Connect
To Top

Meet Trailblazer Shawna Schenk

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shawna Schenk.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Shawna. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Crazy anxious, out of my mind, I started taking anti-depressants to control the fear. Frazzled knowing there had to be something more, I googled, “yoga” on the internet to find an 85-year old yogi from India offering classes two blocks from my home. Being there was not much holistic health in NJ at that time and the only yoga I knew of, as offered once at a week at a gym, I knew this experience was part of my destiny.

Shanti (that is his name, which also translates to the word “peace”) and I sat in his apartment week after week. Him dressed in all white, radiating a sense of peace, my so young and scared mind couldn’t even comprehend. It made me feel uncomfortable how at peace with the world he was. I thought, “This has got to be bull shit. I bet he screams in a pillow every night. No one is this zen.”

I smile at the person I was then close to a decade ago. We would “Om” and chant as he played his harmonium (which back then, I referred to as a funny-looking-accordion-want-to-be). He told me stories of Atman and Brahman. He gave me a tongue scraper. We would do various breathing exercises. I remember thinking, “This shit is weird, but it’s kind of working.”
​
One day, I felt strong. My heart was growing bigger than the anxious thoughts in my head. I asked Shanti when we were going to do yoga. He asked me what I meant and then I replied with deepest ignorance: “You know, when are we going to do a downward dog?” He smiled in pureness and told me, we were doing yoga. He warned me to not go to the gym and take yoga there. Naturally, I didn’t listen and I enrolled in a class the next day. Immediately, I realized he was right as I was sweating and judging myself trying to keep up with everyone around me. There was no mind-body connection: all there was was ego and stress. I understood, at that moment, that Shanti was heaven sent showing me the rawness of this medicine not what society has created to sell or market for a “perfect body” in expensive stretch pants.

Shanti wrote 8 books on yoga philosophy. I read them all cover to cover. Most went over my head. Some resonated deeply in my heart. I still reference these books today as a teacher. Some, still, go over my head. More resonate deeply with my heart. I consider my time with Shanti in New Jersey, my first yoga teacher training. I sat with him and the yoga many times throughout the months. I did it solely to try to take back my life as I had lost it to anxiety, over-worrying, over-working and hypochondriac behavior. The yoga, it reminded me of all that I am: a human who’s birthright is to feel peace and live in love.
​
The yoga made me so strong I decided to start listening to myself: I trusted a gut feeling and moved to San Diego without a serious job lead or a single friend in the city. I left everyone and everything I ever loved because my soul felt it was unexplainably right. Looking back today, I know it was the yoga at pulled me here. As I shifted coasts, I connected deeper with my practice. Classes in California were different than my time with Shanti, but the yoga will provide its medicine regardless of how it is delivered.

I took a yoga teacher training out of curiosity. At the time, I was a writing professor at a few local colleges: I loved this job and had been doing it for years. I wasn’t looking for a career change, but I remember a few times taking a yoga class and thinking “I suck at yoga: how could I be a yoga teacher?” I then, remember thinking “Why would you ever think that thought, Shawna? You’re not going to be a yoga teacher.” It’s funny how the subconscious mind already new my destiny, but my conscious mind was so full of judgement and confusion.

I looked at my then, barely existing, bank account. I had just enough money to enroll in a teacher training. I remember waking up one morning knowing I had to enroll, so I emptied my account At this time, I also believed I wasn’t “good” at yoga: I couldn’t do any of the hard poses and honestly, I often felt like I was going to faint when I would take a sweaty, fast-paced class. I was embarrassed that I signed up for a yoga teacher training because I didn’t think I was good enough: I remember avoiding my teacher because I didn’t want to admit to her that I was going to actually do this. Stronger than all of this ego-created-illusion, though, was my heart: it knew that yoga saved my life and I wanted to know how. I knew I needed to take this training to understand how yoga worked and where it came from. I never intended to be a yoga teacher. In fact, I remember being the “under dog” in my yoga teacher training. Do you know I actually showed up to the first class with a pilates mat instead of a yoga mat?
​
You can trust that what you are destined to do, where you are destined to be and who you are destined to love will fall together without any permission from you. I was immediately given a job when I graduated my teacher training because a studio needed someone to teach desperately. I remember telling all the other people in my training to do it. No one wanted it and so I accepted. Months later, I was given the opportunity to build a yoga studio within a music shop. A year later, the universe provided me my own yoga business. Now, I have led thousands of classes, certified hundreds of people, have a book published in India and have created various yoga businesses provided powerfully healing experiences in many ways.
​
It is an honor to be a yoga teacher. It is an honor to help people remember who they really are. It is a privilege and I am forever grateful for this practice and those who have helped pass it on to stood the test of time to exist in my current world.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Nothing ever goes as planned, the universe tests you all the time and people will surprise you with their negative and positive actions… but things are as smooth as you make them and the bumps are what teach you to hold on to your heart and trust the ride. Whenever something is gnarly, I just say, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! and the problem turns quicker into a blessing — I promise, so try it!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Yoga With Shawna and San Diego Yoga Festival – what should we know?
Shawna Schenk, the founder and creator of San Diego Yoga, is an internationally recognized, local San Diego yoga teacher, Reiki master, author and spiritual activist leading classes, workshops, teacher trainings, retreats and festivals throughout the world. She is certified in various types of yoga including Hatha, Vinyasa, SUP Yoga, Yin Yoga, Ayurveda, Naam Yoga and Shakti Naam Yoga and has countless other degrees and certifications in various schools of healing in energy medicine, shamanism and sound therapy.

Shawna has a Masters in Writing Arts and two Bachelors in Education and Sociology. As a full time healer, she has created and currently leads over 7 teacher trainings, all recognized by the Yoga Alliance, including a powerful 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training. She teaches certification courses in all three levels of Reiki (Level 1, 2 and Mastership) online at www.ReikiCertifications.comand in person. She has authored a number of books including internationally recognized and published in two language, “Yoga for Teens.”

Shawna believes in the power of SEVA. She lives yoga in every way on and off the mat. She has founded the first free beach yoga movement in San Diego providing free yoga to her community (www.facebook.com/sdoutdooryoga) in three different beach towns, every day, sometimes offering up to 3 classes a day. Collectively, this movement has given over a 1000 free classes to her community. She has also donated over $20,000 in yoga teacher scholarships and has founded the inactive, 108yogateachers.com, geared at raising over $88,0000 a year to help fund 108 more yoga teachers in her city.

Shawna offers private Reiki, sound and yoga sessions, along with business coaching for holistic healers.
Learn more about Shawna at: www.yogawithshawna.com and facebook.com/shawna.schenk or send her an email at: info@yogawithshawna.com and follow her at @San_Diego_Yoga.

We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
This actually just came up the other day (again!) and I thought, “Man, why do I feel like this?”

Humbly, yoga makes me look younger than I am and so, the young looks (which is a blessing) in combination with the stretch pants and pony tail and the whole stereotype of what yogis are supposed to be and AH! I hate to say this, but yes, being a woman, don’t always get me taken seriously. I’m currently putting on San Diego Yoga Festival and I have had a number of meetings with various people and political members and others who maybe have judged me before they saw what I am capable of and that whole “Yeah right or we don’t have to commit to what we told her” attitude can be hard. It seems sometimes, people will not take you seriously; and you just have to smile at them and let your heart and actions show them: you see, I don’t need a desk or suit to do something freaking powerful in this world… I can do it being me and so I do. Every woman needs to know that and believe in themselves: we all have power — man, woman, child, baby, animal… and people do judge or try to stop you or not take you seriously. No one’s blockage is your blockage and so, I smile when people tell me, “No you can’t do that.” And then, do it in my hot pink stretch pants anyway.

Pricing:

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
DHR photo

Getting in touch: SDVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in