Chris Pena started his yoga and meditation in 2015. He fractured two bones in his lower back at work, instantly changing what he did on a daily basis.

“Through that I lost my daily lifestyle,” Pena said.

Throughout the following year, Pena started to discover spirituality, meditation, and yoga. After returning to his routine after a knee surgery, Pena was invited to practice yoga at MetroWest Yoga.

“I went and practiced,” Pena said. “I began to feel how it was helping to heal my newly recovered knee as well as a back that was broken…I could see how through mindful awareness, mindful breathing, and meditation you can be in chronic pain but you can work to understand what you are actually able to do.”

Pena said he used to be stuck in a mentality that he was not able to do anything that he used to prior to his injuries. He is still unable to do many of the things that he once enjoyed, but he understands that now through his practice.

“I have reclaimed much of my life physically,” Pena said. “I can do other things that I was not able to do before.”

Now, Pena teaches his own hour-long yoga practice at Artifakt Supply, at 1132 Pleasant Street in Worcester, on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. for $15 per person.

“My goal has been to make it accessible to everyone because I understand that there is a barrier to entry,” Pena said. “I just want to show up. You show up for yourself and the rest will happen.”

Pena begins his classes by asking people what they would like to get out of the practice, if there’s any areas they would like to focus on that day, and if there are any body parts bothering them that he should be conscious of.

He then burns incense throughout the space and reminds people that it is their practice and that they can move at their own pace. Pena calls himself a guide to people’s yoga and meditation journeys, offering tips and options for his students throughout the class as he also reminds them to connect with their breath and their bodies on the mat.

“I’m hoping that the general person can take from this that they can choose what is right for themselves,” Pena said. “Showing up to a class is enough. Even if you just lay down and don’t do any of the movements, showing up is enough.”

Pena called the idea “regaining sovereignty,” and encourages people to recognize their own choices throughout their yoga practice.

“A connection to our breath and our body can bring us to an awareness of the moment,” Pena said, adding that he wants people to be present throughout their whole practice, let that be a yoga session, cacao ceremony, meditation, or ecstatic dance.

Prior to the pandemic, Pena was teaching a weekly wellness class in Boston. He shifted to holding conversations and meditation sessions online from the onset of Covid-19 to about April 2021.

“The pandemic has allowed me to slow down and look at what’s happening in front of me,” Pena said. “There’s so much information and there’s so much divisive language. When (the pandemic) first began, I didn’t know what was mine versus the news saying or what my friends were saying.”

To Pena, yoga and meditation allowed him to pause and think of what he himself believed in rather than being “lost in the digital.” While a lot of the world was going online, Pena said he was able to connect with the Earth.

Even now, with Pena’s in person practices, he connects people to the world around them through not only sound and smells, like incense, but also through reminding them to recognize what it feels like for their bodies to touch the mat or for them to have energy flow through themselves.

To learn more about Pena and his practice offerings, visit his Instagram page at _chirstopherpena.

Your Content Goes Here