“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”>

Heading out the door? Read this text on the brand new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!
>”,”name”:”in-content-cta”,”type”:”link”}}”>Download the app.

In one other life, Julia Coney may very well be a travel agent. After we spoke, she was preparing for her upcoming trip to the Champagne region in France just days after getting back from Rome. As a wine author, educator, speaker, and consultant, in addition to the founding father of Black Wine Professionals, Coney interacts with all facets of the virtually 340-billion-dollar wine industry. She’s busy. Yet despite her constant travel and engagements, she all the time makes time to show to her mat, even when it’s from her hotel room.

Coney began practicing yoga in 2006, following the death of her brother. As a substitute of immediately putting her on antidepressants, her doctor suggested she try yoga to assist her connect with and begin to maneuver through her grief. He urged her to seek out a teacher and a variety of yoga that resonated together with her.

That was significant. As a runner and weight lifter, Coney expressed skepticism about whether such a movement was right for her. “Yoga [seemed] calming, and I actually have a fiery personality,” she says. “I used to be just making all of those excuses.” Nonetheless, she agreed to not less than try her doctor’s advice and typed “hip yoga” into Google. The outcomes led her to Kimberly Wilson, the owner of the now-closed Washington, DC-based studio Tranquil Space. Wilson’s class wasn’t the flow Coney was expecting. “I remember pondering, ‘Is she playing Eminem? Is she playing Coldplay? I do know that’s Lenny Kravitz in Savasana.’” At the top of that first-class with Wilson, Coney found herself in tears. That was the beginning of her yoga journey.

Practicing Yoga While Traveling

Coney accomplished her 200-hour teacher training with Wilson, but it surely wasn’t with the intention of teaching. As a substitute, she understood it as a spiritual study that will enable her to dive deeper into the non-asana (non-postural) facets of yoga. The training also allowed Coney to proceed her practice on the road. “That’s the great thing about doing a yoga training,” she says. “You teach yourself find out how to teach yoga for yourself. You recognize which poses are going to work, which side is tight in your body.”

When Coney travels, she still takes in-person classes. “I am going to more studios on the road,” she says. “I find the pockets of time.” (Pro tip: Coney says she relies on the MindBody app, which makes it easy to seek out classes in numerous cities where you’re unfamiliar with local studios.) This includes traveling abroad, where the category will not be taught in English. “I remember taking a category in Zurich, totally in German, however the teacher did your complete class in Sanskrit,” she says. “Because I had been going to [yoga] a lot, I knew many of the poses in Sanskrit.”

When she’s not leading her own practice or attending a studio, she turns to Candace Cabrera Tavino’s classes on Instagram. 

Grounded in Routine

Coney’s connection to her practice begins immediately when she wakes—but not in the way in which it’s possible you’ll think. Within the mornings, she moves very slowly. “I do this on purpose,” she says. “Once my body’s up, every little thing races very fast.” After sipping on hot water with lemon, she’ll typically move right into a slow yoga practice, although she  listens to her body. Some mornings, she may feel like moving her body more and can go for a more energetic flow.

She also turns to routine after long plane rides. Coney all the time bring a yoga blanket together with her to make use of as the muse for her practice. “I lay it on the ground and do an entire vinyasa—either side—to get up,” she says. No matter her plan for the day or her travel schedule, Coney says all she needs is 10 minutes of yoga and she or he’s set.

Connecting Yoga to Her Job

Yogic teachings and concepts show up for Coney in other ways, as well. “I talk lots concerning the intersection of racism within the wine industry and equality and DEI,” she says. “The off-the-mat practice is knowing we’re all flawed, in a variety of ways. I try to provide myself grace and in addition to other people. There’s grace for many who seek it.” It’s this principle, grace, that grounds Coney. 

The facility of the breath also plays a job in her constant steadiness. Oftentimes, she turns to easy (but critical) deep respiratory exercises to calm and center herself. It’s an understanding she hopes others realize as well. “I feel more people should consider yoga as a practice for all times,” she says. “There’s a lot you study yourself through a yoga practice…I feel like after I do my practice, I give myself to myself before I give myself away.”