Maya Fiennes: “I love being called a joy guru”
International yoga teacher Maya Fiennes tells our editor Rosalind how she’s used Kundalini to spread positivity throughout the world
“How can you free your mind if you have loads of these books to read and boxes to tick?” was one of Maya’s first questions for me during our Zoom call. It’s a good question, and one we would explore in detail in our hour-long chat (5pm for me, 9am for her in LA). “I give that positive outlook to people in their fifties. They often say, ‘oh my god, if she can look like this, we can look like that.’ I like to always uplift people and give them that idea that anybody can, you just have to look after yourself with breathing and yoga. That’s what yoga does. So I’m a good representative of that.” I certainly agree, which was why I couldn’t think of a better cover girl for the first ever yoga issue of Soul & Spirit.
In this two-year expansion period during the last two years of the pandemic, Maya tells me her business doubled, with more people than ever signing up to remote virtual teacher training. “The fact that we had actual breathing time to actually stop gave us that new expansion. All the structures and systems are becoming different, and people are breaking out of their boxes. Unfortunately, we had to be forced into this due to the virus, but our consciousness has expanded in ways that we never expected. So I see a very positive future ahead.
The breadth of her knowledge is so expansive I can already feel energy coming through the Zoom screen from 5,000 miles away. “I actually teach Qigong and standing meditation, slow movement, with the hands completely slowing down your body, slowing down your mind, slowing down your emotions, like the whole thing. Qigong has been a very big component for me, as well as Tai Chi. So I’m always expanding in my education. When I was in Beijing and teaching, I also wanted to be taught by the best Qigong Master, Master XU [pronounced ‘Choo’]. I love sharing knowledge, anything I learn, I share pretty much immediately.”