T A M E H T f f o T HO Personal evolution and balance through hot yoga
Story & photos by Charleen Earley
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midst the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and New Year’s festivities lies a peaceful, yet playfully lively studio on the Miracle Mile. It’s where you can create connections with like-minded others, and ultimately find balance. True You Hot Yoga studio is where owner Helena Monica spends much of her time, helping her students discover emotional and mental balance in their lives. “The benefits of hot yoga are vast. Not only does it promote emotional and physical wellbeing, but it’s about creating connections with others and with yourself,” said Helena, who was born and raised on a dairy farm in Galt, within a Catholic family. “Four of my uncles are priests!” She opened her hot yoga studio eight years ago. “It came as a complete surprise to everyone, especially to myself!” said Helena, mom to two grown children, Brittany and Alex, and grandmother to a 16-month-old girl. “At the time, I was living in Lodi, commuting
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to Elk Grove, managing a retail store, when I had this calling. I ended up quitting my job and answered the call to do yoga, and later teach it.” While the studio was a surprise, staying fit was not. “I was an athletic runner and hiker who always tried to stay active and healthy for my emotional and mental health. I couldn’t run anymore because my knees couldn’t take it, so this modality (yoga) became the most spiritual to me,” she said. Yoga became her life practice for four years before opening her studio – a spiritual hub that’s open seven days a week, closed only on Christmas. She offers her students a unique guest experience with a smoothie and juice bar, gift and clothing boutique, and of course, warm rooms to practice Inferno Hot Pilates, Hot Bikram Yoga, Vinyasa Fusion, and non-heated classes for Yin Yoga. “Lots of people are blocked off from their own energy source, or they’re stagnant in their lives,” she said. “But once you start doing yoga, it’s like this stream starts flowing, and things start to connect, and my students say, ‘I feel so whole!’ It’s because they’ve accessed this beautiful rhythm within themselves that’s beyond hot yoga.”
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Doing yoga in a warm room, she said, creates a safe environment for muscles. “The heat is a conduit that allows the body to transform from one form to another in a safe and less toxic way,” she added. “It also allows for less injury. The muscles dictate the skeletal system, so restructuring through yoga, you gain the ability to have energy throughout the entire spine.” When she’s not at her studios in Stockton or Lodi, Helena’s creating online training courses, writing her blog or her manual for different types of training, or cherishing her time alone at home. She said yoga is the best hour to hour and a half anyone will spend on themselves, because it affects the rest of their day. “In just 60 minutes, your 24 hours after that changes!” she said. “It changes your day with yourself, your spouse and family, and it changes your tomorrow.” True You Hot Yoga 2341 Pacific Avenue Stockton, CA 95204 209-948-YOGA (9642) trueyouhotyoga@gmail.com www.trueyouhotyoga.com
january 2017