Portrait of Cécile Arquey, nomadic and feminist yoga teacher
After teaching scuba divers and freedivers in Asia and Oceania, Cécile Arquey specialized in Yoga for women's mental strength. If you want to meet her, she currently gives private "Yogirl Power" sessions in Bordeaux. Her next destination? The Azores where she wants to create her wellness center.
It was only natural that I asked him a few personal questions about his yoga practice, which I am sharing with you today.
How did you get into taking care of yourself?
Out of curiosity! I liked the world of Yoga and I wanted to discover all its facets. I suspected that it was not simply a series of postures.
I started by researching on my own and downloaded a meditation app. After a month of daily meditation, my partner said to me in a very serious tone: “Cécile, I ask you not to stop meditating. You are much more serene. Above all, don’t stop.”
I then followed an initial training course as a Yoga teacher… just out of curiosity!
What practice for your well-being?
Several! Breathing to calm me down, meditation to clarify my ideas and postures to relieve my back. Yin, Vinyasa or Power Yoga, I adapt the style according to my feminine cycle.
In addition to Yoga, any immersion in salt water does me a world of good! I find a lot of common points between Yoga, freediving and surfing.
What is the ritual of your practice?
I roll out my mat in the morning next to my husband's and end my session with a moment of gratitude.
What do you get out of it?
Practicing as a pair helps you not to lose motivation.
As for gratitude, it brings happiness by focusing on positive things.
What do you carry in your yoga bag?
If it's me, student: my water bottle and my mat.
If I am the teacher: my water bottle, mats, blocks, a small speaker with an MP3 player and my e-reader where I import the lessons I am preparing.
What is your favorite object/accessory?
My orange Manduka Prolite yoga mat ! It has witnessed the most beautiful classes I have ever attended; I think back to Randi Sesse Kjær's creative class, Mathieu Bayol's chants, Sacha Heath's moving voice, meditations with Burkhard Langemann and Kirsten Reiss.
This orange mat has supported me when I was teaching under the scorching sun on the beach in Thailand or in the rain and mud in the Philippines… It is indestructible!
What would be your advice for Tayrona Yoginis?
Meditate every day! Regular meditation practice will bring much more into your life than the most impressive yoga postures.
Where/how do you practice?
Most often indoors and occasionally at the beach directly on the sand to get away from my mat for a bit.
I like to teach in super stretchy jeans or shorts to show that leggings don't make us better yogis. And I wear tank tops that reveal my hairy armpits, to remind people that every woman is free to decide what her body is.
What is your mantra/ favourite phrase?
I end my lessons by saying: “May all beings be free and happy.”
We start doing Yoga for ourselves and little by little we realize that we are doing it for all living beings.
Thanks to the Tayrona team for giving me this space to express myself on the blog.
Website: www.yogirlpower.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cecile.arquey.yogirlpower/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cecile.arquey/
