut feeling that I could help him, so I offered to teach him yoga. Now there was a lot of mobility limitations that lead me to have to modify the classes in order to give him the experience of a gentle flow while honoring where he was at in terms of mobility and pain. In a week of doing classes 2 times a week he started noticing that the nerve pain was less on the days he practiced yoga. In two weeks he noticed that some of the things that were off limits physically for him before were now available. In three weeks the night nerve pain was gone all together and in a month he was finally able to ditch the wheelchair and get back to his day to day. This is the reason I decided to become a teacher. Seeing and being a facilitator to my dad’s journey into health was extremely powerful. I realized I had the ability to give the kind of release that him and I experienced through our completely different stories to other people. Since my teacher training I’ve dedicated myself to cultivating my own movement practices so that I am always in integrity with my teachings. I’ve spent hours studying and searching for learning experiences so that I can be of better service. And I’ve put myself out there in different communities, I’ve worked with many different people from professional athletes to corporate professionals, from moms-to-be to middle school kids. And I can now say that I live a healthy, purposeful and aligned life.