Meet Rodrigo Souza – Weblog

Rodrigo Souza (he/him) is an Adaptive & Accessible Yoga instructor with expertise in educating yoga to people who’ve gone by means of Trauma & Incapacity.

By direct private expertise with traumatic harm, and persistent ache, and discovering the necessity to take cost of his restoration to optimize long-term well-being, Rodrigo determined to grow to be a Yoga instructor and educate from his personal expertise, creating Allihopa Accessible & Adaptive Digital Yoga Studio.

He’s centered on making a supportive neighborhood for many who have skilled trauma & incapacity by means of Adaptive yoga.

Inform us a bit about your self and your yoga journey…

Hello, my title is Rodrigo Souza (he/him), a short-term undecided and long-term optimism. I received launched to yoga in my mid-twenties, I used to work as a bartender and a DJ whereas dwelling in London and used to go to a Bikran Yoga studio just a few instances every week to detoxify my physique.  For me, again then, Yoga was a bodily train. Yoga for the physique.  Time has handed and I suffered a spinal twine harm (T3 full) in 2014 after a fall accident, and on account of that, I grew to become paralysed from the chest down and in addition a  full-time wheelchair person, and since my harm, I began deepening my Yoga apply. Yoga for the Soul.  Adaptive Yoga helps me take care of muscle spasticity, persistent nerve ache, nervousness, and plenty of different secondary circumstances that the harm introduced me.  Yoga has helped me to fall in love with my damaged physique and to just accept it as it’s. It allowed me to be who I’m and to just accept what it’s.

What does a typical day appear like for you?

My day is fulfilled with brief yummy self-care practices. As I stay with persistent ache and in a disabled physique, I must be very conscious of my power and ache ranges.  I begin my day with a brief & candy Yoga apply in mattress, then I make sure that I’ve a fast apply each three hours after sitting within the wheelchair (it’s when my muscle tissues begin to tighten). I additionally all the time attempt to squeeze in a cheeky 30-minute Yoga Nidra after lunch, simply to maintain issues going and to floor myself. Then there’s all the time a category to show so I don’t have to do any apply within the afternoon as I’m educating. To complete the day, I’ve one other mattress apply to cut back my muscle spasms and add a gratefulness/ mindfulness apply there to make sure I nurture my emotional well being earlier than calling it a day.

What do you get pleasure from most about sharing the apply of yoga?

I usually educate people who’ve gone by means of trauma, loss and incapacity. So it brings me an amazing quantity of pleasure and a deep sense of duty and goal.  For me, they’re those who want Yoga essentially the most, and they’re those that have Yoga the least. A few of my college students are going by means of essentially the most tough second of their lives, a few of them have newly injured themselves, a few of them take care of heavy PTSD, and It fills my coronary heart with heat when I’ve the chance to soundly maintain house to them and assist them to expertise every thing there’s to expertise, with out concern, with out bypassing and denying something. To carry themselves again to their ‘damaged physique’ and assist them see that they’re nonetheless entire. Sure, there’s numerous grief, but additionally numerous magnificence. For me, there’s nothing else on the earth there brings me extra pleasure. The chance to serve, to assist and to construct neighborhood. Happiness and long-lasting pleasure stay proper there and I really feel immensely grateful to have the ability to develop and do the work I do.

 What recommendation would you give to anybody in search of an accessible yoga apply?

The very first thing I might say is that Yoga is already accessible. Yoga is for everybody when you breathe and you may apply Yoga. Each motion you do consciously is Yoga. Each time you turn off the quantity of distractions and are available again to your physique, you’re practising Yoga. So, my recommendation is to let people know what Yoga is as a result of it may be very intimidating to start out practising Yoga with a disabled physique when all you see in social media and advertising supplies are white skinny girls doing tremendous versatile postures. Yoga isn’t just that, it’s so way more. Yoga is a strong device of self-discovery, self-compassion, self-acceptance, love and equanimity.

Do you will have a favorite quote or life motto?

Fall in love with taking good care of your self. Fall in love with the trail of deep therapeutic. Fall in with lengthy exhales, with self-regulating, with silence. Fall in love with life. Then go and unfold the love with the world.