The Villages - June 2018 - 37

What came next surprised Suarez and her longtime
boss and colleagues. She sauntered into her hedge fund
office in Greenwich, Connecticut, and announced her
departure - after 13 years with the company.
"I said to my boss, 'I have to follow my heart. I have to
go be a yoga teacher,'" she said. "He threw up his arms
and said, 'Are you crazy? Do you really think you can
make a living at this?'" I said, 'I don't know. Maybe I'll
starve, but I have to do this.''"
When she stepped out of the corporate rat race and
onto the barrier reef island, Suarez felt weightless.
"I immediately felt at home," she said. "I'd used my
retirement fund to purchase a yoga studio on the island. I
didn't know anyone, so it was just me and the sea turtles.
But I threw down my yoga mat, and everything just
happened from there - people came and wanted to learn
from me. I was close to the nuclear submarine base. When
they called and asked me to teach, I realized the incredible
need for yoga. I started looking at statistics for PTSD -
something like 20 veterans a day commit suicide. I want
to help reduce that statistic, and one of the ways to do that
is to teach them to connect with the mind, the breath and
the body - to stay out of the dark corners of the mind."
A childhood victim of sexual assault, Suarez is
especially empathetic to her audience.
"I know how easy it is to let bad memories affect you,"
she said. "If I'm not careful, my own traumatic events
come to the forefront of my mind. I know people are
dealing with worse than that."
Suarez described one veteran's plight.
"He was blown up in his Humvee," she said. "He was
grateful to be alive, but his legs were back in the Humvee.
He contemplated suicide many times, but somehow he got
involved with yoga and now he is a teacher, famous in the
yoga world."
That's what happens when you bring your trauma
to the mat, Suarez said. And yoga is as much an inward
journey as it is an external practice.

In Sanskrit, the word yoga is defined as "union" or
"connecting." Yoking the breath with the body, mind
and spirit, practitioners learn grounding techniques
and find pathways to be fully present in the moment. For
enthusiasts like Suarez, it is more than a set of postures
in which to contort your body. Yoga is a way of life and a
means to find your equilibrium.
"Yoga makes you face your trauma, but it gives you
the tools to deal with it," she said. "I taught a man who
was traumatized in Iraq; he would panic in class, keeping
his eyes on the doors to see who was coming or going.
As a yoga teacher, you have to be aware of what's going
on. This guy stood up, started to leave. He said, 'I can't
breathe.' We gathered around him. I put my hands on his
back so he could feel the warmth. I said, 'Breathe into my
hand; take deep breaths until you push my hand away.' If
you've taken your training properly, you know how to deal
and heal. It's OK to have a great class, but if you can't help
someone - what are you doing?"

" I t wa s l I f e c h a n g I n g , h e a l I n g , " s h e s a I d . " I r e g a I n e d m y
full range of motIon, tossed out my neck brace and got
r I d o f m y m e d I c at I o n s . I s a I d , ' I d o n ' t k n o w w h at t h I s I s ,
b u t I wa n t t o l e a r n I t a n d t e a c h I t t o t h e w o r l d . ' "
- Gianna Ragona Suarez

MAGAZINE

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Villages - June 2018

Contents
The Villages - June 2018 - Cover1
The Villages - June 2018 - Contents
The Villages - June 2018 - 1
The Villages - June 2018 - 2
The Villages - June 2018 - 3
The Villages - June 2018 - 4
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