There is a sense of stillness and relaxation that fills the air of the Hunnyfly Yoga Studio. Curtains hang just outside the studio area separating it from the sunlit reception area. Earth-toned walls meet light wood flooring in the studio area, where yoga practitioners release tensions and refocus their minds on the moment. The atmosphere strikes a balance between being bright and almost cheery, and soothing and meditative.
It’s here where studio owner Martena Wilson helps Lompoc residents forget the stress of the day by guiding them through a series of yoga poses and breathing exercises. But Wilson’s involvement with yoga predates her current studio. In fact, Wilson has been practicing yoga since childhood.
Before she opened Hunnyfly Yoga in Lompoc to offer yoga classes and teacher training trips to India, yoga played a big role in Wilson’s life. Wilson began practicing yoga with her parents when she was 9 years old, but determining yoga wasn’t cool—and neither were her parents—she stopped practicing. Then, during her teenage years, she began practicing again and that endured through her early 20s when her life began to fall apart.
Yoga became an integral part of her life once again in 1996 after she struggled through addiction and homelessness on the streets of San Francisco. Turning her life around, she got back into Ashtanga yoga and went back to school.
In 2001 she started her own yoga studios, training programs, eventually founding and co-founding several yoga studies in the United States and abroad.
Wilson, who is now a Lompoc resident, opened Hunnyfly Yoga at the corner of H Street and Walnut Avenue this summer. She said that yoga has a lot to offer for both the mind and body.
“The benefits are huge for people, to keep people’s minds centered so they can function,” Wilson said about practicing yoga.
Her studio offers a variety of beginner yoga classes, like vinyasa, Ashtanga, acro yoga, and AIReal yoga.
One of the styles that sets Hunnyfly Yoga apart is the AIReal yoga, an alternative to floor work that is gentle on the joints and even easy for beginners to master. Popular in larger cities, AIReal yoga incorporates the use of slings to elevate the practitioner while holding yoga positions.
Wilson said she studied under Carmen Curtis of the AiRealistic theater company, who created a show for Cirque du Soleil and founded AIReal Yoga. The elevation helps to alleviate back pain in much the same way that an inversion does, but practitioners often report that it also has positive effects on sleep, metabolism, thyroid function, circulation, and anxiety.
“Just driving, you put pressure on the hips, and the backs of the knees and heels. And when you go upside down, being upside down and putting pressure on the armpits—like when we do some of those poses—putting pressure on the glandular system and the hips, it sort of floods the system and cleanses it out and gets the blood flowing,” Wilson said.
Wilson said that while many people initially think AIReal yoga would be more difficult than traditional floor work, she said in many cases it’s easier because it alleviates much of the pressure.
Despite the benefits, Wilson said the AIReal classes make up a small portion of what she offers. The majority of the classes at Hunnyfly involve traditional yoga practice.
Mark Belrose is now a regular at Hunnyfly Yoga, but he’s been practicing yoga and meditation since January. He said that not only is he more relaxed, but his body experiences an indescribable sense of calm.
“I’m a lifetime cyclist so I’m trying to counteract all the damage I’ve done. I’m making good progress,” he said.
The most unique aspect of Hunnyfly Yoga, and a major focus of the studio, is the India tours. Wilson takes people overseas and trains them to teach yoga. There they get to spend time exploring and learning in the place where yoga originated. When they come back they are able to teach at Hunnyfly or somewhere else in the community. With tours coming up in October and March, she said now is the time for yoga practitioners to sign up to experience it, where it all began.
“If you’re going to teach yoga and practice yoga, then you should go,” she said.
Editor Shelly Cone can be reached at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 17-24, 2015.
