Firefly Yoga & Massage, Little Corn Bed & Breakfast
Little Corn Island, Nicaragua
It’s not often that you find gems like this – a place where you fall truly, madly deeply in love.
For me, the factors involved in such a place are as follows :
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An easily accessible, beautiful beach to jog & meditate on barefoot
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Yoga studio
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Delicious food
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Community
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Great places to eat & drink (What? …$14 lobster? Believe it!)
- Spectacular sunrise or sunset ( Preference is sunrise)
Little corn hit all the above, and is one of the few places I wouldn’t mind staying around for a while. The only downside is that it’s kind of expensive, by backpacker standards. Food & entertainment cost about the same as what you pay at home in Canada, maybe about 10-15% cheaper. But what brings it all together is the community.
Meet Sarah. For the duration of my stay, we shared many yoga classes, laughs, music & stories. I was given the opportunity to teach a couple classes at Firefly Yoga & Massage, which was thrilling for a travelling yoga teacher like me. I’m not sure if it’s the same for all yoga teachers, but I really miss teaching regularly when I’m away. Sarah and I would take each others classes and play off them. I would try to teach some of the things I liked in Sarah’s class, and sometimes (I think) I would catch her doing the same thing. It was a great way to practice, with each other. Like giving a nod of approval, in support of a fellow teacher.
Here is my interview with Sara, beautiful person, yoga teacher & founder of Firefly Yoga & Massage:
1. Can you tell us how Firefly Yoga came about?
Juan and I came to Little Corn Island, and I knew that I wanted to open a yoga studio at some point. My fiancée, Juan, was building furniture here at the Hotel (Little Corn B&B) (Note:Little Corn Island & This charming bed and breakfast are listed in the book below)
They were tossing around the idea of opening up a studio. Actually like a massage studio, or something really small. And we just started talking and drawing pictures in the sand with our toes. And saying this can go over here, or maybe we can build a little platform… and it just evolved from there. So Juan ended up doing the building and we put it up within a month. We decided to screen it in and put a roof on it, to make it more of a studio. And then I started teaching right away, and doing massage.
2. When did you open?
The end of last March (March 2012), so just about a full year. This will be our first full high season here.
3. How do you describe the style of your yoga teaching here?
I call our style of yoga Fusion flow. Over the years, I’ve done so many different styles of yoga and “I find that each style, each school of thought has so much to offer. “ So what I’ve done is combine a lot of those different approaches and fuse them into what I do, which is a creative flow.
I originally started with Ashtanga when I was 15, 12 years ago. I started taking an Ashtanga class twice a week, for a year. That was my first experience with yoga. So that comes into my practice and then my teaching: with the Ujjayi breath and the Surya Namaskar the basics of the primary series. And I expand from there, with a lot of the Iyengar alignment principles. Vinyasa flow would generally describe what I teach, but there’s more to it than that. I like to sink in to Restorative postures at the end of class, usually. And it really varies depending on the people that are in class, the vibe, the day and what we’ve done before. I try to keep it somewhat consistent so that it’s always expanding and evolving.
4. What brought you into yoga?
Originally I just started going, I don’t even know why. I just started going with my cousin and his girlfriend, who were living in Oregon at the time. He was my dad’s brothers son and My dad’s brother has been a yogi for 50 years. He studied yoga in the sixties, in India, when yoga was just becoming common in the West. My uncle and my aunt were both Ashtanga practitioners and they were married in India. They are pretty serious, so I was exposed to it from a young age, just going and staying with them on the East Coast, and eating Vegan and seeing her practice. She’s a teacher as well. I was always exposed to and intrigued by (the lifestyle).
Then when my cousin moved to Oregon, they brought me to the studio which was just on the corner of my house! And the teacher was amazing, I feel like she’s one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. She just she taught by example. And she taught me how to really find my downward dog. It was the first pose that I found really challenging and really helpful at the same time. I started not liking it, then starting to appreciate it and moving into the space where I was like …amazing! And now, I love my downward dog”, and so I think that the experience paved the way. 
And then later on my life, I was travelling a lot in Costa Rica and it felt like I needed something to ground me. I was moving around a lot, backpacking and there was nothing real consistent happening in my life. I needed something to come back to everyday and just feel like was my center. And so I started doing whatever I remembered from that class. And I had taken other classes along the way. Mostly when I was travelling to each destination, I would go to yoga, you know? So whatever I learned over the years, and mainly from that first year, I started to practice every night on the beach at sunset. I would just put out my sarong and do my sun salutations and anything that I remembered.
I started practicing in this way every day going to classes, taking private lessons and then I went back home to Oregon. I went back to that same class… but different teacher… it was a pretty different class. So I started going twice a week that year, along with that every day my own practice. I think a lot of the work I did was on my own, in my room. Just 2 hour sessions of sinking in, exploring the poses and crying and laughing and groaning. Just self discovery, this unravelling… and just like everything it had evolved, and continues to. I don’t even remember what the question was, I kind of went off on a tangent. (laughs adorably.)
5. What was the name of your yoga teacher?
My teacher was named Sister Wendy. And I don’t know her last name. She was amazing, she was bald, 110 pounds and could just balance on her head. You know her body,her strength,her balance, her flexibility, were all so in harmony.
Just looking at her walk, you became inspired by yoga. She never was pushy – she was just the perfect teacher. Ever since I’ve been trying to seek her out, I can’t find her. She’s like some mystical creature that came into my life. But yeah she’s from Oregon, I don’t know if she’s originally from there but that’s where I knew her. Little tiny town where I’m from she was literally a 2 minute walk from my house. Which is amazing, how the most amazing things like that can be so close to us. You know, it’s like I didn’t have to go to India or something to find her. She was so influential.
6. Can you tell us a little about the local classes you are teaching in the community?
Well, what I’ve been doing lately, is doing a class for the staff once a week. That’s one of the favourite classes that I teach. Its’ mostly the women, I tried to get the guys to come but they seem a little intimidated by the idea of it. But two of the women in particular, have been coming for almost a full year and I can really see the difference in their bodies and the dedication. What that’s done for them and their breathing and their meditation practice. I find that it’s really hard for people, all people to relax. But especially the locals who work so hard, and it’s I think it’s hard for them to treat them selves.
I found in the beginning when I would touch them, or re-align them in an assist, they would help me. It’s a very helpful culture. And I would just say “no, no, just let me adjust you and you just stay as you are”. And that concept, I’d slowly been able to get across. So that’s all I’m doing right now, is just working with the staff. I‘ve tried to do some local classes, but they didn’t have a turnout. So what I do is I just open the classes to locals, and provide a sliding scale so that anybody can come that wants to.
7. Do you notice any differences in the staff, after the time that you’ve been teaching them?
Totally. Immediately after class, I’ll see them wander off … sort of floating off to different parts of the property. In the beginning of class, people are usually pretty chatty and giggly… and by the end of class, everyone’s in a totally different space. Over time, I also notice a difference in the way they come to class, and the way they take their seat and come right into the moment.. the concentration of it. I think they started to realize the meditation aspect of it, that it’s not a social hour. As fun as it is to practice as a group, they started to sink into the idea of creating their own individual practice. So I have noticed a change in the way the approach it and the way they come to class and arrive.
And also, I don’t know if it’s the yoga or what it is exactly but the way that we all communicate with each other, is we’re very close and comfortable together . I think that coming to yoga together is a nice way to connect and bond. To not really have to say anything but to just be energetically together. I think that on a lot of different levels, it’s made some subtle differences.
8.What is it that inspires you, in your practice?
Wow. It depends. “Lately it’s been the idea of embracing life and living it to the absolute fullest.” (And in the same breath she says: I just lost my sister about a month and a half ago)
I tried to process it in the most positive way I can. I spent a lot of time grieving while she was still alive. Which I know, I tried not to do … but the last few months were particularly painful for everyone, for her as well .. as everything else because it was definitely a slow process. There was a lot of tears, a lot of grief and, pain and sadness at that time. Luckily we were all together, that was nice because we got to say a lot of things which otherwise…, some people don’t have the opportunity to say.
We talked about that so many times, and I was actually able to process it with her there. Because she knew… she knew she was sick for a long time. And it was a unique experience in that way, but I try to keep it out of my classes … It definitely is in my classes, but I don’t address it directly. It’s in my practice but everyone has their own. Each person is like another universe. So maybe what’s going on in my life is not as important to somebody else, but what I can do is create a context that we can all relate to. And it’s helpful for me to teach and bring it into my teaching, because it’s really that appreciation for life: the preciousness and fragility of it. It’s definitely deepened my approach and it inspires me everyday, to sink into my practice on a deeper level, and really bring it into my life. I started practicing a lot of meditation and she told me, just sit for ten minutes a day. A lot of her advice I bring into everyday of life, into my practice. Threading my practice together with my life, so that it’s all one. It’s one lifestyle. It’s all yoga. It’s living yoga. She had said to me, “Life is like one big yoga stretch.” And it’s so true …I remember a lot of what she said and that’s been the biggest inspiration the past year… is her life and death and what that’s been in terms of affecting me and everyone else that there is in my life. How that concept is on a grander scale… as well as this idea of birth, life and attachment.
Before that, it was more the idea of grounding myself. And having something to return to day after day, no matter what my external circumstance. I could always find that peace within my yoga practice. It was something consistent, something almost medicinal about it so that was how it started. But it changes as you continue to practice over the years. I think that there are a lot of shifts in what motivates you to get on to the mat. Maybe it started because I wanted to relieve stress and anxiety and it became an appreciation and celebration of life. And I think it’s all connected for sure, and it just continues to deepen and grow.
9. How old was your sister?
She was older, she was my eldest sister she was 49. She had cancer. She battled it for 8 years. She had started with breast cancer then it went into remission and then she died of ovarian cancer . And that was 2 years ago, and so it has been a slow process. But it’s really hard to prepare for anything like that situation. I don’t think you can prepare for that.
10. What’s your favourite thing about teaching yoga?
My favourite thing about teaching yoga is sharing the path of self discovery. Seeing people discover yoga and fall in love with it … to share in that experience and see the joy it brings to people. That’s the biggest part that I’ve fallen in love with – seeing the impact it has on peoples lives, and seeing them develop their own practice and become teachers or whatever it is. It’s really wonderful to see that and be a part of it.
11. Three of the girls that work were I’m staying (Casa Iguana): Emma, Megan & Jackie have been regularly taking your classes (Studio and Private) and now Emma is enrolling in yoga teacher training. That must be really inspiring.
Well I mean they’re probably the big inspiration. I was just the facilitator in the process and they’re gonna take that in their own direction. And I’m just really excited for them. I’m just so happy to be a part of their practice.
I talked to Emma, and she’s thinking about yoga therapy. For her personality, that would be really good. And it’s been really fun to brainstorm with her and talk about these ideas. And to know that it’s gonna be so fun for her. It’s exciting to see people find their way in their yoga practice. And just to get to witness that, is very gratifying.
12. In your class, I noticed that like me, you’re fond of quotes. Do you have any favourites?
I have so many favourite quotes! I don’t even know which one! I really love this one by Iyengar:
“The rhythm of the body, The melody of the mind, and The harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.”
He has a lot of good ones. I like this simple one, I don’t even know who it’s by
“Let your practice be a celebration of life.”
That’s especially been applicable lately.
13. About her amazing rating on TripAdvisor:
It’s been really sweet. I feel like I never worried about what anybody really thought. I just really care about connecting with people. Not trying to manipulate the situation, in getting people to like my class. People are going to like it, or they’re not gonna like my class or whatever, it can fall anywhere on that spectrum but I think that if you take the time to connect with people, that makes all the difference. I really love people and I love what I do and I think that’s what really matters . It’s doing what you love, and loving what you do and that’s gonna come across. And if you lead with your heart in life, everything else just falls into place. So I think starting with the right intention and that intention being pure is really important for your own soul. You put that out there in the universe and then other people are going to to feel it, and you don’t even have to try really, you put that out there and that’s what it is.
I know that people think that yoga and massage is a luxury but I think if everyone did yoga and massage, this world would be such a better place.
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Hanging out with Sara has been such a treat. She’s so strong and inspiring. I feel like I could have talked to her forever! But that probably would have made this blog post far too long.
If you want to connect with Sara: here are some of her deets:
Also, if anyone ever comes across a yoga teacher named Sister Wendy who used to teach in Oregon. Please connect her to us, as Sara’s been searching for her.
Reminiscing over that time with my love on a deserted beach while I am back in the rainy Vancouver weather,
xoxo
Phyllis
Our sold out event was a success! Together we raised approximately $1,000 to support 
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RENO’S "PUT YO BACK INTO IT" WORKSHOP AT THE HILTON
Journey into yoga 
