Yoga for Special Needs with Renata Sumar Gaertner

In this episode of This is Yoga Therapy, host Michele Lawrence sits down with Renata Sumar Gaertner, C-IAYT, the director and lead teacher of Yoga for All Abilities, carrying forward her mother’s legendary Sonia Sumar Method.

Renata began her yoga journey at just three years old and completed her first Hatha training at twelve. Raised alongside her sister, Roberta, who was born with Down Syndrome, Renata witnessed firsthand the profound developmental power of an individualized practice. Bridging her lifelong lineage roots with a degree in Speech Therapy and a postgraduate specialization in Language Disorders, Renata has dedicated her life to making yoga accessible and empowering for individuals with disabilities, neurodiversity, and additional needs.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The Myth of the Standard Template: Shifting away from a "one-size-fits-all" approach to physical alignment and defining what personal alignment truly means for a student's physiological safety and growth.
• The Neurobiology of Development: The reality of what happens when individuals navigating Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, or autism practice a structured, individualized yoga protocol.
• Establishing Nervous System Safety: How practitioners and parents can use breath, vocal resonance, and deep attention to build baseline safety for children with severe sensory processing challenges or communication barriers.
• Moving from Fear to Service: Shifting our mindset out of intimidation when working with complex additional needs and stepping into heart-centered, professional care.

Resources

• Learn more about Renata’s work & global trainings: Visit SpecialYoga.com to explore Part 1 and Part 2 certification pathways, continuing education modules, and private mentoring support.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Welcome to This Is Yoga Therapy. I'm your host, Michelle Lawrence. Join me as we venture beyond the map into the fascinating intersections of yoga and health. Each episode brings you candid conversations with the visionary leaders and practitioners who are truly shaping this field, sharing their stories, insights, and the profound impact of yoga therapy and action. Hey everyone, Michelle here. I want to take a quick 60-second break from today's conversation to invite you to something incredibly special that we've been building behind the scenes. On July 18th and 19th, we're officially holding Science and Soul, the Yoga Therapy and Integrative Wellness Summit. If you love the deep dive conversations we have on this podcast, then this summit's your chance to experience that wisdom and action. You're going to learn live from absolute masters of the field, including Joseph LePage, Maria Shamus, Neil Pearson, and Smith Amalaya. Best of all, tickets are completely free, and your registration includes a limited time replay pass. Head over to the show notes right here or go directly to innerpeaceyogatherapy.com slash summit to claim your free ticket. And I can't wait to see you there. Now let's get back to today's episode. So welcome back, folks, and thanks for joining. This is Yoga Therapy. Today we're joined by a yoga therapist and a global educator whose lifelong work has pioneered the field of adaptive, inclusive yoga. Renata Sumar Gartner, a CIAYT, is the owner, program director, and lead teacher of yoga for all abilities, carrying forward her mother's globally renowned Sonia Sumar method. Renata began practicing yoga with her mother when she was only three years old. Renata completed her first Hatha training at just 12 years old and has dedicated her life to making yoga accessible and empowering for individuals with disabilities and additional needs. Today we're going to explore how we can shift away from a one-size-fits-all approach to physical alignment and delve into how neuroanatomy, developmental principles, and maybe most importantly, heart-centered compassion come together to serve individuals of all abilities. It's such an absolute pleasure to have you here and to meet you today, Renata.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Thank you so much, and I'm very happy to having that invitation. I'm looking forward to us to have this conversation. Wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Well, many of our listeners are passionate about finding the intersection between clinical science and yoga, somatic lineage. You were raised by a renowned yoga teacher and saw the profound impact yoga had on your sister, Roberta, who was born with Down syndrome. Yet you also hold a degree in speech therapy and a postgraduate specialization in language disorders. So, how does your clinical and therapeutic background and your lifelong roots and the lineage inform how you look at the human body?

SPEAKER_00 3:27

That's a very, very interesting question. And I, if I would think about like how answer you right away, I have so many words. But I think it will help to understand a little bit of how I grew up and how my sister came to the scene. I was only two years old, so I don't really remember when my sister was born. But my mom was, from whatever I remember after the day that my sister passed away, I never felt different from her in a sense. Like we are raised exactly the same way. Of course, she needs a little bit more attention, she needs a little bit more care and more support than I did. But I was so independent in a way that it didn't really miss anything from my life. And I understand that's a different experience from a lot of other siblings that had brother or sister with disabilities. But I was always invited as a team member of that work with my sister. And my mom never really told us to go practice yoga. Like I was never like, oh, let's go practice yoga. But I would see. And as we all know, examples speaks more than anything. And I would see my mom always practicing yoga, always doing yoga. So I start trying to put all my dolls doing upside down, like headstand. Or so you would look in my room and all my dolls were headstanding, and I would try to be doing whatever around it, trying to follow her. And I slowly start stepping into and doing, and I would go in the math, and then she would teach me poses and stuff like that. So I remember very young having my mom guiding us, not in a thoughtful way, but in a welcoming way. And of course, my mom started working with my sister when she was very young. And if you think about 54 years ago, there was no such thing of uh neuroplasticity and early intervention, especially now in Brazil. So when my mom got the diagnose from the doctor, they said, Oh, you just wait when your daughter turns seven, then you send her to straight special school. And my mom was just not ready for that. They just said, um, no, no, no, no. Um, how can I do that? How can this person just decide my child's future? I don't know what my older daughter called Chipko is gonna have as a future. How can he just decide that she's gonna do nothing and maybe she walk one day? I said, No, I can't do that. And it's what observations, what observing she had me. So she saw how was my development, and then she saw my sister, and then how was her development? She started kind of like saying, Okay, so I know that we need to start working. She felt like my sister was really hypotonic. She had like, she would be like a little frog laying down. So my mom started working. It's like, how can I teach her yoga? Yoga is something good for me, so maybe I can teach her. And it's what by instinct is the love of a mother, a mother trying to help that child. It had never meant to be what it is today. It was just uh my mom trying her best to help my sister to become her best version. And this is what I learned. So, in a sense, a lot of times we we even use the word in the tabs, now it's a little bit different, but you would say, Oh, is typical or is it normal? Oh, this person is normal, and the other one is abnormal. So, like if something is wrong with that person that needs to be fixed. And for me, I never saw that my sister needs fixing, she just needs understanding, she just needs time, she just needs space, she just needs opportunities so she could learn. And that's just the environment that I grew up. You know, when I was looking at my mom and seeing how she treated my sister, how she invited me to help my sister, she taught me how to help her. We at one point were even teaching her school stuff because we're kind of homeschooling her. And I was really good at math, so I would teach her math, and my mom would teach her the other subjects, things like that. And then throughout my childhood, I always want to be a doctor. I actually wanted to be an MV. I want to be a, at that time, I want to be a pediatrician. And life came. I became a teenager, my sister passed away. It was a really, really hard time for us. And I did try to go into medical school, try to get into college to go to medical school, but in Brazil it's extremely, extremely hard because you have to go into school already on that on that track that you want. It's not like I go to college and decide what I want to do. You have to go into that training. So you just imagine if a person here at 18, they're going to medical school.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

And it's really hard to get in. But I guess that it was just not meant to be. And I decided to try. I look at my sister, I look at the work I had been teaching already, kids. And I really felt like a file with speech language pathology, which was very new in my town, like in my whole state. I was the second uh group to graduate as a speech language pathology in Brazil. Yes. So I said, that's what I want. I want to have that because then I can help the child's speech as well, and then I can work with that child as a whole. Sure. And it was really interesting because I found everything that I was searching for in the medical degree. I found all the anatomy, physiology, neurology, everything that I always adore in the human body and stuff, I found in that program. Besides all the techniques that I learned to help the kids to sleep. So I could bring that into the yoga class as well. So I could bring those techniques and help them. I would know how to approach them so to help them to understand in the physical aspect of it. I know how to reach the child deeper in other ways with the yoga. But with this piece of therapist, then I got those two things together and I said, okay, now I know what I'm doing. Now I now I feel really, really comfortable working with the kids. Because you need to set the environment in a way that the child feels comfortable, that they are willing to listen, but also that you will see and listen to whatever kind of language they have for you. So in our method, we really focus on that, trying to really find any clues you can to see. Sometimes it's the body response, sometimes it's a facial feedback when you use a lot of adjustments. So we touch the child's body so you can feel if that touched child is fierce, tense, is relaxing, and by back, you start communicating with that child.

SPEAKER_02 10:38

Wow. I'd love to learn more about it. So let's carry that forward a bit to learn more about the work that you do. So the Sonya Sumar method, shared through yoga for all abilities, has been developed now for over five decades. And when we look at standard Western commercialized yoga, there's often a hidden expectation of what a body should look like. I believe that's starting to change more and more now, but there still is that, right? And you teach a concept called personal alignment. So, from a therapeutic standpoint, what does personal alignment mean and why is it essential for a student's safety and growth, particularly with the folks that you're working with?

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Yeah. Sometimes we work with people who can barely move a finger.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

So, and they are on wheelchairs, the body has been in that chair for a long time and it's all tense and say, I'm gonna teach this person yoga, right? And so that person I aligned, it means the pose serves the student, not the student serving the pose in a sense of how can I adapt this pose for that person? And it's a little bit different. I'm very happy that you brought that up, that it is changing. And it is that that view of that perfect pose that we see, we still see, and I'm not saying it's wrong. I love aligning. I teach typical, what we call typical, I teach any person, and I teach regular yoga classes as well for people who can follow. I love working with the body. I myself have a very flexible body, so I have to pay attention on my own poses. And I have I I adore seeing all the things that people can do with their body. But that does not mean that I need to be to do that in order to be doing yoga. Yeah, absolutely. Because yoga is about presence, it's about being present in your body. It's not what I see the other person doing, it's what it feels right myself, what it feels right in my body. A lot of people who take classes with me, they always uh hear me saying that, and they say, Oh, I like what my teacher says. She always says that they say, when you're practicing yoga, you have to listen to the needs of your body, not the desires of your mind. Because, and it goes in both ways. Sometimes the mind is kind of like, oh, you can't do this, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't. And maybe you can. And for a lot of the people that I work with, they think that they can. And it's up to me to believe in their potential and help them to find that potential so they can. And other people, they push themselves too hard because they think, oh, I have to do this, I have to do that. But maybe why? Why do you have to go so far? Why can't you be here in your body now where it is right now? So it's not even about what can I do every day. Like, okay, I'm flexible, I can do my sun salutations, and you just do this sun salutations. That's not yoga. Yoga is being present. Like if we go to the scriptures and we look at the the yoga sutras of Patanjali, the very first sutra says Atha Yoga Nuchasana, which means now the things in yoga. So isn't that present moment? And so I have to connect with my body right now. Every morning when you go practice, you have to connect how is my body feeling today. And when you work with kids with disabilities, sometimes you need to have that person to understand where is their body on that day. Sure. And you need to see how you're gonna help that connection to happen. And if you are not able to develop that connection with the child, it's just gonna be manipulation, and that's not what we do. We observe the body, we observe the breath, we observe that child's response to what we are doing in order to guide that person sometimes to what would be a preparation for a yoga pose. I know where I want to go, but I understand that if this is one thing, like if you break that pose down maybe a hundred times sometimes, then you understand what is the foundation of that pose and what I need in order to maybe one day get close to that place. And one thing we do is that we don't use a lot of props. And we don't, and because the prop, if I have let's let's pretend this is a block and I ask the person to touch the block, the block does not feel how the person is touching it. It's not gonna give me a response. If I am the one holding that body, I can feel the response, I can feel if I can go more or less with that support. So many times when we're working, especially with kids who has more challenging, like you have a body that is challenging them more. My touch, the way that I hold and I feel that response, I'm gonna be able to see if that body relaxed and then I can move more. Or if that body is tense and I should stay there, I should not go more. The block is not gonna give me that response. The belt is not gonna give me that response. You know, so we use very few, and not saying that we don't ever use, but we use very, very little of that because we work on the developing of that awareness. So even if it takes a really long time, that's fine. Yeah. It's about connecting with the body. It's okay if the post does not look like all the Instagram posts, but it's look like what is right for you. So that's what that's what we focus on when we're working with the preparation that we do. Beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

Well, your university thesis, yoga as a method of global stimulation for children with down syndrome, was groundbreaking in showing that yoga is a highly effective developmental tool. And for a child or adult navigating neurodiversity, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, what's actually happening from a neuroanatomical perspective when they practice a structured but individualized yoga protocol?

SPEAKER_00 17:22

Yeah, so one thing that we have like we live in a world now that people are suffering from a lot of anxiety, and is there's so much pressure and so much things, and not even, and I'll go beyond sometimes it's not even the kids that are neurodiverse, they don't think every child, it's everyone. There's so much pressure, there's so much going on. I have teenagers at home, I can see the pressure on him, like he's just going up to college now, and I can see how much pressure there was for all those years, and how much you need to achieve and how much you need to know. So your nervous system is always in this alert thing. It's really hard to shut it down. And unfortunately, the way that we set our system down in the past by doing nothing, by looking at nature, by running around, by just playing with the brain, whatever that was, nowadays is the social media. Just looking at stuff. And that does not shut your system down. That sometimes even creates more anxiety because it's a constant comparison of you with other people, how people are doing it, and whatever. It's so much going on. So their system is always on alert. When we work with yoga, we are working with the breath, and we are connecting the breath with the movements. And just by doing that, we are kind of calming the system. We are trying to relax the body. Like I said, if the body stands, you can't move. You're gonna move a body that is relaxed, and you are teaching that system how to self-regulate or in the beginning co-regulate. You're gonna serve as a co-regulator for that person you're working with, and later they're gonna learn how to do that all by themselves. Because even the help we give is as much as is needed. So I am not doing for you, I'm doing with you. And when I do with you, I want it to help you less and less as you develop. So you are able to do it on your own. And then they start observing that by just that slow movement, the slow repetitions, we don't jump up and down, we don't move all around. We are centered, we are paying attention to the body, the body's response. We can feel if the body stands, so we give a little bit of time and relax and give you different views because sometimes we get very anxious and we can't see. If you are if you got up in the morning and you are late, you're already already. If you start running, it's much more likely you're gonna make more and more mistakes than gonna be later and later and later. If you're late and you just okay, I'm late, I know that. So let me just focus on what I need to do, pay attention to my breath so I can keep moving my day. And maybe you're actually gonna get there on time. Because you don't allow that anxiety to take over. We have to nowadays be really vigilant on that, on that, on that way that we we react to the world. So we can actually learn how to respond. You have to to pick up what it is, and in a sense, I learn a lot with the kids with disabilities. I learned so much from them. Sure. Even my sister, my sister is this little story that my mom always tell in the programs where she's getting ready to go to take. She has to do my sister and I at school, and then she goes to my room and I'm all over the place. Actually, if I did not have yoga, I don't know where I would be because I am like really, really fast. And I'm getting fast and going, going, going, going. And my mom comes, I say, Mantha, why why you move so fast behind? Just calm down. It's all good. Don't worry about it. And I say, Oh mom, you and you're calm, my God. Oh my god, oh, leave me alone. And then she walks to the next room, which is my sister. And my sister is there, calmly putting her books on, you know, like kids with dancing the meeting. They've very methodic, they organize things, it has to be walked the way they want it. So she's organizing her books, putting everything so she can put on the backpack. And my mom comes and says, Oh, Beth, sweetheart, we need to get going because we are gonna be late. And she looks at my says, Oh, beautiful. Just calm down. And my mom walks away and just say, I don't know what I should do. Should I calm down? Should I speed up? What is going on here? So I learned a lot from them to follow their rhythm because sometimes we want things really fast. Sure. And when you start learning how to listen to your own body, to observe your own breath, you make many times you can go a lot further than you think that you can. Because in the end, for me, everyone is they are beings, they're human beings, they are people that I'm working with. And I don't look at the diagnosis, I don't look at what they cannot do. I normally look at what they can do. Where can I start? Where are they comfortable? What can I do to make them see how far they can go? Sometimes I can see, but they can't, yeah. And I'm talking about any student. And I look and I say, okay, maybe you can go a little bit more. So yoga is gonna give that that uh sensor input through movement, through uh sometimes pressure, like when you're compressing a uh uh uh organ or gland that you're going toward your body, when you're doing a forward bending that you're coming and you're compressing those muscles, you're observing the breath a little bit more, you work with balance, you work with different body positions, so you develop that of that for awareness that is that uh helping you to see yourself deeper, not only within yourself, but also you around that environment that you are on.

SPEAKER_02 23:58

Mm-hmm. Let's talk about that a little bit more. So, beyond the physical asanas, the Sonya Sumar method places a strong emphasis on relationship. So I kind of feel like you were naturally going there already. And a respect for the student's own rhythm, deep emotional regulation. So, for a practitioner or a parent who's working with the child who has some sensory processing challenges or communication barriers, how do we use breath and attention to establish a baseline of nervous system safety and then go from there?

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Before we can ask that child to participate, we need to help them to feel safe enough so they want to participate in that class. Can't force that, huh? No, you can't. And sometimes you're gonna get a child uh someone who uh don't move, so the body is completely there that you could just manipulate and be fine. But that's not what you're looking for. We are looking for that presence. It doesn't matter how any diagnose may say that that child is absent, that that child does not understand anything, you can say whatever the child is not following, the child can't hear you. We try to connect with the child in a level that we are the same, and we try to really see that child deep inside, and we try to allow that child to see us as well. So when we're working, we don't want any distraction. That's part of what we don't use any props. So we want that connection between the teacher and the student to be deep, and that begins with the breath. And I start observing the child's breath even before they sit down to do yoga with me. I see them as they walk through my room, as they come in with the tent, as whatever conversation is going on among them as they walk in to see me. Because all those things are gonna give me clues of where that child is there today. Because, like I said, sometimes the child's gonna be more present, sometimes the child's gonna need a little bit of time. I had a longtime student who has down syndrome, he has been doing yoga with me since he was younger, he's now uh 19. And sometimes he would come to my room and write for yoga, John. Yes, I am, and then I said, Okay, let's just start. And then I said, Okay, let's sit nice and tall. And I'm looking at it, he's like, I think, come on, John, you know. Yeah, right. And then he'll go to me and I say, Okay, John, I'm gonna start, I'm gonna sit, and I'm gonna say my three arms, and then you're going to uh follow me, okay? And I was just starting class, and then you go, and then I have to find it soluble because I understand that if you're if you're doing on or doing anything that uh requires your voice, and you're like this, your diaphragm is being compressed. So it's not like you can't really take a deep breath. So sometimes I'll play or say, okay, what about taking a really long arm? Let's see if you can do it really long. Of course, we can't do like this, okay. Let's take a deep breath thing so you can go wrong really long, and then you take and sometimes it's just like a small thing that you tell, or they start coming down. I said, Okay, let's clap the hand up when they say hi, um, and then you bring your hands up high. And just by bringing the hands up high, then you're gonna get that posture. Or another example, sometimes it's just gonna lie down the night. I said, Okay, Johnny, you're not ready, you're you're you're you're wasting time. Now the class is going. Are you sure you're gonna say lying down? And he won't respond. I said, Okay, so I'm gonna start the class. When you're ready, you just sit up, okay? But he is very methodic, so he wants to start the class from the beginning. Once he finally gets up and he's ready, say, okay, I'm ready. I said, Okay, but I already did the chanting, so what are you gonna do now? Um, I say, Well, you need to move a little bit faster because now we have to do the other things, right? So I start training him with that timing because otherwise his class was gonna start having like a long time because you'll miss like five minutes of the class lying down. But I understood that that was important to him sometimes. So you have to listen sometimes to that needs. And if you work with a child that does not have that verbal communication, you need to see the response as you try to move with that body. And you have to observe that flow of that breath because that's where you start working. What we're gonna see is that we can help that movement to happen as the child's natural exhale. I'm not forcing that exhalation, but I'm observing. Sometimes I even try to breathe in that same rhythm of the child so I can see what is going on. And the interesting thing is that when you start breathing with the child, eventually you can get the child to breathe with you. And then that that breath can start getting a little bit longer or a little bit more structured. But getting that breath to help you to move that child's body is a very, very important part of what we do. And it's that when we start getting that connection, observing that response. We also need the child to trust you, to believe on what you're saying. You need and you have to trust yourself as well. If you don't believe on what you're doing, then it's really hard to work with someone. If you have a bunch of question markers, say, can I do this? Can I do that? And that that gets uh a little bit tricky. So part of the method is helping people to understand that process of how you develop that, how you develop that trust, how you start believing your own selves.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

Beautiful. And you lead these certifications, part one, part two, all over the world, mentoring professionals who want to bring yoga to children and adults with disabilities and additional needs. And so if a teacher or yoga therapist is listening who feels intimidated or underqualified to work with uh individuals with these complex needs, what's the first step in shifting their mindset from fear to that heart-centered service, that place of believing, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah, I think that the very first thing we need to see and to understand is that you're not trying to fix that person. Okay, we are here to see them, to respect them, and to support them safely. And I think that the more we accept that people are different, that people it is okay to be different. You don't have to change anything. Of course, there are steps that are like when you have a baby, having that baby developing and being able to move, to walk, of course, those are things that are important. But you want that person to feel comfortable on their skin, to be confident of themselves. And if we start trying to shift a little bit, the idea that I have to fix that person, I have to make them like everyone else, that is gonna be a big change. And for me, like I always like to be different. I don't know it's because the way that I was raised, but I embrace difference. I love seeing someone who is different. I like to see the way that people adapt and they grow and they they think transform themselves. Being just like everyone else, are you really trying to just fit in or you're trying to stand out? What is your goal? And of course, there are people who like to just, and it's okay. I'm not here to say what is right and wrong because I'm actually against that. I think that yoga is something that keeps you the middle path. So it's not black and white, it's just so many shades of gray. And they're fine. If I'm very strong, that's the way that I was built. I can develop a little bit more flexibility, but that's not means that being strong is bad and being flexible is good. And the same with the flexibility, you know, what you're trying to do is to just find a balance so you can find into that these two streams, into that, whatever is in between, where do I belong? Where is my place? That's what we try to get that child to be comfortable with themselves. They like John, the boy that I was just talking about, he may never be a doctor and he may not go to college, but he's a happy guy and he enjoys life and he is happy with his days, and he loves practicing yoga, he loves dancing, he found things that he can really feel happy. And I think that in a sense, that's what we all search for. If we say, Well, you like you want to be happy, right? So if your happiness is in getting the PhD and going and doing whatever, yes, go for that, but don't try to get everyone to do that because it may not be everyone's goal to to be in this most academic way or to be the CEO of a company. They they may not be happy. And if you want to be happy, find that whatever way fulfills that person, so see that person, just observe, learn how to really see someone so you can feel that dignity, that that love inside and connect with that.

SPEAKER_02 34:11

Well, I'd love to just know a little bit more about you and your personal practice. I always ask this question at the end of the podcast. And I first want to just say thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today and for being such an extraordinary bridge builder and keeping the torch of this inclusive lineage burning so brightly. But tell us a little bit more about you. What is your personal yoga practice like? And what does it look like right now? I'm sure at different times of your life it's been different, and how does it anchor you in your daily life and the work that you do too?

SPEAKER_00 34:50

Yeah, that's a very good question because I started very young. So it transformed me for a long time. And like I said, um, my body is naturally flexible, so I have a lot of joints to moves everywhere, and this is part of my the way that I was born. It's not only because of yoga, but it went from like doing all these pretzel poses and all that stuff to being a more centered in the sense of what I might really need. Growing up uh with my mom, who was this really famous yoga teacher in Brazil, and that everyone liked so I was always Tonya Samar's daughter, you know. So in my head, when I was young, I expected, I I thought that I had to be perfect, that I had to be this really yogi girl who I can do anything and everything. And I got to a point that I said, um, what am I trying to prove? Am I trying to prove things to others or am trying to prove things to myself? What I'm trying to do here, what is my presence in yoga? Right? And then I start saying, you know what? I'm backing out of this path. I want to just enjoy my own practice. So even if I go to places and I'm taking yoga classes with any teacher, I normally don't even say that I am a yoga teacher. I just do my practice, connect with myself, and enjoy my time. My daily practice now has been changing. I recently went to that beautiful stage of life called menopause, which a lot of people is familiar with. So I have been really trying to listen to those needs of my body. So sometimes I feel like my body needs a lot more yoga poses and pains that comes here and there elsewhere, and sitting for a long time, your hip hurts, and and it's normal for everyone, but it's the way you treat those things, is what makes a difference. So a lot of times people think that because you practice yoga, you don't have problems, or your life is perfect, you're so dang, and everything is cool. Uh it's the way we we we respond to the world is what makes our yoga practice what it is. So true. It's the way we respond to my difficulty in life, is the way that I overcome a challenge. And a lot of teachers they do say yes, your real practice starts when you roll up your math and then you start dealing with the daily lives. And that's not only what we want for ourselves, but for our students as well. And I try to practice some today, still. I love a bit a little challenge. I have some yoga teachers in Brazil who we exchange like this sometimes crazy older focus. So we try to work here and there. And I and I, because I'm this big, how do I this construct, like how I build that pose all the way down so I can go step by step? Then they say, how do I do this? And how do I get there? I said, Well, maybe if you try here and there, and that helps with that creativity. So being uh a yoga file ability teacher is definitely uniquely creative. So I need to practice to develop that creativity. And that's one thing that I tell all of the people who take part one, part two, or any training with us. Yoga is a little bit different in a way, especially what we do, because we need a lot of creativity to work with the kids that we do. But even if you're uh a regular yoga teacher, it's not like I graduated as a speech language pathology, I finalized my program. I can take one course here, once a year, and then I can renew my license, and that's it. I don't need to really be in touch with that so much. That doesn't work with yoga. You have to practice. That's how you learn. And the more experience you have, that's I tell the only thing I can give you all. When I'm teaching, I give tips for every parent, every person, whatever I can find. If I can't, we work together and you figure it out. But the only thing I can't give people is experience. Yeah, and that comes from your practice. Yeah, it's not only from the trainings you take. So even I say people take part one, I say now go practice, work with kids, develop the work, then come back for part two. So you have questions, you you have doubt, but don't forget to practice yourself because a lot of what I discovered is by practicing in my own body. Sure. A lot of time because I'm very flexible, sometimes even, especially when I was younger, I couldn't understand why people couldn't do this or that until I start putting my body into that position that looks like what the person was doing. And I was trying to figure out what is going on with the body. And now my knowledge, I mean anatomy, physiology, and all those things that I've learned in college rush back into my brain, thinking about the bones, the muscles, the connections, how you do it. Oh, I see what's happening. So this is how you have to do it. But that is with practice. And you definitely need times to calm down the mind as well. So meditation is a big part of my practice and yoga neither. I think that, especially nowadays, like I said before, learning through so much anxiety that practicing breathing exercise, the pranayama, and deep relaxation, it is very important because meditation is really good. However, if you can't keep your body still, it's really hard to meditate. So you need hata, the poses, the breath, the deep relaxation in order to be able to do raja, the more subtle aspects of yogurt, which includes meditation. So sometimes people want to just sit and meditate, but that makes it a lot harder. So it start from the beginning, do your asanas, work on your breath, learn how to relax. I know some people love, but some people hate, and the people who hate are the ones who need the most. And just go one day at a time, don't rush. It's a therapy because it helps to develop a lot of things. So it is therapeutic, but it's not like a therapy like my speech language fashion that I'll say, Oh, you're good to go. Don't need don't you don't need to do speech anymore. Oh, you don't you don't need OT anymore, you don't need PT anymore. I will never tell you you don't need yoga. Right, right. So is that the only difference? It's very therapeutic, has a lot of benefits, but it's something that you can do through your whole life. So if that is the case, take it easy. Go slow. Don't rush, just enjoy the ride step by step.

SPEAKER_02 42:01

Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for having this conversation today and all the work that you do out there. I'll put this in the show notes too, but you can learn more about Renata's global certification courses, continuing education modules, and private mentoring support at specialyoga.com. Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

Thank you so much, Mr. for having me. It was very nice meeting you. And thank you so much for this beautiful podcast. And I hope you keep inspiring people more and more to see how how yoga is important in people's daily life. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

Thanks again for listening. If you're interested to learn more about who we are and what we do, check us out at inner peaceyogatherapy.com