At Casablanca Asana Yoga, Paula Jimenez works hard to create a safe teaching environment as an important act of love, and shares that love for practicing yoga in effort to inspire and transform her students as much as she has been personally transformed and awakened through the practice. Paula is a graduate from evolation yoga’s 2015 teacher training class, and we sat down to both congratulate and learn more about her new and exciting business, Casablanca Asana Yoga.

How long has the studio been open, and what is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far in getting it open?

We opened Casablanca Asana Yoga on the 21st of June of 2017  (International Yoga Day :)) The biggest challenge has been explaining people that Yoga is not attached to a specific Religion. Colombia is a very Catholic country and Villavicencio, where we are placed, is a small town and a very conservative one. We really didn’t expect that people would consider the asana practice as a religion, but yes and that’s been a challenge. Anyhow, people have been very understanding and they ask instead of judge which is a very kind way to let us explain and let us represent what we were taught to; plus we are letting the practice talk itself. When Casablanca Asana Yoga was just an idea, we always wanted to build a place where people could be themselves, stay as long as they want and ask as many questions as needed, a place where the asana practice would be inclusive.

What is your 3-5 year vision for your studio and its role in the community?

Our vision is to be as steady as the Standing Head To knee Pose  Strong, commited, determined and calm. We want to tell everyone that the asana practice is a very safe place where you can start your relationship with yourself. We want that when people in our community think about yoga, they think about Casablanca; we want to let people know about the variety of asana practice, and if someone from Villavicencio goes somewhere else in the world for vacation or even if the move somewhere else and look for a hot yoga studio because they loved the experience with us, mission accomplished.

We want to make Casablanca as the second home of the practitioners and expand the everyday-practice lifestyle as wide as possible.

What is something you love about owning a studio?

Freedom.
My Fiancé Sdward and I opened the studio because we wanted to be free. Both of us used to work in the corporate world, retail, sales and every part of the supply chain. We got tired of all of that, being on the schedule every day and stressed out. First of all, the feeling of being free is just fantastic, we do have been working extremely hard, long hours, teaching and running the place by ourselves, we are physically tired but our hearts are just full. Working together is another thing we love, we are complementing each other work wise because doing what we where used to do in the corporate world but for ourselves is just amazing and last but not least, walking barefoot all day is priceless
 

Casablanca Asana Yoga is committed to help you develop the capacity to connect and integrate your mind with your body, through our four types of asana practice, all of them with different benefits but with the same physical and mental goal. You can find Paula and Casablanca at: 

Paula Jiménez

Casablanca Asana Yoga Co-Founder

FB: casablancaasanayoga

IG: @casablanca_asanayoga

Paula Jimenez

At Casablanca Asana Yoga, Paula Jimenez works hard to create a safe teaching environment as an important act of love, and shares that love for practicing yoga in effort to inspire and transform her students as much as she has been personally transformed and awakened through the practice. Paula is a graduate from evolation yoga’s 2015 teacher training class, and we sat down to both congratulate and learn more about her new and exciting business, Casablanca Asana Yoga.