Your Guide: Patricia Guillén

My journey from Bluejacket to Yogini

After 10 years of service in the US Navy, I separated to pursue a degree in accounting and inadvertently discovered the mental and emotional benefits of yoga, as well as the physical and physiological benefits of massage therapy.

Six years into my enlistment I discovered yoga and when I separated from the military, it became essential to my healing and transition into the “civilian world”.

In the spirit of wanting fellow veterans to experience yoga’s benefits for themselves and through the encouragement of Expedition Balance, I completed yoga teacher training. Eventually, I shifted career tracks and dove wholeheartedly into the “new” and unconventional profession of yoga therapy.

In 2016, a year into my yoga therapy grad school program, I became my mother’s primary caregiver when she began showing signs of dementia.

I grew up receiving massages by my tia (aunt) Calixta and my intuition let me know that that was what mom needed [to calm her nerves and anxiety]. During massage therapy training, I discovered a new calling and a re-connection to my ancestry and roots.

At my core I am dedicated to continuous personal and professional growth, being of service to others and collaboration over competition. I acknowledge that I cannot give what I do not have, and therefore I practice mindfulness, self-compassion, self-care and self-love, as a lifestyle and way of being.