Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathania Stambouli.
Nathania, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
In 2015, I started a yoga teacher training just as a way to deepen my own practice. The universe had been nudging me in that direction (teachers all of a sudden didn’t show up for class and I impromptu-taught a couple of classes without any idea what I was doing), so I listened and went for it. From that moment on, my entire life changed. I left a toxic relationship, quit a job I had been in for ten years that provided me tons of stability and a great paycheck (and ate my soul), to teach yoga around Los Angeles for $30 a class. It was a hustle unlike any I had known before and I was on CLOUD NINE! They say when you love what you do, money doesn’t matter – and I found that to be true! About six months in, I started asking “what’s next.” While I loved teaching yoga, I needed/wanted to use my skills for something bigger, and the opportunity to take over a yoga studio showed up in my lap (again, universe!). I became a yoga studio owner in August of 2016 (which is now SoulPlay Yoga in Culver City) and very shortly thereafter, led my first yoga retreat.
Before Covid hit, I was running 4-6 retreats a year with my life partner and running an awesome neighborhood studio – life was grand! When we had to shut down in March, we took everything online and our community was extremely supportive which I’m so grateful for. In August of this year, we began hosting outdoor classes in a cute space we rented, and I created Yogi Flight School – an arm balance and inversion program dedicated to teaching people to stand on their hands and make ninja shapes with their body. Throughout my last five years of the yoga life, I discovered that my deepest passion is taking people from “I don’t think I can” to “Holy cow I can’t believe I did that!” We tend to stand in our own way, bogged down by stories and limiting beliefs about what we can and cannot do, and Yogi Flight School is also a mindset program that busts through those stories so you can learn to stand on your hands AND create a life worth living.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course, it hasn’t been a smooth road! Starting, owning and running any kind of business has its challenges. From tons of yoga studios opening just a block away from ours, to running retreats in places where a volcano had just erupted or a massive earthquake had just taken place, to running a yoga studio during a pandemic – it never gets boring!
I always say that every time you think you’re cruising, something will come up to test your resilience and your commitment. And what a great thing that is! We get to keep reinventing ourselves, shifting who we need to be moment to moment to keep things running and overcome challenges. I consider that every obstacle in my way is a new opportunity to be resourceful, creative and to really see what I’m made of.
Yogi Flight School – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
As SoulPlay Yoga, we are known for being a highly inclusive, non-pretentious, welcoming and bright neighborhood studio. We are as diverse as Los Angeles, welcoming people of all ages walks of life, sexual identifications and orientations and we celebrate everyone’s uniqueness in a way that I have rarely felt at yoga studios in LA. We maintain the same spirit at our current outdoor space as well. What I’m most proud of there is the open-heartedness of our community and the fact that everyone who walks through the door is amazed that we remember their name and that they feel at home immediately. To me, that’s what a yoga environment should be.
At SoulTribe Adventures, my retreat company, we are known for a multifaceted experience – the spirituality and introspection of yoga, the expansion and motivation of transformational workshops, the high energy of our HIIT workouts each day and the best part — the adventurousness of the excursions and activities we curate. We’re all about taking people out of their comfort zones to experience a part of themselves they hadn’t experienced up until they join us. People come home transformed in some way, with a new family to lean on.
At Yogi Flight School, we specialize in teaching arm balances and inversions. We are known for our unique approach to teaching these postures in an immersion-style program that takes people from “I can’t” to “I DID IT!” There aren’t a lot of programs out there that break down these poses in such a specific way, providing both online modules and live zoom classes to people who want to learn from all over the world.
I am personally known for my authenticity. I’ve often been called a non-yogi yogi — not because I don’t walk my talk (I certainly do!) but because I like to curse, drink iced coffee while I teach and I don’t promise to deliver the most spiritual experience. I do however, promise to lead people from being committed to their limitations, into being committed to their possibilities. What the life I’ve cultivated over the last five years has taught me is that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE when you trust yourself, have the courage to take risks, lean into the scary moments and believe that you can do anything you set your mind to. We live in a world of infinite possibilities and there is NO reason why one person can create the life they love and another person cannot.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career so far was probably the first retreat I led. I had booked a resort for 12 people back in 2016 and thought I was going to have a rough time finding students to go with me. I was a brand new teacher, I made my little flyers and off I went talking it up in every class I taught throughout LA. A friend of mine sent me a link one day to a website where a journalist was looking to write an article about affordable yoga retreats (which mine was). I took this as a sign from the universe (again!) and pitched my retreat to the journalist.
A week later, I was featured on the front page of one of the biggest yoga websites in the country, and my retreat sold out within weeks. Not just with the initial 12 people I had booked for, but with 36 (THIRTY-SIX!!!) amazing humans from the US and Canada. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that would be possible. It was the most incredible week of my life – I was totally in my element – free from the shackles of my office job and actually making a living traveling and teaching people yoga in paradise. That first night we sat around the infinity pool watching the sunset, going around the circle introducing ourselves and I just burst into tears as I thanked everyone for showing up, trusting me and co-creating that experience. My heart was fuller than I could imagine – I was home.
The next proudest moment was recently when I launched Yogi Flight School and had over 500 yogis from all over the world practicing arm balances and inversions with me and sharing their progress in our Facebook group. I couldn’t believe I had created that. And then I remembered…..ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE when you follow your heart and have the courage to go into the unknown.
Pricing:
- 2 weeks of unlimited classes at SoulPlay Yoga’s outdoor studio $49
- FREE Training available at www.yogiflightschool.com
- Retreats start at $1,500 per person (international postponed because of Covid), $740 for local Palm Springs Retreats.
Contact Info:
- Address: 9711 Washington Blv, Culver City CA
- Website: www.soulplay.yoga, www.yogiflightschool.com, www.soultribeadventures.com
- Phone: 323-556-4413
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @nattasticyoga
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