Yancy Scot Schwartz took his first class in the Dominican Republic while on a skate tour. He initially loved yoga solely because it improved his skateboarding. In 2008, at the encouragement of the owner, Yancy attended the Yoga to the People 200 hour Teacher Certification. He was then sent out to open and build Yoga to the People in San Francisco in 2009. In 2011 he moved back to New York where he met Sri Dharma Mittra. He completed the 500 hour Life of a Yogi Teacher training in 2013. Later in the year he attended the 50 hour Rocket Certification at Asta Yoga in San Francisco.
Yancy’s personal practice includes meditation and pranayama 5 days a week. He also regularly attends classes at the studios he teaches at, or from renown teachers in the L.A. area.
Yancy hopes that through the yoga practices and techniques you will not be bound by the body or the mind.
“You are not your body, you are not your mind.” -Sri Dharma Mittra
Here are Yancy’s SHAIR Podcast interview highlights:
Omar: Yancy, tell us a little bit about what’s going on in your life today, your hobbies, exercise. Take us into your normal daily routine, including recovery.
Yancy: My normal routine ... I wake up, have a little bit of coffee ... A little bit, not too much. I look at social media, like a couple of things, get that little bit of coffee in me. I do a meditative practice for about thirty, forty five minutes, which involves breathing exercises, chanting, and all sitting in a - if you understand, if you're a yogi - lotus position, which ... It's pretty intense. Once you get used to it, it's pretty good.
After that, I go teach a class. I get on my little scooter, go by the beach, teach some yoga classes at the studios. In between classes, I'm either skating or messing around doing yoga on the beach. There's a skate park over there. I teach my last class and then I might take a class and then I bail and go back to Hollywood on the little scooter, go home, eat dinner. That's it. Simple.
Omar: It sounds very simple. Now, how do you maintain your recovery program? Do you have a recovery program? Do you hit meetings? I mean, how is that integrated into your life?
Yancy: I think my recovery is doing my meditations and my pranayama ... Man, I got hit hard when I was dabbling with stuff. Yeah, I stopped pretty cold, but there's always a little relapse here and there or not knowing, I suppose, what to do or how to do it. I was slow ... I got off hard drugs. I was still drinking here and there and so that took a little while. After I got the yoga ... Yoga is my recovery program. Just going to yoga. That's it.
Omar: Well, I'll tell you one thing is for sure, when you're doing thirty to forty five minutes of meditation in lotus position every day, that's pretty intense.
Yancy: Yeah. Now, it's pretty normal.
Omar: I was just thinking about being in lotus position. First of all, I can't get into lotus position and then, even sitting with my legs crossed for more than five minutes becomes so, so uncomfortable. My wife's a yoga instructor. I get to watch her bend and fold and she makes it look so effortless. I commend you ...
Yancy: Well, it took me three years of just sitting half lotus. Three years, man. Three years to sit in full lotus comfortable. Well, three years, so I've been sitting in lotus for three years to be very comfortable.
Omar: Well, that's a testament to dedication, to patience. It comes when it comes. You just keep plugging away and plugging away and moving forward. You stay vigilant until it finally happens. That's a lot of what my wife tells me, too. She's just like, "Look, it doesn't matter how far you get. You're going to get a little bit further every day and your body will tell you. It'll help you along." I should probably do a little bit more of it, but I don't. I watch her do it and I could see how much she loves it.
Omar: All right, so tell us when is your anniversary date and how long you have clean?
Yancy: I have clean ... Man, it's been so long.
Omar: Good. Awesome.
Yancy: It's been a long time. I would say ... What year was the Northridge ... Do you remember that earthquake?
Omar: That earthquake in Northridge? Dude. I mean, that's a long time.
Yancy: Yeah.
Omar: Man, maybe ... Is that over twenty years?
Yancy: At Northridge, I was out of my mind crazy. A little bit after Northridge maybe ... Whatever that time is. Probably, I'd say, nineteen years clean ... Well, there's some relapses. There was some drinking, but hard drugs? Clean. Nineteen years pretty Sobi-Wan Kenobi.
Omar: Well, it says here Northridge earthquake was in 1994.
Yancy: I'd say I was clean about '95. Before that ... I grew up skateboarding in New York City, so there was a lot of corruption and I got roped in. It was out of control.