Returning to full speed in everyday life after the summer break, it seems increasingly difficult to find time to dedicate to yourself. From this point of view, even physical activity seems to be compromised by tiredness and by the frenzy of recovery. How many, just returned from the office after an intense day of work, find the strength to play sports?
However, we increasingly understand the importance of proper nutrition and regular and enjoyable training that may not only predispose the physical, but also the spirit, to a state of greater well-being. Yoga has always been considered a discipline capable of to combine these two aspects and SKIN IV – as a promoter of a 360 ° improvement – identifies this practice as an ally to maintain an optimal psycho-motor balance.
SKIN IV interviewed Claudia Casanova, a young Yoga Influencer, to reveal the secrets of a healthy and positive lifestyle.
Claudia is 32 years old, she was born and raised in Cagliari where she earned a degree in Biomedical 
Engineering. Later she moved to Milan to continue her specialist studies. She has always shown herself to be a very active person on a sporting level so much as to practice volleyball for years. The keywords in her adolescence turn out to be: fun and dynamism but the turning point comes with the landing in Milan and the need to find an activity that made her feel good and at ease after the hours spent behind a desk.
How was your first contact with yoga?
The first time I tried yoga was in Spain, during my Erasmus, but I gave up the lesson after just 10 minutes! I thought it wasn’t a discipline similar to me. However, I tried to give this practice another chance in the Milanese capital, but even here, it didn’t go very well … This is because I had always seen fitness as an outlet, a time to unload and not as a body well-being. It is the first awareness to be internalized before starting your own journey with yoga.
The first real contact was, to tell the truth, thanks to Instagram, where I started following people who published videos with their progress. They intrigued me so much that I became passionate about their YouTube channels. Initially, it was a mere way to do stretching, but then trying various courses in the Milan centers, I finally found the class with the style that suited me. It was love at first asana! So much so that I go deeper into it, until after a few years I became a Yoga teacher specializing in Power Yoga.
Did you say “right classes and different style” so yoga is not always the same?
No, yoga is always the same discipline but it has many different styles, which often depend on and vary from the personality of the teacher. There are those who focus more on meditation, those who propose more dynamic classes, others are more oriented towards the physical. Once you know the world of yoga, slowly, you begin to discover all the possible differences. I personally appreciate all these variations and variations.
What are the benefits that this discipline gives you?
At the physical level, in addition to the obvious aesthetic side, one of the main benefits is the flexibility and improvement of posture that can be important for those, even like me, working in the office. Furthermore, with time one acquires greater awareness of one’s body and one begins to understand just how every single part works. You can feel all the efforts you are making at a given moment, gradually succeeding in isolating the various movements by understanding when the posture is right or wrong. This ability is not limited only to the moment in which yoga is practiced but it is an added value that can always be applied, even when other activities take place in the gym or when one is seated and has a curved back.
Does yoga somehow affect other spheres of your life?
What gives you yoga is the ability to respect your body even more and give it everything it needs. The important thing is not to live in a state of continuous paranoia or constrictions, but of attention in wanting to do only good, to nourish it (metaphorically and otherwise) in the healthiest and most correct way. Nothing happens if we give ourselves a treat for once. Personally I love pasta dishes and I could never do without it! Rather I try to choose a higher quality, at KM0, that food that reminds us of the flavors of the vegetable garden and of the naturally good products we prepared in our kitchens. Today there are many realities that allow you not to deprive yourself of those tastes: you can feel the difference in the flavor of a product coming from organic farming compared to that of supermarkets where maybe the same food comes from intensive training.
Let’s talk about Instagram. Today you have about 50k followers, how is your relationship with this social network and how do you reconcile it with a “yoga” lifestyle?
Many think that social media is the death of yoga but I don’t agree on this because Instagram has introduced me to this discipline. Instagram makes yoga more “human” and “accessible”. Most people usually think of yoga as a strange world that people do stunts that are impossible for the rest of humanity. With social media, on the other hand, this “strange way” becomes accessible to all those who are curious but do not have the courage to start this journey because they cannot understand what is behind it.
Initially, I posted progress for myself, to motivate myself to do better and better. I never had the ambition to become famous or something else, I just liked to share my daily life and my little goals, achieved day after day. Then I started having a follow-up and now I’m contacted for the advice of various kinds.
So give us advice for all the people who want to approach yoga!
My advice is to try and give more possibilities to this practice. We need to find the right teacher with whom to establish a feeling and style that is most appropriate for our personality. Something that will definitely come. The most asked question is: “If I am not flexible, can I start doing yoga? “. The answer is “Absolutely yes!” Because yoga will make you so, even if the ultimate goal is not just flexibility. By starting to train in this discipline every day you learn to really take care of yourself.
Claudia also doesn’t just care about taking care of her body and spirit but also her skin and does it with SKIN IV Cosmetic Masks.
Check out the full range on the site.
