Yhara P. Quiroz's Bio
If you had asked me 10 years ago what my life would look like today, I would have likely envisioned myself taking care of patients in a traditional western medical setting. Once upon a time, I was the kind of medical doctor who simply did not have the capacity to accept anything that could not be examined, quantified, and/or logically explained by science. Then, I was introduced to yoga, and everything I thought I "knew" was flipped inside out & upside down.
In 2012 I graduated from medical school and instead of feeling excited with the possibility of my promising medical career, I felt trapped in a life I had created for myself. My personal life was also crumbling and I felt overwhelmed, highly stressed-out, and was desperately seeking balance. Thus, I intuitively began a physical yoga practice to reduce my stress levels. Although I did not know much about yoga then, my budding yoga practice became my principal source of stress relief and inexplicably the more I practiced yoga, the better I felt, so I kept practicing. Eventually everything in my life began to shift in a positive direction and the things that used to bother me did not bother me as much as they would have bothered me in the past. Little by little, as the practice naturally unfolded, I began to gain the ability to quiet my mind and connect to a deeper part of myself my scientific mind had never permitted myself to believe existed- my soul. As if a portal to another dimension of possibility opened up, I became open to the idea that not everything in life can be explained by science, as I had previously erroneously believed. I began to let go of things that did not serve me and began to tune in to what I needed to grow as an individual.
During the last 8 years since I discovered yoga, I have become a dedicated student of yoga. I eventually left the career I worked so hard to achieve to peruse yoga full-time. While I studied yoga, I worked elaborating psychological evaluations for individuals undergoing immigration hardship cases, like Asylum. This work permitted me to come into closer contact with the psychological & emotional aspect of my being, and helped me obtain a greater scope of understanding into the thought & behavior patterns we all subscribe to, among many other things. Although it was a privilege to hear, hold space, and help people going through such a difficulty, that work has always been a place holder for my heart’s true desire, to share yoga with others.
Always a student of yoga first, my thirst for yogic knowledge is insatiable. I completed my 500-hr level teacher training at Authentic Yoga Teacher Training (AYTT) under the close tutorship of Cheryl Oliver & various other talented teachers, and have done several other trainings since then, such as Children’s Yoga, Yoga Nidra, Sound Practitioner, and Restorative Yoga with Judith Lasater, to name a few. I am certain that I will continue to do more trainings in the near future. I enjoy sharing yoga during the yoga teacher trainings at my home studio, AYTT, because every time I teach I revisit and relearn the material I share in a different way, it is a pleasure to share and discuss yoga with like-minded individuals, and I am gifted the opportunity to take any class I desire during the training.
Because of my own continuous transformation and evolution, made possible through my yoga practice, I believe it is important to share yoga with anyone who wishes to learn. I am especially enthusiastic to share yoga with individuals who do not have easy access to yoga instruction, such as those that are marginalized by society, those who have special medical needs, those who do not have the resources to afford to pay for a studio yoga class, those who do not speak English, those who are physically, mentally, and/or emotionally imprisoned, etc.
I have been joyfully sharing the practice with others since 2016. I have lead yoga classes in jail through the Prison Yoga Project, to inpatient psychiatric patients, to friends and family, during teacher trainings at my home studio AYTT, and specialized classes for individuals’ with special medical consideration at Ironwood Cancer Center and at the Mohamad Ali Parkinson’s Center, to name a few. Additionally, I have co-lead a couple of successful yoga retreats with friends in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico. Currently you can catch me during the public classes I lead at Desert Sun Yoga, where I teach various vinyasa style classes a week.
I believe that everyone is in a different place on their unique life path, thus, every individual needs something different, but ultimately, we all desire love, peace, joy, and to experience life in all of its richness and beauty. Thus, I give the best I have to offer in every class I lead, interweaving yogic, medical, and psychological knowledge, with elements of lightness, playfulness, and lots of love, culminating in a very uniquely authentic style. It is an honor to share yoga with others and I teach from my heart, with the student’s best interest in mind.
