ABOUT
Meldy Hernandez, RN, MPH is a passionate health educator and yoga dance teacher with over 20 years of experience in the wellness and teaching field. She received her Interdisciplinary Yoga teacher certification from the world renowned Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica and has studied many types of indigenous dance forms including West African, Pacific Islander, and Latin styles. She holds a bachelor degree in Nursing and Women's Studies from Seattle University and a Masters Degree in Community Health Education from San Francisco State University where she also taught university level health education classes. Before moving to the Philippines, Meldy worked with women and children as a nurse, breastfeeding coach, nutrition trainer, health educator and yoga dance teacher in West Africa, Spain, and the US. She has been under the magic spell of dance all of her life and is thrilled to share the joy and health benefits of Yoga and Dance with her students.
MY YOGA STORY AND PHILOSOPHY
After 10 years of studying different styles including Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Anusara, and Bhakti yoga, I chose to be certified as an Interdisciplinary Yoga Teacher in 2011. Being a mixed-raced, bi-cultural, dancer, artist, health educator and nurse, I chose an open, synergistic training where I could integrate all my identities to become an authentic, moving towards self-awakening yoga teacher. During training, my teachers Amba and Don Stapleton Ph.d encouraged me to find my own yoga voice and to deeply listen to my yoga ancestors. Since yoga originated from indigenous people of India, it was natural for me to connect my yoga to my Lola Pilang, my mother's mother, who was a Higaonon native from the mountains of Bukidnon, Mindanao. She was a deeply spiritual woman who often squatted (like in the yoga garland pose) as she examined her coffee harvest and emanated a warrior goddess wisdom.
When I teach and practice yoga and dance today, I imagine I'm repeating the ancient healing movements of our indigenous ancestors. I also integrate my knowledge as a public health educator and nurse into my yoga teaching. My mother died of breast cancer and I am currently taking care of my father with Alzheimers. I believe that yoga can be a secret weapon in preventing and treating these diseases and more.
Yoga and dance are powerful health investments that promote resilience and wellness at any stage of life.
As a mother, yoga helped me recover from a traumatic c-section with my first child, saved me from postpartum depression, and gave me the courage and skills to achieve my dream of having an all natural, unmedicated, gloriously painless, super easy, vaginal water birth at home after a caesarean (HBAC) for my second child.
My own life experiences and public health studies show that yoga is a proven science and an ancient art form. Yoga is more than just the asanas or poses. Yoga actually has 8 "limbs" that act as a prescription for moral and ethical conduct and ultimately, self-realization and connection to the divine that we also explore in my classes.
I try to make yoga interesting and delicious for my students so they can be inspired to explore and find THEIR Yoga. In my heart of hearts, I am simply a guide for my students to find their own relationship with yoga dance and hopefully establish their own personal practice.
My favorite Sanskrit chant celebrates the teacher within all of us:
Om Guru, Om Guru, Deva Deva
Aja Kay, Ananda Key Jay
Aja Kay, Ananda Key Jay
English Translation (The real teacher is already within you)
My dear present and future students, you are ultimately your best and most important yoga teacher.
The universe is simply trying to bring us together because when the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Are you ready?