Today we’d like to introduce you to Chey Horner
Hi Chey, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Cheyenne, but you can call me Chey. It’s like “Shea Butter” I am 30 years old and I’m a yoga instructor here in San Antonio, Texas. My yoga journey started in 2017. Back then I was a working two part time jobs and going to the gym any chance I got. Any chance I got translates to 6 days a week minimum. I was very active and very busy. When my back suddenly went out for unknown reasons, I ended up staying on my sisters couch for two weeks. For the month that followed I met with medical doctors, chiropractors, and massage therapists. I found no answers for how or why my back went out but I did find yoga. All I knew about yoga back then was that I could get a “good stretch”, gain my mobility back, and then make it back to the gym again.
I gained my mobility but I never made it back to the gym. I fell in love with the practice of yoga. Not only did yoga kick my a** , but it also blew my mind wide open. I think at the time I was surprised by how strong and powerful I felt physically in my body but beyond that, I had found a way to navigate through and manage my mental health. At that point in my life I lived with acute anxiety and depression. I suffered from night terrors constantly, drank alcohol everyday, and I think my busy life style was just a coping mechanism. If I stayed busy in my body, working or working out, I didn’t really have to listen to what was going on inside my head.
When yoga came into my life that was the beginning of balance. I was able to find moments where I could slow down in a space where I felt safe. Safe enough to be still and silent. In the yoga studio, I felt at home and at peace.
I had been practicing maybe two or three months, when my favorite instructor approached me and encouraged me to get my Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) certification. She told me she had observed my dedication to the practice and thought I would make a great instructor. My plan at that point had been to get certified that spring of 2017, but life had other plans.
It wasn’t until the winter of 2020 I was a certified yoga instructor with a burning passion for this practice. I love(d) yoga so much and I wanted to share the practice with anyone I could but more then that I wanted to bring yoga to my community.
My emos, misfits, metal heads, nerds, and anyone who had ever felt like that didn’t fit “the mold” so to speak. One of the lectures I had during my YTT certification course was about yoga community stereotypes. The western stereotypes of what yoga is and who yoga is for, you maybe already thinking of a few right now without even trying to. So what happens if someone doesn’t fit into that mold? They believe right away that yoga isn’t for them. “I can’t do yoga I’m not flexible.”, “I’m too old.”, “I’m too fat.”, “Yoga is for girls.” I hear these comments all the time.
Fresh out of my training I set out to break down those stereotypes. Through my connections with a local concert promotion company, I had booked a live music venue in downtown San Antonio, TX and hosted my very first Emo Yoga. 9 people showed up. Friends and coworkers who all believed in me and my mission.
From there, Emo Yoga only grew bigger and bigger. By that summer a local online newspaper had picked up on what I was doing, did an interview and article on Emo Yoga, and just like that I was selling out every event back to back to back for the next six months.
I had never really imagined up to that point that people really did crave Emo Yoga as much as I did. I got tons of questions about how I could combine something so peaceful and healing (Yoga) with something that was to be considered sad, aggressive, and NOT calming like the practice of Yoga. How did it work so well?
I have always approached my teaching as a way of accepting oneself. Regardless of the limitations you believe hold you down or hold you back. Those thoughts about what you can and cannot do. I aim to break those thoughts down when students come into my space. I combine my love for this music with my love for yoga and the students show up and leave finding a deeper love for themselves. Mostly I just tell my students “There is nothing serious going on here, its just yoga!” and we fall down, we laugh, we cry, and we sweat together. The community has only grown in the few years that have followed.
In the spring of 2022 I had been invited to co-teach on a Goth Yoga retreat in Puerto Rico! It was the most surreal experience of my life and I look forward to my next opportunity to travel abroad and teach Emo Yoga again. I traveled outside of San Antonio, TX and visited a few surrounding cities. I taught Emo Yoga in Corpus Christi as well as Austin, TX.
This last year 2024 I have continued to try to break the mold of what yoga is by offering even more off the wall ideas! Like Heavy Metal Yoga, Chill Deftones Yoga, Anime yoga, Harry Potter and Hobbit style yoga and even more!
My goal for the future of my business ‘Cheymliss Yoga’ (pronounced like “shameless”) is to continue to reach more people. To show people that they are powerful and capable. Not just physically in their bodies, but in their hearts and minds too. I think with the state of the world right now we need more of that. To be able to rely on ourselves and beyond that LOVE ourselves and feel safe in our minds and bodies.
As of October of 2024 I am now offering my classes virtually. I teach a virtual class every Sunday at 10:30AM CST and load my classes for playbacks for my online students and members. The idea of offering Emo Yoga and more virtually I believe gives my online students freedom to do yoga whenever it fits in their schedule. Theres no pressure to show up every Sunday, because you can log in at anytime and take the classes at their leisure.
The practice of yoga has changed my life in more ways than I could ever fully explain. From my physical to my mental health. When I reflect on the last 7 years of my life, I am a completely different person. When I started out I was crippled by my struggles with my mental health, I was caught in toxic relationship and after toxic relationship, with others; and even more than that, with myself. The changes that have come into my life have been astronomical. I want to share that with as many people as I can.
No matter what is happening in your life, the challenges you face, the endeavors you pursue.. you are capable of so much more than you know. The power your mind and body hold are limitless and with Cheymliss Yoga my goal is to help guide you on your journey to heal, to change for the better, and to become your greatest self! Maybe we listen to some sick heavy metal riffs along the way.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has been smooth in ways I didn’t expect, and challenging in the same respect. In the beginning I didn’t think that people would even be interested in doing Emo Yoga. At the time I hadn’t heard of anyone offering “alternative” yoga classes, doing yoga classes at a concert venue, or offering yoga along side electric guitar riffs. I had my doubts and believed the yoga community would reject the idea, but I pressed forward anyway. I believed it was the way that I could reach people who would have never tried yoga before. And I did.
How many times I have heard people say, “I would have never tried yoga if it hadn’t been for this class.” is so rewarding. That was all I ever wanted to do. So I can definitely say that offering Emo Yoga at all was a lot smoother then I ever anticipated. The local community really embraced the idea and me along with it!
The challenges I face are more so my own personal blocks, insecurities, and my own personal struggles with familiarizing myself with technology. The beliefs I have in myself and what I have to offer people. How many times I have had the thought “Who am I to be teaching this? Speaking this? Doing this?”
There is this unspoken belief (sometimes spoken) that yoga teachers have it all figured out, ya know? We teach meditation, mind body connection, and through our voices it might seem like our lives are perfect, and I’m totally healed and have no flaws. That is not the case at all. I”m just as flawed as the next person, with my own limiting beliefs and fears. So working through my own internal dialogue has, and more than likely will, always be the biggest challenge I face. With yoga and therapy combined I have taken baby step, after baby step to navigate my mental health and internal landscape.
We hold the power within us to be our worst critic and our biggest fan. We have the power to choose.
Aside from that, I was never very comfortable or familiar with technology. Seriously. I used to always make this joke that, “I know how to turn computers on and that’s about it.” pushing through my fear of the unknown and learning new skills along the way has felt crippling sometimes. Has put me in places where I wanted to quit and walk away from it, because it was so frustrating.
Learning graphic design for event flyers, marketing events on Facebook and Instagram, being in front of a camera, most recently building an online virtual platform, live streaming, learning how to navigate Youtube, TikTok, learning how to use algorithms to your benefit, building a weekly newsletter and there are even more challenges similar to this on my immediate horizon.
If I can show anyone anything, with the right people around you, the right mindset, and belief in yourself, NOTHING can stop you.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a trauma informed yoga instructor. I specialize in beginners of the practice. Those who have never stepped onto a yoga mat before and adapting the practice to meet these individuals. I am most known for my work with Emo Yoga and offering alternative styled yoga classes.
I am most proud of myself for pushing through my own fears and limitations and believing in myself; and in doing so, creating another doorway to the yoga practice for individuals who may have never found it. What sets me apart from others in my field is myself.
I was always known as the weird kid, the hyperactive kid, the creative artist type, the nerd, and so on. Growing up these were things I thought were flaws, but in truth as an adult I realize these are my strengths. I believe it makes me more relatable. People can connect with my quirks and nuances when they come into my space and I believe it helps students let down their guards. With me and themselves. If the yoga teacher can make mistakes and be a little quirky then so can I. If the yoga teacher can laugh this off so can I. Sometimes while teaching I will say or do something so off the wall that the whole class will burst into laughter.
I used to make this joke that at Emo Yoga I expected more crying and less laughter. If you step onto a mat with me just know you might sweat, you might cry, and you might definitely laugh.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
One thing I want readers to know is my personal journey with mental health and how yoga has profoundly changed my life and set me on a path of healing.
I come from a childhood of abuse. Before I could even form full sentences I was abused in every way you can imagine. I was mistreated and neglected and I carried this into my adult life. What I didn’t know about trauma was that it lives inside our bodies. Even when our minds forget to protect us, the body does not. So what I know now ,but didn’t know then, was that I was walking around day to day reliving my traumas in nearly every waking moment.
Thats why I worked myself to the point of my body breaking. Thats why I drank every single day. Thats why I got tangled in abusive relationships with myself and others. Why I had night terrors and could never get a restful nights sleep.
When I took my YTT certification course in 2020, there were portions of these lectures that dove into the mind body connection. Which means exactly what it says, connecting your mind and your body so they can hear each other. THAT is the practice of yoga. On a fundamental level it goes pretty deep, so there were journaling prompts and discussions that took us deeper into this practice.
One question that I still remember today that shook me to my core at the time was, “What are your usual excuses for why you don’t have the things that you want in your life?” this was just one of many introspective questions like this. Needless to say I uncovered some things that I didn’t realize I was actively holding onto and carrying around with me every day.
After I received my certification and started teaching group classes, I met so many incredible people teachers and students of the practice. One of these incredible people was an instructor I worked alongside with at the studio I still work at today. She referred me to her Life Coach she had been working with. In the spring of 2021 I reached out to her, and thats when my journey to healing REALLY started.
I had tried therapy before, exactly 4 different times, with 4 different therapists. I honestly thought therapy wasn’t for me, that it didn’t work. None of these practitioners were able to really connect with me and guide me through what I was experiencing so I had cast it off as something that wasn’t for me.
Working with this particular Life Coach changed my mind. I was able to connect with her and over the course of three years she helped me peel back every layer of trauma I had wrapped around myself like armor. She helped me peel back layers of rage and grief and through all that work, I am now able to give and receive and experience love and joy and just an overall excitement to be alive. hopeful for the future and days to come.
All of this is to say that Yoga itself is not a one stop shop. If individuals such as myself step onto a yoga mat it can be a catalyst for something larger, more profound. If your experiences in your past have disconnected your mind and your body yoga can be one incredible tool to help you rebuild that connection. Working with licensed professionals can be another.
The physical practice of yoga comes second. If you show up on a yoga mat enough times its inevitable the strength will come, the flexibility will come, the balance will come. However, the first and foremost part of the practice is the internal one. What happens when we fall down out of a shape? How do we meet ourselves? With shame and embarrassment? Or with grace? This translates off of the yoga mat as well, When we stumble in the face of challenges do we come down on ourselves with the power of Thors hammer or do we hold ourselves gently and give ourselves room to learn?
These are things that I speak to my students about on a daily basis. This is what I teach when you come into my class. Self love. There is a principle of the practice of yoga called ‘Ahimsa’ it’s a spiritual doctrine of nonviolence. It’s generally translated in the yoga community as non harming of others (i.e humans and animals) and YES that is important. I teach it as nonviolence to oneself. In our physical and mental approach.
If there is anything I can teach my students, and anything I can relay to the readers is that there is nothing and no one more important than yourself. We can only meet the people we love and care about at the exact same place we meet ourselves. And if you notice and recognize you may not be that kind with yourself thats okay. Because making a change in our lives can happen at any moment. It is never too late. Change can happen in the blink of an eye. It can happen within a single breath. As long as we are breathing we always have the option to choose. To choose different. To choose healing. To choose love.
Pricing:
- Virtual Vibe Membership $35 – This gives online students access to all of my live classes and my full video library
- One Time Vibe $20 – This gives my online students access to one class or one video recording. This is great for anyone who wants to try a class before committing to the membership
- Live & Virtual Event Pass $50 – Gives local students in San Antonio, TX access to all of my online classes, recordings, and in person events
- On Demand Video Rental $10 – This gives online students access to a single recording for 24 hours. Another great option for anyone who wants to try out a class before committing to a memebership.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://app.arketa.co/cheymlissyoga
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cheymliss_yoga/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cheymlissyoga/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CheymlissYoga
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/1219850995?si=6e6d620280c9413b
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cheymlissyoga?_t=8s8FZmoKe7C&_r=1
