Yogis Uncovered | Meet Hannah Jo
In this edition of Yogis Uncovered, we go behind the scenes with Hannah Jo and discuss how yoga has transformed her life, her passion for helping others, and her tips on how to stay consistent with yoga. Subscribe to watch her full interview!
“I really enjoy doing yoga in nature. And I do that basically every day. Being in grass preferably and being in sunshine. Clothes optional is a plus.”
My name is Hannah and I live in Santa Barbara, California.
Where are you from?
I’m from the San Francisco Bay Area, but I’ve been in Santa Barbara for seven years, so that’s [where] I claim.
What do you do for work?
I am an intimacy coach and I work with people individually and I also facilitate groups, mostly supporting people around their relationships, intimacy, and sexuality. I have a company called The Studio X and I work alongside my three best friends. We started this company in 2021. We have an in-person studio in Santa Barbara and we also work with people virtually worldwide.
How long have you been doing yoga?
I’ve been doing yoga since 2019, and just a few months after I discovered the practice, I went through my yoga teacher training that same year and started teaching yoga full-time when I was still a college student.
What are some changes you’ve noticed from practicing yoga?
Before I discovered yoga, I was in a really dark moment mentally. I was in college and really struggling academically and that caused me to feel a lot of depression and anxiety. I had no hope for my future basically, but at that time I was really trying to work on my mental health and I truly accidentally took a yoga class, which in my perspective wasn’t exactly by accident. It was really transformational for me just that first hour-long practice because the teacher gave me the perspective that I can shift my narrative. And so I shifted out of a very harsh narrative of negativity and into a more accepting and soft narrative and that radically changed my life from that moment forward. That influenced other habits in my life, including shifts in my diet. Consumption in general has totally changed for me and I stopped drinking alcohol. I stopped eating sugar. I stopped watching Netflix. My life really changed.
What’s your favorite food?
Right now my favorite foods to eat are always seasonal and local produce. At this time of year, there’s a lot of good squash and other yummy foods that I like to make curry with. I’m really into Thai-inspired cuisine and also Ayurvedic-inspired foods. So I make a lot of lentils and things that are warming and spicy. I really like ginger and I like anything spicy like jalapenos, hot sauce, that sort of thing.
What’s it like to live in your shoes day to day?
In my practice, I’m really community-oriented and I really value friendship and intimate friendship at that. [Friendship] that’s very heart-centered and connective. So I’m fortunate to live with some close friends and we spend a lot of time together. We don’t have a TV. We don’t have a microwave. We don’t have any clocks in the house. We just have a lot of fuzzy rugs and pillows and we enjoy rolling around and stretching and giving each other bodywork and really just playing like kittens and being our playful childlike selves.
What’s your favorite yoga pose?
I feel like my favorite yoga pose is going to be a heart opening shape, so I really like to do camel, I like to do a full wheel or even a floor boat pose. Anything where the shoulders are being pulled back and the clavicles being opened up feels really good in my body.
What’s your ideal environment for yoga?
Ideally outside in the sunshine with my clothes off. So we’re checking all those boxes today, but I really enjoy doing yoga in nature. And I do that basically every day. Being in grass preferably and being in sunshine. Clothes optional is a plus.
If your life was a book what would this chapter be called?
This chapter of my book, I think, would be called ‘What is Womanhood?’. Because that’s a question that I’m revisiting every day, and that I also don’t have the answer to. But I just recently turned 25, and ever since my birthday in September, my world has been really filtered through this idea of growing up. And I don’t feel like I’m … fearful of that. But I feel like I’m growing up into my co-creatorship and into my responsibility for what I do want to create. And as a woman, I have amazing creative potential. I think it’s important to hone that and be truthful about that. So I don’t slip into any victim consciousness that causes me to forget my power. So I feel like ‘what is womanhood?’ is not only the question of the day, but the chapter of this moment.
What helps you stay consistent with yoga?
I have two approaches to making yoga and mindfulness a daily routine. The first is a more masculine energy approach, and that’s putting it in your calendar quite literally, like Google Calendar, whatever you use, even setting reminders and notifications and showing up to that meeting with the same punctuality and respect that you would show up for work, treated with that same timeliness and that same honor. Additionally to that, seeing where there’s self judgment, when we fall off and working with that energy as a part of your meditation. So again, coming back to the heart where you can find self compassion and using the breath to release the self judgments and the negativity that we position towards ourselves when we feel like we’ve descended or gone back in time.
How can potential clients contact you?
If you’re interested in learning more about myself or what I offer professionally, you can visit my website. It’s thestudiox.com or my personal Instagram is @SomaticSexCoach.
*this interview has been edited for brevity and clarity