The asana (meaning pose or shape) practice that we refer to as Yoga in the West began thousands of years ago with a single pose: seated meditation pose. For Resilient Joy’s founder and a 200-Hour Practiced Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT200), Kayla Gonzalez, her personal journey began the same way: with a meditation group she joined in college. She explains that she had very little experience or understanding when she first started out, but “was always curious about yoga.” Through her meditation group and eventually studying abroad in Thailand, Kayla was exposed to a variety of meditation types and experienced what it was like to have yogic philosophy as part of daily life, and as part of a culture.
As time went on, Kayla graduated college, started working and traveling, and lost touch with her regular meditation practice. Eventually, she noticed that her new routine was leading to burnout so severe that it had started causing physical symptoms like hair loss. Desperate for a change, she remembered her college meditation group and figured that if meditation and yoga had helped her years before, maybe they could again. It was then that Kayla started to really lean into developing a physical yoga practice beyond seated meditation. She explained that she tried talk therapy and often found that she was able to work through things in her sessions, but left feeling worse than she started, as a result of bringing old and complex emotions to the surface. Yoga was the one thing that helped her to move the negative feelings aside and work through emotional obstacles physically. “I have this joy within me…” she realized, “that I have to work to protect.” That realization would eventually become the inspiration for her own yoga offerings: Resilient Joy.
“Everyone has joy deep within them,” Kayla starts off, explaining that although joy may be resilient, we do have to work to protect it. She goes on to elaborate that for people of color, and for women of color especially, so much of that joy “is snuffed out generationally… [when] self-sacrifice is the goal.” It is Kayla’s mission to help everyone “find that joy within you, make it resilient, and protect it through the path of yoga, breathwork, and meditation.”
One of the things Kayla loves most about teaching is the continued opportunities for discovery. New realizations about the practice continue to unfold as she teaches. She loves to practice with fun, energetic music and appreciates the bonding opportunities music can offer. Many times, people who feel intimidated or even bored by more “traditional” yoga settings feel at home in Kayla’s classes, flowing along to Bad Bunny, a frequent staple in her yoga playlists. Whether through music, or mindful inclusivity of all sizes and backgrounds, Kayla strives to make yoga more accessible to everyone. She aims to create space for people to work through whatever physical or emotional barriers they might have so that they can start to heal.
“Wellness means taking the time to feel good,” Kayla declared toward the end of our interview. Often, especially for women and people of color, taking care of oneself is seen as selfish, she points out. To find true wellness, and to be able to in turn, help others, Kayla says the key lies in asking ourselves “what do I need to do to feel good today?”, keeping in mind that the very idea of what good feels like can vary day to day.
“Wellness means taking the time to feel good,” Kayla declared toward the end of our interview. Often, especially for women and people of color, taking care of oneself is seen as selfish, she points out. To find true wellness, and to be able to in turn, help others, Kayla says the key lies in asking ourselves “what do I need to do to feel good today?”, keeping in mind that the very idea of what good feels like can vary day to day.
Kayla continues to make it her mission not only to grow in her own practice but in her teaching ability as well. Kayla offered a 15-minute chair yoga workshop at the Mini-Workshop Market earlier this month, so keep your eyes peeled for a full-length workshop with Resilient Joy and The Workbench coming up later this year! In the meantime, you can find her inside La Finca coffee on Tuesday, March 2nd, finishing out her February Full Body Flow series, or at MAdre Wellness in Bay View, where she offers private and small group sessions. This summer, she’ll also be heading to Peru for an immersive yoga and Ayurveda training. You can stay up to date with Kayla’s practice, travels, and future events on social media or on her website.
