While at uOttawa, Yana volunteered with the Calgary Legal Guidance, Women's Legal Mentorship Program and Environmental Law Students Society. As a student, she participated in the Nelligan O'Brien Payne Moot Court Competition and a Twitter Moot.
She started her career in personal injury and insurance defence litigation and after a devastating health diagnosis in 2015 she took some time off to heal herself with yoga and meditation in the jungles of Thailand, Panama and Peru where she completed her Yoga Teacher Training.
Since 2016, Yana has worked as a forensic investigator in e-discovery at Deloitte and has been teaching yoga online and all over the world: in Costa Rica, Thailand, Nicaragua, Germany and Russia.
Why did you turn to yoga and what does yoga offer you personally?
At the end of 2015, I had been working in personal injury litigation for three years and I was miserable. I was burnt out and I had a persistent feeling that this is not the work I am on this planet to do. Even though helping my clients was very fulfilling – I felt empty a lot. I was also in an emotionally abuse relationship and around the end of 2015 I was diagnosed with cervical dysplasia which progressed from low grade to high grade between August and December.
I started going to yoga in 2014 and that one hour a week of being on my mat was my only solace from the pain that was my life. I was in constant perpetual stress cycle. I was operating from a place of fear, working out seven days a week (going too hard and too fast non-stop), running mostly on coffee and anxiety.
I felt hopeless and helpless and that I couldn’t quit what I started because I had invested so much time and effort into getting here. I am an immigrant – so I also felt that my parents had sacrificed their entire lives to get me to Canada and so I felt the pressure to “succeed” at any cost.
In December 2015 I learned that my work contract would not be renewed. That was the biggest blessing. After sitting with the news, I decided to go to a tiny island in Thailand on a one-way ticket. I knew I didn’t want to do litigation again, but I also had no clue what else I would be doing. The only thing I had at the time was a curiosity around the yoga practice. I was mystified and perplexed why after an hour of yoga I felt so relaxed and at peace.
I decided to follow that curiosity and stayed in Thailand for six months to study yoga and meditation. The practice has offered me a safe space to deeply relax and let go of everything I was carrying: an overactive mind and an anxious body. I learned how to be deeply present with other humans. I developed trust in life. I developed trust in myself.
What does yoga offer lawyers, specifically?
Yoga, of course, offers physical flexibility. Anything that is stiff breaks under pressure. But things that are built to withstand pressure are built to have flexibility and sway to them. The CN Tower has sway. If it was completely stiff - it would break under the pressure of strong winds.
If our bodies are stiff and inflexible it reflects the stiffness and lack of flexibility of the tissues inside the body (think hardened arteries and other blood vessels, stiff joints that tear). Once you start building flexibility in the connective tissues your entire body becomes more resilient to stressors from the outside world. When you add pressure to a flexible body – the tissues don’t break – they elongate and contract and withstand the pressure.
Yoga offers not just physical flexibility but most importantly, cognitive and emotional flexibility. We learn to see the world exactly as it is rather than from our perspective which is usually skewed by our past experiences and traumas. It allows us the space and capacity to see that others’ differing opinions are not a threat to us, that someone else can have a completely different perception of the world than we do, and we can still stay at peace when we are confronted with that. It allows us to build tolerance towards other people who we don’t share much in common with.
When you evolve - your surroundings can’t help but evolve as well. This includes your clients. Once you begin the path of self-discovery through yoga – your life will improve in unpredictable ways, including attracting better clients who are aligned with your values.
These days Yana is teaching yoga in Toronto and online and has been hosting private international retreats in South America. Yana helps lawyers live an extraordinary, peaceful life through yoga – free of anxiety and stress.
She also teaches private yoga classes and offers healing spiritual ceremonies at her home studio. She holds space for cacao ceremonies, a spiritual ritual that involves drinking ceremonial-grade cacao drink in a group setting to facilitate connection, healing, and self-exploration, originating from ancient Mayan and Aztec traditions, and ecstatic dance as a DJ and a guide.