Gianna Yoga

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[giannayoga]

Honestly, sometimes I just can’t find comfort in my mind. I’m spinning, I’m not present, I’m distracted and upset. Even after practice. No! A yoga class does not fix everything. Helps though... So I put cloths that I feel good about wearing on. Organic materials in my favorite colors. I do me up a bit and go superficial feel goods because sometimes the brain is a scary place and I have to get the fuck out of there. @hara_thelabel is my jam. My favorite colors in the perfect fabric. Happy to be home in cozy clothes. Ready for a nap. #yoga #giannayoga #queeryogateacher #harathelabel #queer #tattooedyogi #tattoo (at South Miami, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5284mkHjNb/?igshid=m4c5yx9dl4d1

[giannayoga]

I really don’t like the phrase “it’ll be ok.” That thing people often use to console you when you never asked to be consoled or maybe they just want you to stop freaking out and they have nothing better to say... Yea that thing. But in reality, it’s true. It’s going to be ok because it has to. There is no other way. You figure it out because you have to. While on your way to ok, you may not feel alright but you’re on your way. There are plenty of aspects of life playing with our hearts and minds, challenging us while on our way but life wants us to succeed, just not without the lessons. It’s ok to no be ok because it’s part of what helps us become a better person when we are actually ok. Being human is a fascinating experiment with no exact measurements. The ok to not ok ratio is different for everyone. #dontaskabouttime #yoga #itsok #giannayoga #queeryogateacher #tattoo #tattooedyogi #queer #backbend (at Chiang Mai, Thailand) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5F5zL4HnTk/?igshid=6vxh7tkcuqcf

[giannayoga]

I’ve spent my whole adult life traveling and being the one that’s gone. I’ve seen beautiful places and made long lasting families in multiple countries. I have friends in every corner of the world. I have found deep corners of myself that needed some light and have escaped many dark patches because of my ability to move and evolve to new surroundings. I have done much of my traveling and busied my schedule because I’ve been looking for something. Success, myself, the right city to tell me is home. It’s cost me much but given me more. I have insight I could have never gotten any other way. Now. I have a home. I have a partner. I have a place, life, and the drive to start a family. In all honesty, I’m sick of traveling alone. I love being on my own and cherish this time but I am ready to be home. I’ve always been in a hurry to know more. I’ve always been hungry for the next thing. For the first time, I am satiated and enjoying unpacking what I have. Contentment has come. I’ll always be a seeker and a traveler but the goals and vision has changed. —— Come to India with @caro__lokah and I. We are unsure of our 2021 dates as that will be baby makin season. So sign up for 2020 Rishikesh trip now! 👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 #yoga #travel #travelingyogi #giannayoga #queeryogateacher #queer #practice #evolution #tattoo #tattooedyogi (at Chiang Mai, Thailand) https://www.instagram.com/p/B44ythHHiaO/?igshid=1w0yeslzguaw6

[giannayoga]

I have been playing a lot with my relationship to my relationships. The best gift my ex-wife gave me was making hard and fast decisions for herself and pissing me off. Letting me down, changing her mind, standing up for her self after not doing so for so long, and deciding that our relationship was a bad one. This did not came into my mind when we were together. I never thought we had a bad relationship. I knew there were arguments where everything seems so wrong and like too much but I thought this was normal. I thought that’s what a relationship was. Her decision to make that shift in her mind made me angry and dislike her quite a bit. I thought of all the times that she withheld from me, pretending she understood me, or told me things were fine. I didn’t know all that was going on until after the fact which built anger. I felt I was left out of what was happening in my own life. That anger helped me better separate. It made me realize that humans always abuse other humans in different ways while in relations, with someone else or ourselves. Passive aggression, lies, withholding, not listening, snapping, hitting, expecting or demanding, neglecting. All these things are results of us being triggered or reactive, having an experience, responding from a lower sense of self...acting human. If your long term relationship doesn’t have one small ounce of this, you’re magic. What brings us back together and whole is being genuine and processing our actions. Taking responsibility for our part in a partnership. Having the courage to say I’m sorry, and not blame ourselves or the other persons but use an objective mind. Our last interaction really made me mad. Stepping back and realizing how we both played a part in destroying what we started helped me process my anger. Using my anger to simply separate from her more was necessarily. Taking responsibility for my actions has helped me remember why I’ll always love her. Not everyone that has demonstrated abuse is an abuser but their actions can be that of one. Take a step back. Apologies and Forgive. #yoga #divorce #giannayoga #queer #queeryogateacher #tattoo #tattooedyogi 📸: @stockwell_darren (at วัดล่ามช้าง) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4XlZ0cHofc/?igshid=1m12e0c6j8gi3

[giannayoga]

Your value has nothing to do with validation. It’s just nice to feel validated to help you know your value. • I am everything. I am man, women, and everything between. I am you, me, and us. Im not my job, my titles, or my thoughts. But I still have feeling, expressions, and needs. I am everything I am in that moment and no one needs to know but me. Some days I feel like nothing at all. Others, I feel like all of it. I don’t want you to call me anything else than what you see since you can’t read my mind. (Asking though is nice) But yesterday I felt very much like a lady and couldn’t explain why. There wasn’t one thing that made me have that feeling. I had Nike sneakers on and no make up. I had the same kind of day just different feels. So what is it? We naturally assume things based off what we see but sometimes off how we feel or our intuition. I know how much my feelings on identity vary which is why I care little about how I’m addressed. But when someone hits the nail on the head that day I feel validated. This doesn’t mean I never knew my value, it’s just cool that you noticed. What makes feel valued, seen, and heard? • #yoga #giannayoga #lgbtq #queeryogateacher #giannayoga (at Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/B06F3bhHy2U/?igshid=6qm88lfti21v

[giannayoga]

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This is where I want to be on my “day off.” I want to be learning and moving until, simply I want to do something else. At some point in my life I needed a day off after my day off. I would smoke my insecurities away and drink my way into a conversation. I would do coke after a few shots just so I could keep doing all the shit things to my body. I said yes to everything that was handed to me because my interest was in everything that wasn’t me. I didn’t give a fuck if I woke up the next day! One day, at age 18 @dreathevibedealer and I had the brilliant idea to go to yoga. It was a wtf kinda time for us. I still don’t know why I went back, but I did. Until I did know. I saw my Self more in and outside of the room. I was actually interested in me and why I was here. I was feeling better and being better to others and it just shifted more from there. I wanted to do nothing else but yoga and slowly started eliminated all that prevented me from doing so. . . Including my job and my drugs. I left my previous self and the industry life for early mornings and mantra work. I haven’t done coke since, once I became a teacher I decided I was over the whole weed for breakfast lunch and dinner thing, and I’ve been on this path towards healing my need for anything other than myself. I don’t need a drink or a drug to make me palatable to me. I just need a little self love and to be good to myself, my body, and my heart. There is not one thing I can recommend to people trying to deal with addiction or social anxiety but I can say that being interested in yourself helps. And however that looks is great but a good dose of bodily decongestion does wonders for the mind. #doyoga #heal #yoga #giannayoga #queeryogateacher #tattooedyogi (at Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0tBVcmHANQ/?igshid=18zxb9jail8t9

[giannayoga]

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We don’t often realize when walking into a yoga class that we are basically just putting ourselves into shapes and asking, “what will my body do and get from being here?” Usually it’s just “I heard this is good for me” or “I want to lose weight and feel peace” kind of thing. Which is also good and fine. But if we can look at our fall outs and new endeavors in class as this, it may not feel as overwhelming or defeating. Entering with interest is the perfect place to start. “What happens when I do this? Oh that’s interesting!” Rather than, “that shape? I could never. uh I suck i can’t do this.” I have so many people ask me how to get started and how to do so at home. I recommend leaving your house, making a thing out of it, and letting everyone else in the yoga room lift up your spirits so you want to try over and over again. We help each other. Just come on in! #yoga #practice #giannayoga #tattooedyogi #queeryogateacher (at Austin, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0lVUvEnCJH/?igshid=16ape4olo2122

[giannayoga]

My favorite thing about practicing with someone else is the learning with that happens with another body in the room. Self practice is vital but so is the group setting. We are good alone. We are better together. I have two more classes in Austin @pureyogatexas down town. Today 5:30pm, tomorrow 10am! #yogaaustin #yoga #queeryogateacher #giannayoga #tattooedyogi (at Austin, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0gPMpkHb54/?igshid=1drcf7bb3xtat

[giannayoga]

I had someone who I didn’t know, a stranger I returned a lost item to call me hunny. “Thanks hunny.” It felt very much like when someone calls you son. “Sit down son.” My inner small dog syndrome turned around to say, I’m sorry are you talking to me? then he turns around and punches me in the face! Just kidding, I didn’t say anything but it made me think of all the pet names I have used and that have been given to me. I have been referred to by lovers as daddy (currently long this one), sweety, hunny, baby, love, geep. They all felt right because these people loved me. When a random person on the street says something like this, it feels very condescending and said because I look like a pretty girl or something. If that was a man, would you have used a pet name like that? Here is the thing, I believe in the word feminine. I know it, i have felt it, i have also not felt it, but more so I have seen how it’s treated. The feminine boys get treated a certain way. The highly feminine women a certain way. The emotional male gets called too feminine. Someone assigned female at birth who identifies as non binary’s truth isn’t believed because they are too feminine. This word is not gendered. This word doesn’t get to be reacted to with pet names. The people who are feminine presenting should not be treated any other way than those who are masculine presenting. Until we can actually see beyond the binary, i will not play. Until humans are treated equal and even, I will not stop talking about it. Until you “hunny” everyone, I’ll speak loads to it. The feminine in all of us is inspiring. Don’t “hunny” it under the rug. #hunny #female #feminine #queeryogateacher #giannayoga #tattooedyogi (at Austin, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0YbJ4QH6Sz/?igshid=40bhlvn4aldi

[giannayoga]

Hyper sensitive. Hyper aware. Hilarious! Everything to me is fun, funny, deserves a smile, or a hug. If it doesn’t, I won’t partake. Life to me is meant to be lived. It’s a time for experience, connection and levity because life is a real trash bag sometimes. We will all have slip ups and let downs. But we can all laugh a little while we are getting back up and hug the lesson that dropped us down. Thanks dad for making me think everything is funny. And sorry to everyone who doesn’t get why I’m laughing. #laugh #yoga #levity #giannayoga #queeryogateacher #tattooedyogi (at PURE Yoga Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Gvfg3H9g6/?igshid=11qqa2yqvmnl2

[giannayoga]

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I’ll be honest. I have a problem being serious, I can definitely read a need for a serious conversation but sometimes I can’t always tell when somebody doesn’t want me to be funny. Sometimes life is just a bag of trash. My dad always taught me to make light of it all. Laughter, smiles, and never taking yourself too seriously has always been the medicine to digesting life and transform hardship into liberation. Life is meant to be lived, not battled. Life is meant to be whatever you need it to be ... just know that I will always be giggling, smiling, or making shit of myself in the background. The yoga asana is serious itself, you don’t have to be. — Come practice downtown with me today. 4pm hot hour. Workshops at 5:30. —- #giannayoga #laughter #hotyoga #dancerpose #queeryogateacher #tattooedyogi (at PURE Yoga Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0GoZx0HuHl/?igshid=bq6k4sj7j3rj

[giannayoga]

I don’t want to help you be the best yogi you can be. I want to help you use yoga to be the best you you can be. we have many opportunities to be the best teacher, student, mother, sister, brother or father. But all of these come with being the best us. Transformation has many titles but it’s rooted in knowing and searching for the Self. Step deeply into your own essence and your best in any title will shine through. #yoga #giannayoga #tattooedyogi #queeryogateacher (at Chicago, Illinois) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz0drPlHMGs/?igshid=1lv4iattl7uhi

[giannayoga]

Being from Chicago and starting my yoga practice here I have laid down some roots that will never be uprooted. I have been teaching for @105fhotyoga for the last 10 years and for @byandersonville for the last eight since my teacher @raskjessica opened it. I have seen these studios welcome every gender identity, sexual preference, age, shape, culture, color, and size into their doors. I have seen them make huge changes because no one gets it right the first time. We have sat down many times for conversations with the teachers and the students when dealing with challenging situations and have seen them always admit when they’re wrong and always work to be better. I have seen them back their teachers and support their students and I’m excited to see where they go for the next 10 years. I know not everyone will find a home behind these door but i hope you can help you find yours because everyone has a home even if it’s not with us. I have workshops on asana @byandersonville July 14 and on the prancing body @105fhotyoga July 13 #yoga #welcome #tattooedyogi #giannayoga #queeryogateacher #yogaworkshops (at 105F) https://www.instagram.com/p/BztA8EBH4K6/?igshid=42t388ezs3df

[giannayoga]

I’m honestly surprised when I can do what I do. Not because I don’t think I can, or because I think I don’t know how, but because I have had times where I could not after being able to. It’s surprise, excitement, and gratitude all wrapped up into one feeling. We work hard to create these positions, but we have to work harder to let them go. Would you be ok with your signature pose being something you’ll never do again? If your favorite posture no longer was accessible, would you make yourself mad trying to attain or achieve it again? Why are you practicing yoga asana and could you let it go if you had to? Yoga is more than knowing a pose, it’s knowing you’re own heart and letting the soul be expressed. So you’re flexible, but are you nice? I see your scorpion, but where is your soul? Hmmm great clear lines, but cloudy dark heart? I hope you know you are more than what you can do. #justbe #selflove #wellness #yoga #giannayoga #tattooedyogi #queeryogateacher 📷: @rmkphoto (at Ormond Beach, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv-lT-mBBLg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=184cac3oryedb

[giannayoga]

It’s only in the last few years that I have really been able to vomit myself all over the place. Reserved, repressed, embarrassed, self-conscious, angry, and abused, I used yoga to soften its manifestations in my body but had not spent time with the root of the problems. Dedicating myself to a journal, mantra, meditation, and a multitude of other self care practices has centered me in my being and in my truth. Things shift when self care continues off the mat. Things shift when soul searching becomes soul loving. Things shift when we are willing to take in those around us rather than battling them. I know every single person that I spend deep time with is important and everyone has helped me in more ways than I know learn more about my depths. It took working to love myself for me to truly love others. Now, I can not stop loving you, and I’m not mad about it. #selflove #giannayoga #tattooedyogi #queeryogateacher #yogisofinstagram 📷: @rmkphoto (at Ormond Beach, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv7nzIshnS7/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=18c1xl648bk7

[giannayoga]

May we together be protected. May we together be nourished. May we practice with great courage and energy. May our studies be brilliant and effective. May we never argue or dispute amongst ourselves. AUM peace peace peace. We have begun, together. #shantihpathupanishad #yogatt #yoga #giannayoga #tattooedyogi #queeryogateacher #yogisofinstagram (at Ormond Beach, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv5Fc57haFv/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1mg4xrn3t2fum

[giannayoga]

It’s easier to practice yoga after you have been practicing yoga. It’s easier to understand concepts when you have been studying them. I teach people how to teach the masses. I teach people how to make things make sense for a wide range of ears before the over complication or even the over simplification comes out. I share my methods in the use of language to help people draw interested enough so more people DO yoga. Especially if asana (Hatha) is your path, over intellectualizing yoga can get in the way. Like Pattabhi Jois says, it’s 99% practice, 1% theory. Practice softens us greatly, but until we start letting our heart brains lead before our head brains we will sit just before living the practice. Sometimes I answer questions with, “ i love your enthusiasm, let’s continue” because when you really start looking for the answers deep within your heart and your souls, they are all there. But hey let’s practice! Maybe we stop trying to get it and just start doing it, so we can start to be it over time. #yoga #becoming #tattooedyogi #giannayoga #queeryogateacher #instagood (at Tucson, Arizona) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvy3mHJBMLA/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=cgce65rju2c