Bringing traditional yoga to modern practitioners.
The story of Andrea : BodaiYoga
“I’m already a teacher, but I’d like to expand / re-learn. Is it allowed to re-do a training?” is a question we occasionally get.
Learning never stops, and refreshing and increasing knowledge is always a great idea!
In this blog we put the spotlight on Andrea Fischer, who was already running a successful yoga studio in Mexico City when she joined Arhanta, seeking a deeper understanding of yoga beyond the physical practice.
Training in a traditional ashram setting strengthened her knowledge of alignment, classical yoga philosophy, and structured teaching methodology.
She returned to her studio with greater clarity and confidence, bringing a more informed and holistic approach to her teaching. Today, her studio is a trusted space for authentic yoga education, with teacher training programs attracting students eager to explore yoga beyond asana.
Read her full story below:
We asked Andrea a few questions, which she answered in detail:
Where were you before Arhanta?
Even though I have practiced yoga for over 13 years now, before Arhanta, I never would have imagined myself living in an ashram. It simply hadn’t crossed my mind.
Immersed in the publishing industry for over a decade, as I had been since a young age, my career has always been one of writing, publishing, and science communication. Pursuing this path, I earned a degree in Communication from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where I also specialized in journalism. While still a student, a professor invited me to work at Editorial Televisa, where I had the great honor of leading world-class publications such as National Geographic en Español and Muy Interesante México.
The pandemic hit, and despite the health and professional obstacles it brought, I never abandoned my practice. I think it’s been the only constant in my life: first, through physical practice (as is often the case in the West), and as the pandemic progressed, I decided I wanted something more.
That’s how, after many years of working in publishing, I decided to dedicate part of my savings to opening a yoga studio. So yes, I took a quantum leap: I wasn’t a teacher at that time, but I was very clear that I wanted something of my own, where I could share everything I had learned over the years.
When I started recruiting teachers, I realized that the practice in the West was very different from what I knew in my lifelong school. I had studied (not formally, but by integrating it into my own body) in the Iyengar tradition, which is very focused on alignment and body awareness.
Besides, I had always done yoga with a group of lovely elderly women. I had never heard of Ashtanga, Rocket, or these more physically demanding asana styles. On the contrary, when I came across them, my first reaction was to think that this definitely wasn’t yoga.
I soon had to adapt, because people my age were looking for that physical challenge. But even so, I didn’t abandon the essence of what I had learned at Yoga Espacio, my school for over eight years. We started offering restorative yoga classes, and to my surprise, the classes began to fill up with people my age who, due to the sedentary lifestyle demanded by long home office hours, simply needed a space to unwind. And all of this happened in less than a year after opening! Mind you, this was around 2022, when the strict COVID regulations were just starting to loosen up in Mexico.
After a year of entrepreneurship, I decided it was time for me to start teaching. However, I did not want to buy the standard course offered in Mexico City. I felt the urge to learn from teachers with true yogic heritage —someone who had actually studied scripture and had in-depth knowledge of philosophy and alignment. That’s how I found Arhanta.
What challenges or goals did you have?
Okay, this is something that few people in my life know. My father had a pseudo-monastic lifestyle during his twenties.
For over ten years, he dedicated himself to the study of spiritual life at the Kailash Ashram in Mexico City, located on Zamora Street in the iconic Roma neighborhood. Although it was a Buddhist ashram, my father studied in the Siddha Yoga tradition, focusing primarily on meditation and scripture study. Mind you, in 70s-Mexico, that was alien and possibly idolatry-related to the strictly Catholic population. Then he met my mother, who was a very orthodox Catholic, and had to follow Catholic rites to marry her. From then on, he drifted far from spiritual practice.
Years later, when I expressed interest in practicing yoga, he couldn’t help but show some excitement. That happened when I was 15, and since then, I haven’t stopped practicing.
It was because of my father’s previous experience at an ashram that I wanted to venture out and forge my own path in meditative practice. When I saw Arhanta’s curriculum, I realized that I could combine the two things: the spiritual path with knowledge that I could apply in my own business, which was already gaining relevance in the yoga scene of Mexico City.
When I enrolled, I did not know exactly what the Jain tradition was. I didn’t know what the Ayurvedic diet was. Coming from Mexico, where our own diet is based on pork and beef, my body really struggled with the sudden change to a completely plant-based diet. I lost a lot of weight due to the physical demands of the asana classes, and I noticed significant biological changes in my body, which perhaps wasn’t prepared for such a drastic shift.
However, as the weeks went by, I realized that the controlled, simple, and predictable lifestyle gave me very little to occupy my mind. For the first time in my life, being from the convoluted Mexico City, I found space amidst my thoughts. Very soon, I couldn’t keep track if it was Tuesday or Saturday; it didn’t matter: we did the same thing every day, and that gave a rest to a mind accustomed to the perpetual state of alert that urban life requires.
Today, it’s the experience I’m most grateful for in my life. It broke me, yes, but it taught me the value of silence. And there’s nothing more precious than that.
What changed after your training? (be specific if possible)
My current approach to yoga is thanks to Arhanta, particularly Ram and Omkar, who taught me the foundations of everything I know today. I stopped practicing the Iyengar style, and my teaching is now heavily influenced by the Sivananda tradition.
Furthermore, my interest in understanding yoga through scripture has intensified. I’ve taken introductory courses on Indian religions at various universities, and I recently completed the “Hinduism Through Its Scriptures” course at Oxford University.
This path led me to pursue a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology. My research project focuses on how white feminisms are appropriating sacred figures from Hinduism, specifically the goddess Kalī, and attributing values to her that hardly align with her place in the more sectarian traditions of India. The proposal was so compelling that I received two scholarships: one from the Ministry of Science, Humanities, Technology and Innovation (SECIHTI) in Mexico and another from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, which will fully fund my studies.
Although these topics aren’t specifically covered in the course I took at Arhanta, Ram’s philosophy classes are undoubtedly the foundation of my curiosity to study the scriptures seriously.
On the business side, three years after completing my TTC, my yoga studio has opened two more locations. Today, we have three locations in the trendiest neighborhoods of Mexico City, where we offer courses, lectures on yoga in the West, and asana classes every day. I couldn’t be more grateful for the blessed life I have today.
What are you doing now? (teaching, business, lifestyle)
I teach every day at 7 a.m. in the morning, to a wonderful group of very diverse students. In my classes, we frequently have pregnant women, people with intellectual disabilities, and practitioners of all experience levels. It’s an honor to put into practice the fact that asana practice is indeed accessible to all body types and physical abilities, and that it can be adapted to all stages of life.
My studio is an official (and very proud) partner of Special Olympics Mexico, and offers scholarships to high-performance athletes with intellectual disabilities so they can practice yoga free of charge at any of our locations. Part of our mission is to promote truly accessible practice for everyone, ensuring that people with disabilities can fully integrate into the community.
I’m about to start my Master’s degree in August, so I’m both excited and terrified about that. I continue to publish and write both in English and Spanish, and wish to do so for the rest of my professional career. In the near future, I’m thinking of enrolling in Oxford Hindu Studies Center’s Advanced Hindu Studies course —but we’ll see, it all depends on my Master’s workload.
Any measurable results? (students, income, confidence, direction)
Few studio owners in Mexico City have had an ashram experience. While it’s true that several of them regularly travel to India for Yoga Teacher Training Courses (TTCs), the retreats seem more like resort vacations than immersive yogic learning experiences. I’ll never forget that on our first day of class, Ram told us, “You’re here to learn.” And learn I did!
Today, our approach to the physical practice and philosophy of yoga sets us apart from other well-known yoga studios in Mexico City. People know that, with us, they will learn yoga without the New Age veil that other places peddle. We don’t romanticize the practice or the teachers who have passed it down. On the contrary, we strive to provide an anatomical, biomechanical, historical, and above all, informed approach to what we consider the physical and spiritual practice of yoga, without denying the Western influence that permeates us.
Our Yoga Teacher Training Courses (TTCs) are also taking off for this reason: our students know we have a strong influence from teachers with generations of true yogic heritage. We’re receiving increasingly larger and more curious groups, fascinated by the practice beyond asana. I intend to continue along this path. To keep educating myself to meet the needs of my community and offer them the highest quality education I can.
My studio has already established itself as a benchmark in the yoga scene in Mexico City, and I feel an immense responsibility not only to maintain this position and continue growing, but also to cultivate my studies and offer serious courses of high quality and academic excellence.
Want to meet Andrea yourself?
You can find her at BodaiYoga here:
My studio’s website: https://my.fitune.io/bodaiyoga
My studio’s Instagram account: @bodaiyoga
My personal Instagram account: @andrea.fischer
My LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-fischer-2b098216b/
My publications in English: https://mexiconewsdaily.com/author/andrea-fischermexiconewsdaily-com/
