Gloria Suarez is a yoga teacher in New York City.
1. What style of yoga do you teach? And, where are you located?
I teach Power Vinyasa Yoga, Hot Vinyasa, and Traditional Hot Yoga (Bikram Style, 26 & 2). I live in New York City where I am a teacher and regional manager at Yoga to the People and oversee happenings within our five New York studios and our community of 140+ teachers, work with our community engagement online, and help lead our Teacher Training Programs.
2. What is your intention behind teaching?
I never expected to teach yoga. When I took my first official class in 2016, I never expected the experience on my mat to resonate so deeply. I simply agreed to take class because my friend really wanted to try it out. However, from that first class, something clicked. I started going once a week, then twice a week, then three times, then every day. There was something about being on my mat—the freedom to feel whatever I was feeling, to experience whatever I was experiencing and to not have to consider if it was wrong or right but rather to just be fully, that was so powerful and so freeing.
In teaching, that is what I want to share. For however long you are on your mat, that is it—just you being with yourself. Nothing else to do, nowhere to get to, no one else you have to be. Just you, yourself, and yoga.
3. Who are your mentors in yoga?
My mentors are so many of the teachers at Yoga to the People who from day one, saw me and welcomed me wholeheartedly, people who then became my teachers in teacher training and who continue to help me grow today. Some people in particular are: Audrey, who took me under her wing when I started teaching and taught me so much about managing studios and teachers, Greg, the founder of Yoga to the People who is always challenging me in ways that allow me to step out of my comfort zone and grow, and Alena who is the East Coast Director at Yoga to the People and who is so much of the reason I am the teacher and the person I am today.
4. What have they taught you?
Overall the people who have mentored me have taught me that I have a voice and I have important things to share. I get to interact with so many people every day and the words I say are heard and the presence I give felt. It is still so mind blowing to me that I get to do this work and what I do directly affects people.
In particular, Alena has inspired me to be really confident in not only my teaching but also in myself as a person. She has taught me how to answer the questioner, rather than the question, meaning the response or solution is going to look different for different people. As teachers at donation based studios and managers, we come in contact with so many people from different walks of life with different stories, meeting a person where they are at is important in being able to help them. She has also taught me how to stand up for myself and to be confident in who I am and move with kindness and care.
5. Please mention a book that you have read about yoga that has had a positive impact on you?
The Prophet by Khalil Gibran is a book that I constantly refer to. Though it is not technically about yoga poses or anatomy, it discusses so many important topics for being human, like love, pain, teaching, and beauty; elements that I find show up in yoga too. There are quite a few passages from the book that I continuously pull quotes from and often share at the end of my yoga classes.
One of my favorites is on love:
"To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully..." I highly recommend reading the rest!
6. What lesson are you currently learning in your Asana practice?
Within my Asana practice I am currently working on self compassion. Some days Asana feels really light and easy. Some days Asana feels sticky and really hard. Yoga is not a linear journey but a life-long practice. I am working on not letting those sticky days feel like setbacks in my practice but rather information about how my body feels that particular day and making choices to honor that feeling and support myself the best I can.
7. How often do you practice?
I try to practice every day. Some days I am so excited to get on my mat. Some days I am resistant. But even on the days where I have the most resistance, finding my mat even when I think I really don't want to are often the days where I get up at the end of class feeling so happy I practiced.
8. How do you implement the other 7 limbs of yoga into your life other than Asana?
I find that a lot of the other 7 limbs of yoga tie into my asana practice or go hand in hand with my that practice. How I focus within the time on my mat each day implements aspects of so many of the other limbs. How I practice Pranayama within the poses or within breathing exercises, how I choose to take care and nourish my body, how I choose to practice love and care in how I interact with others, all ways that the 7 other limbs of Yoga show up constantly in my life.
9. Why is being present so important to you?
I really try to live by the idea that this present moment is all we have. I have found myself spending a lot of time thinking about the past—what I should have said and what I should have done differently, and also thinking so much about the future and how a certain decision or action could pan out. While I do think making informed decisions is so important, I was filled with so much anxiety and stress over how certain things would pan out. I was missing so much life right in front of my nose, and often frustrated from dwelling on things I cannot undo or hypothetical situations that haven't occurred. I've realized that all I can do is focus on who I am choosing to be right now and how I am choosing to be in the world today. LIfe is short and I don't want to miss a single moment.
10. How can we keep up with you on social media? What is your IG handle and/ FB name?
The best way to keep up with me is to follow me on Instagram @themoreyouglo.
I also have some recorded classes on our Yoga to the People YouTube channel at yogatothepeople.com/channel. I also teach regularly at Yoga to the People which is currently hosting online classes at yogatothepeople.com/online-classes. I would love to see you in class!