1
Paola
Born and raised in Milan, my first encounter with yoga was back in Italy when I was 10 years old. I used to watch my mom doing stretching poses on the floor with a yoga book in front of her.
In 1987, I moved to the US, to San Francisco. There, I did my first real yoga class; it was Iyengar Yoga. From the Iyengar practice I learned a lot about alignment, and still today in my teaching, I apply what I learned from those classes. Later on I approached Ashtanga Yoga, where I was shown the importance of breathing while flowing from one posture to another.
In 1998, I was introduced to Bikram Hot Yoga. I really loved the way I felt physically, so, after practicing for a couple of years, I took the teacher training and became a certified Bikram Yoga Teacher. With the intention to open a yoga studio, I found an opportunity here in Redondo Beach, and called it Bikram Yoga Redondo.
In 2011, we changed the name to The Hot Yoga Center so that we could offer other types of yoga as well. In 2018, when we started to offer non-heated classes, we decided to eliminate the word “hot” from our name, and we became Novo Yoga—a word that means “new” in many languages, and a word that is also part of our last name.
One of the great things I learned from practicing and teaching yoga is the extremely useful concept of being present.
It is about acceptance and being there, because every day our body and mind reacts differently to the practice of yoga. Letting go, and leaving the ego outside the yoga room, is the hardest part. I encourage my students to be present and accept what is coming to them. Embrace it rather than fight it.
Two of my favorite quotes are:
“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have” – Eckhart Tolle
“Yoga is not about touching the toes, it’s what you learn on the way down” – Unknown