Yin yoga, creative cooking, and the gift of sobriety with Jacqui Marti

Today I’m excited to share an interview with my friend and yoga instructor Jacqui Marti. Jacqui is a certified RYT- 200 teacher through Kindness Yoga, and yin trained by Kari Kwinn Yoga. Although we no longer live in the same state, her virtual yin yoga classes have offered me a beautiful refuge during this pandemic, a way to truly slow down and get quiet. In fact, I loved her classes so much that I asked her to team up with me and teach yoga for our She Who Flows group cleanse this fall!

In this interview Jacqui shares what first drew her to yoga and how her life has changed since then. She also gives a beautiful definition of “flow state” despite having no idea what I’m asking her! I hope you enjoy getting to know this awesome woman!

Tell me the story of what first drew you to yoga. What was your first yoga experience?

I was in a really unhealthy and unhappy place in my life. I was misusing alcohol. I was unsure about my job and my relationship, and I hated my living situation. On top of all that, I felt completely directionless in terms of work and meaningful relationships. I used food and alcohol as coping mechanisms. So needless to say, I was super unhealthy physically, mentally/emotionally, and spiritually. But one day I knew I had to do something to get better. I asked my mom for a membership to my local YMCA as a Christmas gift that year. She graciously obliged and I’m so thankful for that. I attempted your standard gym circuits. A little cardio here. A pitiful attempt at weight training there. I was clueless and results were minimal.

Then I noticed that they offered yoga classes and thought, maybe that’s something that can get me into a better place. I’m clearly not doing a great job on my own. Maybe some guidance, via an instructor will help. And it did! I was hooked after that. I went to a few specific instructors regularly and really loved the group class/community element of it, on top of the physical exertion piece. Over the years, my relationship with yoga has evolved. It no longer is my main form of exercise. I use it as a wellness meter, and a wellness solution. By that I mean, I’ll do certain poses to gauge where my body is at or where it needs to be in order to feel good/healthy. I practice at a much slower pace now. I love the more restorative, deeper, juicier sides of yoga. It’s a path to greater peace, gratitude, compassion, and joy for me. It’s a compliment to my other forms of exercise and wellness, rather than my one and only. 

What led you to train in teaching yin yoga? Were you always drawn to the more restorative types of practices?

Oh, well this blends in nicely from my last bit! Yoga wasn’t always yin or restorative for me. I really don’t think I walked myself into a restorative class until a good two years after starting my practice. I was your hot power vinyasa girl for a long time. I needed that rigorous practice. I needed to make my body move and make it feel stronger. What I didn’t realize was that all of that rigorous, “go, go, go,” yang stuff was leading me to back issues (mostly due to sub par yoga form and a weak core) and other minor injuries. I needed to balance myself out. I also needed to quiet my mind of all the chatter.

I’m anxiety prone, like most Americans, just a giant ball of “ok, but what’s next?!” And a power class can help you refocus that mental energy for a little while, but sometimes I’d leave those classes feeling worse than when I arrived. That’s when yin entered the picture.

After a handful of yin classes, my back pain started to dissolve. My mind calmed the eff down for more than just the 60 minutes it was in the studio. It was like an “a-ha!” moment. That’s when I knew I wanted to learn to teach yin. I wanted to share the beauty of it with those who didn’t know about the benefits of slowing down. We all benefit from balancing our yang side with the quieter yin side. 

What’s the main difference between yin yoga and vinyasa yoga?

Hmm, there are a handful of differences between the two types of yoga, but I would say the main difference is that yin is practiced while the muscles are “cold” and is done so at a slower pace, where poses are held much longer so that they target specific tissue (i.e. ligaments, tendons, fascia) rather than large muscle groups. Vinyasa means “to place in a special way” and in doing so we string pose after pose together while marrying the breath with these flowing movements. Yin is less about “flowing” and more about holding stillness, quiet reflection, turning inward. In this way, it really challenges our culturally normative state of constant, dynamic movement. It gives us an opportunity to sit with ourselves. To really feel into our bodies, notice how our mind wanders as it makes connections and associations, and allows for a deeper processing of things we encounter daily, such as events that may have happened, or feelings that arose from them, or creativity that’s bubbling under the surface.

From your own experience, how do you think yoga can complement an Ayurvedic lifestyle?

Well, they’ve gone almost hand in hand for centuries, both stemming from the same cultural and geographical area. Fast forward hundreds of years, and we hear this modern phrase “diet and exercise” so often that it’s hard to untwine them. They go together, for a reason. We need both. We need to assess our diet (what goes into our body), while also harnessing and focusing that energy through physical and mental exercise (what goes out of our body). Ayurveda is a tool for assessing nutritional, dietary, even medicinal needs, and Yoga is a practice for moving our bodies, quieting our minds, discovering contentment or peace. Together they give us this beautifully rich tool for health and wellness!

How would you define a “flow state”? When in your life do you feel most “in the flow”?

I’ll be honest, I’ve never really heard that term until today. But I think I’m picking up what you’re putting down. Right off the bat, with no context, I would define a “flow state” as periods in your life where things move seamlessly, effortlessly, creatively from moment to moment. You just feel in your element. You feel truly happy or content. You understand your emotions, reactions, desires, and can accept other’s emotions, reactions, desires  as well.

I’ve felt most in the flow after finding my sobriety. That’s just real talk. It wasn’t after discovering yoga or Ayurveda or my intimate partner. It was getting sober. I may have had a glimpse at a flow state here or there, but I never truly felt it and lived it until I removed the habit that was slowly killing me. It wasn’t until that obstacle, that I kept sticking there in front of me time and again, was removed that I understood what being in my element felt like, consistently. Not everyday feels flowy, but there’s always opportunity for it to appear because that obstacle is gone. 

Do you have any creative practices that are important to you?

I like to paint here and there, play around with mixing and blending color and medium. Get real abstract with things. I like to move my body and exercise in a variety of ways. I switch things up regularly to avoid any boredom in that arena. I love collaborating with friends. I’m the ultimate supporter. I enjoy helping my friends see their creative endeavors through. I’m actually planning to help my friend Leslie with a little photoshoot for her thrifting business here soon, it should be super fun! I also adore cooking. And I get creative with it! I joke around that I’m a “Zhuzh-er.” I’m always tweaking recipes and trying new spices, or experimenting with how to make it vegetarian/vegan. “You said one clove of garlic?” Oh no, babygirl, we’re adding at least three! “What?! We’re doing this with chicken?” Nah, let’s try mushrooms instead! I love to play around with flavors and colors. I love feeding myself and others with these zhuzhed up recipes. That’s probably my favorite form of creativity. 

Have you found any creative ways to relax or reduce stress during this pandemic that you’d like to share? 

I definitely started cooking a lot more during quarantine. I think we all did! So getting creative with recipes increased a lot. I returned to a tarot inspired art project that started about a year ago and finished a couple of pieces. I also got really creative with exercise since gyms closed down. I learned to like running. Which then led to me getting a bike (Thank you, Whitney and Matt!!). And that got me to explore at home exercise classes and yoga. I’ve gotten more into my yoga flows and yin yoga sequences. Using that experience and creativity to mellow me out. It has helped me find that “flow state” you were talking about 😉 And I used the pandemic/quarantine as an opportunity to explore and commit to my sobriety, which has been the most beautiful gift I’ve ever given to myself. 

I’m so grateful to Jacqui for opening up about her journey with yoga, health and creativity, and hope you found it as inspiring as I did! To learn more about what Jacqui will be offering during our Fall Cleanse, click here.