Namastecita had the privilege of participating in the creation of mats by an extraordinary person: Dara. With a captivating personality, Dara radiates passion and positivity from a position of empowerment.
When Dara first contacted us, we took a quick look at her profile, as we always do at Namastecita. We were surprised by the naturalness with which she spoke; she showed herself as she is, without poses, even in pajamas. We said: she has to be a brand ambassador! And thus began a beautiful relationship. Little by little, her studio began to fill with Namastecita mats, and a few months ago she had a great idea: to have her own personalized yoga mat. So we got down to work.
In this interview, we are going to get to know her a little more, both as a person, as an instructor, and as the founder of a yoga studio. Their stories teach us that true freedom is found in the place where one decides to look for it, showing us that yoga is more than a practice, it is a path to wholeness and well-being.
Hello Dara! Thank you for taking the time to share your story with us. To start, tell us a little about yourself and how your relationship with yoga began.
My relationship with yoga begins in a curious way because I have always been a little anti-sport. It's not that I want to classify yoga as a sport, but anything that involved movement already seemed heavy to me. Added to the fact that I have been told all my life that I am super nervous, going to "stand in yoga" seemed like a pain to me. But hey, sometimes life repeats things to you until you see them, and that's a bit what happened to me.
As a result of my father's death, I began to do millions of activities to avoid listening to my mind or trying to untangle that knot. And among those things ended up being yoga. The problem is that shortly after signing up, I became pregnant, and had to take a break (motherhood is intense and harbors horrors 🫨 ). But over time, yoga went from being a hobby to being the sustenance of all the intensity of life.
What led you to make the decision to open your own yoga studio?
The truth is that opening the yoga studio was not my idea. What's more, it didn't seem like anything to be autonomous again. But a conversation with my tutor from one of the training sessions made me understand many things. I realized that I was already having a studio because I had about 50 students that I managed myself, including tuition, classes, etc., every month.
I understood in that conversation that, at the end of the day, the difference between having a studio or not was only the location because I was already managing a studio. Then, my husband, who saw it more clearly, took me to see places. They all seemed bad to me, but he pushed me to understand that we just had to work ourselves to adapt the premises. That way, we would invest less money, although it is true that more free time in cleaning the spaces.
Tell us a little more about the challenges you faced opening your own studio and how you overcame them. We know it's not always easy, is there any anecdote you can share?
The challenges of opening something from scratch are intense. It is true that my studio is in a small city where I think bureaucratic procedures are easier than in a large place. But you already know that life invites us not to live too much in comfort, and here I am going to include the great anecdote.
The anecdote is very common and has made me see in myself the work that yoga does. With only eight months open, we had to literally lift the entire studio because some manholes broke below the ground, removing all the sewage from the block. (I'm going to add here the tip of the day: if you are looking for a place, make sure that the manholes are good, or better that it doesn't have manholes). I had to close my classes for a month and everything seemed to start from scratch.
And this is where I noticed yoga. My attitude was surprising; I still thank myself for having been so well during this intense time. I always felt like I couldn't close classes because everything would go bankrupt, and it was the other way around. All of my students responded wonderfully, and when we were able to return to our space, it was like an incredible reunion. I think this process has given me a security that I didn't have.
"I always felt like I couldn't close classes because everything would go bankrupt, and it was the other way around. All of my students responded wonderfully, and when we were able to return to our space, it was like an incredible reunion."
And what do you think sets your studio apart from other yoga studios? We've always been intrigued by how each studio has its own essence and we'd love to know more about yours.
The only thing different about my study compared to others is, as you say, the fact that each person is unique and that is our superpower. I would say my yoga is very earthly, very natural, very made for life. I am also a person who enjoys a lot of humor, although in class I change a lot, but I always end up having some approach that makes us all smile.
Especially, I am also a person who does not have that beautiful physique from a photo of the Cirque du Soleil, so I always feel easy to understand the people who come and I think I accompany people well who find yoga for the first time.
Now, moving on to something very special, we recently collaborated with you to create a custom mat. What was that process like for you? Were there any standout moments during the collaboration?
The process of this creation has been incredible because during these years, as a result of social networks, many brands contact you to collaborate, but I am not a person who is motivated by anything economic (that's how it goes for me 😜 ). So, I didn't want to do things just to do and, in the end, knowing how to wait led me to find you.
In general, I don't usually feel worthy of the good things that happen to me, or what's worse, I'm always alert because if something good happens to me I know that some setback will come later. So at first I had this feeling of "wow, this is getting real!" And by working together I could only feel grateful, not only for the beautiful collection that we have put out, but because I have really seen how the brand has been committed and has let me do what I do. Both Namastecita and Amanda ("a yogi in modern life") trusted someone as crazy as me, and that is to be appreciated. We were able to make such a unique design with Namastecita's quality materials, giving me the opportunity to let people know about this collection.
What specific features did you want in your mat and why are they important to you? If you may know, is there any detail that you consider essential in a yoga mat?
Maybe it doesn't fit the description of material things, but I think what he was looking for in it was humanity, and it seems to me that Namastecita has that. It is a friendly company that always tries to adjust, not only prices, but also discounts so that everyone can access a mat of these standards.
As a practitioner or even as the owner of a studio, if you are looking for a non-slip material, you would like it to accompany you for many years. I felt very uncomfortable putting out a mat with my name on it without the qualities that I have enjoyed with your brand. For me, a mat that can withstand 14 classes a week for a long time and almost without changing from the first to the last day is a discovery.
Do you have any final advice for those considering opening their own yoga studio? We are sure that your experience can be very valuable to many.
Well, I would tell anyone who doubts that it is better to stay with the fact that it didn't turn out well than to stay with the doubt of what would have happened. I don't want to deceive anyone and yes, being self-employed in Spain is not easy. You are not going to have a salary of €3,000 to be able to buy all the incense on the planet, but I do tell you that if you do things from love, from sincerity and being real, you will find a space in which you can be you. 100%. I have a test to know if I am good at something and that is that in each savasana I look at my students and ask myself: "Am I where I want to be?" And here I get a tingling sensation in my gut that makes the answer clear to me.
"It's better to stay with the fact that it didn't go well than to stay with the doubt of what would have happened."
What are your future plans for your yoga studio and for yourself as an instructor? We would love to know more about your upcoming projects and dreams.
I always love to learn or get into new troubles, so I am willing to do anything life wants to propose to me. What they most often propose to me as future projects is to create a platform so that yoga reaches the whole world. Well, more than yoga, my way of seeing yoga.
It's true that it makes me very idle. I am a very natural person on the networks and I don't take much care of aesthetics or the things I do; I simply transfer what I think to the screen or how I experience the circumstances. And the fact of creating this content, recording or creating a web space to do something online with yoga makes me very idle. Since it could not be something so natural, but rather it would have to have a more serious structure.
Now I feel at a point where I need to take care of my child, who is my studio, and enjoy it for some more time in peace, without news. Putting energy into other things would take too much time away from something I love as much as my studio right now. But I have to admit that I only need to be touched by the palms to start dancing, so welcome to every future plan.
"If you do things from love, from sincerity and being real, you will find a space in which you can be yourself 100%."
