'It strengthens you as a person': SOMOS Yoga studio helps with body, mind and spirit

As students lie in a corpse pose on a yoga mat, calming music is played at a low volume while lights are dim in a repurposed garage.

Mari Gonzalez, a yoga instructor, tells yogis to take deep breaths and let their bodies "melt" into the floor at a class aimed to help back and hip pain. Normally, yoga sessions are hot, with heaters warming the room to about 95 degrees.

"Find your breath," Gonzalez said in a soothing voice. "For the next hour, you are free from your troubles. Free from your worries. For the next hour, focus on you and healing your soul."

Gonzalez and her fiancé, Ryan "Ry" Adames, opened SOMOS Yoga in March 2021 on Ayers Street behind Hester's Café. She said the goal for their studio is to bring awareness to yoga and the healing properties it brings people.

"A lot of people come here to get into their physical practice to lose weight or get where they want to be," Gonzalez said. "When they arrive, so many of them find so much more."

"Aside from the physical practice, everything you gain internally is beneficial," Adames said. "From anxiety to back pain, natural healing helps. It's rewarding to see someone come in and find relief they couldn't find elsewhere."

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SOMOS is the only hot yoga studio in Corpus Christi. Hot yoga is a form of the practice performed under hot and humid conditions, resulting in considerable sweating. Gonzalez said 95% of the classes at her studio are hot yoga.

"Hot yoga is very therapeutic for the body," Gonzalez said. "Hot yoga allows the muscles to lengthen. There's something about having the lights dim, the heat on you and sweating. It allows you to release that trauma."

Claire Vinot, a yoga instructor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said there is a connection between people's emotions and their mind. At 74, she has been practicing yoga for 50 years.

"Yoga helps clear the mind from emotions and allows people to get in touch with their physical body," Vinot said. "The mind creates emotions and emotions create thoughts. When the mind is clear, emotions are nonexistent and your body and mind become one."

Danielle Wendel, a teacher at the studio, said she first got into yoga after suffering from postpartum depression seven years ago.

Wendel said her husband heard yoga helped with mental health and suggested she  visit a studio. While living in Canada, she said they went to a class and she immediately felt relief.

"When I was done, it was a feeling I hadn't felt before and it was the first step to healing a depression I had been in for years," Wendel said.

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Along with Gonzalez, Adames and Wendel, SOMOS Yoga has nine other instructors. Gonzalez said they come from various parts of the world including Corpus Christi, Russia, Mexico and Hawaii.

Kaeli Hernandez, an instructor born in Honolulu, said she turned to yoga after having chronic lower back pain. She started to do poses from a YouTube video, and her pain went away after a week. But the spiritual aspect of yoga made her stick to the practice.

"It helps you create space in your body through postures and breath work and helps you recover from physical and emotional trauma," she said. "It strengthens you as a person."

Vinot said it is common for people to turn to yoga to control their emotions after facing traumatic events.

What brought Gonzalez to yoga was the ending of a 15-year marriage. After her divorce, Gonzalez said she threw herself into Brazilian jiujitsu and boxing. From there, her body needed healing, and that's where yoga came into her life.

"Within the first three months of taking classes, I knew I needed and wanted more," Gonzalez said.

Student Melanie Barrera said she has been going to SOMOS Yoga since it opened.

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Barrera said prior coming to SOMOS, she had never practiced yoga. She said she saw banners of the studio and women stretching that caught her interest.

"I was about 100 pounds heavier and figured I could stretch," Barrera said. "I learned it's not easy stretching; it kicks your ass. But even if you have no athletic ability, it's accessible to everyone and challenging for everyone."

Gonzalez and Adames said they plan on opening a second studio on Corpus Christi's Southside soon. They plan on incorporating other practices of yoga including acrobatic yoga, light therapy yoga and PEMF.

Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy uses technology to stimulate and exercise cells to help resolve cellular dysfunction and support overall wellness. Gonzalez said the closest studio that offers that program is in Dripping Springs. 

Gonzalez said if people don't have flexibility, they should try a yoga class.

At the end of every class, Gonzalez said she leaves her students with hope.

"I tell them at any given moment of any hour of any day, you can start over," Gonzalez said. "You can let something go and create your new life. We are not defined by our past. Yoga helps us in ways you couldn't think of."

SOMOS Yoga

ADDRESS: 1001 Ayers St.

COST: $18-$128

WEBSITE: somos.yoga

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John Oliva covers entertainment and community news in South Texas. Contact him at john.oliva@caller.com or Twitter @johnpoliva. Consider supporting local journalism with a subscription to the Caller-Times.