Meet Jamie Asdorian and Hannah Cordero Chen | Cultivating community wellness through ancestral wisdom & self-empowerment

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jamie Asdorian and Hannah Cordero Chen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jamie Asdorian and Hannah Cordero Chen, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Jamie: Tharavada Yoga was born from the search for self-empowerment, community, and balanced living.

When the pandemic hit, I found myself in a profoundly challenging phase of life. I had left a vibrant job and life to move to a place far away from my support systems. My mental, emotional, and physical health were suffering, and I had no idea how isolating it would feel being a stay-at-home mom without doing work that served my community as well. I was lonely and adrift, and after some overwhelming life challenges, I found myself wanting more than human connection. I wanted connection with my culture, my ancestors, ancient wisdom and spirituality. It took me a while to figure out that I was really trying to reconnect with the deepest sense of my Self.

I began searching for ways to “create” spiritual connections–particularly with maternal goddess energies. I always felt like I was “faking the funk,” but I couldn’t deny that there was still some strength I found each time I engaged in my little practices.

I also needed a way to get back to the work I love–helping people live healthier, more fulfilled lives–and the pandemic provided an accessible option for me with the dawn of online yoga teacher training (YTT). I had always felt that yoga was not for me, despite being of South Asian Indian ancestry and being trained in various Indian art forms, because I had always felt uncomfortable in Western yoga spaces. But as I went through yoga training, I realized that much of the curriculum was already foundational to who I am. And uncovering these connections began to expose the lineage and ancestral connection I’d been searching for. Bonus!! I learned an important lesson on this journey: the connection was already there–I was just now learning how to recognize it. And if I could do it, other people can too.

Multi-cultural wisdom, and practices combined with years of studying and teaching through Indian and Western arts percolated through the YTT filter to coalesce as an interdisciplinary yoga space that felt comfortable for people like me–caregivers with intersectional identities. Starting a business around it felt like the next clear step.

Hannah: When I began practicing meditation with Jamie I never intended for this to turn into a business. Jamie already had established Tharavada Yoga as an online yoga studio and I was focused on my personal healing journey, but after a few weeks of engaging in the practice of Vegetation (the name Jamie and I gave to our tandem meditation/dhyana practice) there were so many magical, aha-moments that came up for us and we knew we had discovered something that could improve peoples’ lives, particularly for caregivers, those who are responsible for other people’s basic needs We knew that we had to be shared. We found this practice to be accessible despite our full schedules and busy routines, and we knew it could help others.
We have had to focus on intentionally growing our business with a phased-approach because in addition to being entrepreneurs both of us have families and are main caregivers for our children. I guess you can say we have been risk averse when it comes to marketing, launching new products and offerings, and remaining conscious to not bite off more than we can chew.
Even moving at a pace that some would consider too slow, Tharavada yoga continues to evolve into a lifestyle brand that centers our values around incremental growth through ancestral practices, centering pleasure, and interdependency. Where we do take risks is with our offerings. When we launched the Vegetation podcast we knew we were exposing our private lives and could be rejected, but we took that risk. I can still feel my stomach turn a little remembering the day we launched – it was a bit of an “oh shit” moment: did I make the right decision? . . . six months later we now have two podcasts that are streamed internationally and are currently revamping yoga offerings.
Tharavada Yoga has become more than an online yoga studio, it is a creative and safe space where we can play and experiment at the intersection of science and spirituality. Where people (re)connect with the self and understand the value and wisdom they bring into this world. In this space we have already created two podcasts and are now developing workshops and other offerings that help us embody self-trust and tap into the magic and wisdom that lives in each of us.
Hannah: Most of my adult life I struggled to create balance and I really believed that if I worked hard enough I could have (and balance) everything I wanted and be all the things to everyone: Super wife, super business partner, exemplary employee, and of course, a perfect mom. Instead of feeling successful in my efforts, I was instead continually experiencing burnout and fatigue.

I remind myself on a daily basis that there is no such thing as life-work balance, at least for me. It is just life and constant prioritizing. I like to ask myself, what balls can I drop or let go of for at least today that won’t break? I also remind myself that I can’t do everything or be everything to everyone. I have to start with meeting my own needs, filling my own cup.

Jamie: As a caregiver and woman of color with an invisible disability, work-life balance is not a term I like to use for myself. When I think of the word “balance,” I imagine a situation where all my core needs are met, and that has not been the case for my adult life so far. Instead, I think of myself as constantly on a path toward more balance through practicing small, incremental ways to have a more peaceful, connected, and loving life on a daily basis.

The way our society is setup demands that many adults–especially people who regularly care for loved ones who need support, or people who have marginalized intersectional identities–spend most of our time working, often in ways that don’t fulfill our individual life’s deeper purposes. But we can make this time more fulfilling by inviting practices that bring nourishment and pleasure into our lives and fit into our busy schedules.

This is a big part of what we’re working on creating and offering through our business. We’re fostering a lifestyle that centers and celebrates practices that tap into each individual’s inner wisdom. We believe that growing trust in our deepest sense of Self empowers us to trust our own inner wisdom and the wisdom that emerges when we introspect. We think of that introspected wisdom as ancestral wisdom, and we are working to provide opportunities for folks to practice connecting to it.

Our meditation practice called Vegetation is a prime example of this kind of offering. We offer the Vegetation: Meditation in Community podcast as a no-cost opportunity for folks to see how we do it and replicate it if they resonate with it. We also offer the opportunity to practice private or group Vegetation with me in our online yoga studio.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Hannah: Ultimately, Tharavada Yoga is all about creating and sharing incremental, accessible ways for people to connect with their own self-love, self-trust, and ancestral wisdom. We have created all our offerings: classes, podcasts, and workshops with the intention to help individuals access equilibrium and allow ancestral wisdom to flow through. We truly believe that our practices and offerings can help people feel more empowered to be better stewards of ourselves, each other, and ultimately this universe. So much of my experiences in the garden with my family and community influences Tharavada Yoga. Jamie: For instance, in a Tharavada Yoga asana (yoga poses) class, I start by asking about our participants’ imbalances, and then I tailor our asana, pranayama (breathing techniques), meditations, and other ancestral remedies to those needs. In leading practice, I coach participants to be their own primary teacher–helping us all re-learn how to listen to and trust our own physical and spiritual cues in the process.
Hannah: We also continually seek out knowledge and best practices on how to create a trauma-informed space where all can feel welcome to practice and explore yoga. Our work is grounded in equity and inclusivity and many of our offerings are free or available on a sliding scale.
Jamie: Tharavada Yoga is founded on our dedication to serve communities of people like us and our loved ones: caregivers, intersectional, and marginalized people. Our lived experience of growing up and working in these communities gives us specific insights into their values and needs, and drives our heart-centered desire to help them (re)discover their power and self-connection and thrive.

Love and dedication are not enough, though. We are constantly working to identify and dismantle our own limiting beliefs and traumas. This work helps us grow in self-trust and self-love; helps us be better parents, partners, and friends; and helps us be better stewards of our communities and this planet. Identifying and exploring these uncomfortable realities within ourselves also helps us craft new offerings for our communities.

Hannah: We are also in an ongoing experiment with this business to center regenerative values like interdependence, rest, and pleasure in the work. One of the ways we demonstrate interdependence is through our value of collaborating with other practitioners to create new works derived from our varied backgrounds. When we share knowledge in this way, we grow each other and ourselves, while offering our communities new, multidisciplinary works. We center rest by creating work schedules that provide time to rest and care for ourselves, as we hold the value that without our own Self being in balance, we cannot provide a balanced product to our communities. Pleasure weaves throughout everything we do as well, because our own joy and excitement in the process is an important determinant of whether this offering is worthy of our community. If we don’t love it, how can we ask someone else to?

We constantly receive messages in our society that success and self-worth are earned through grinding and hustling, lack of sleep, sacrifice, and producing as much output as possible. This messaging can make it really hard to know and trust when to let something go. This is something that Jamie and I have struggled with most of our lives. Self-trust is a work-in-process for both of us as we continue to heal childhood traumas and redefine what success means to us. Through our work together we witness ourselves making progress on this every day. We see this reflected in our offerings and in how we center pleasure in all we do.

Jamie: This is One of the ways that we practice what we preach.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Hannah: In the last three years my family and I relocated to Solano County from Oakland, California. It took a minute to get acclimated to a more suburban and agricultural area, but now we love where we are! From the Solano area, you are only short drives away to so many places and one can easily plan a week-long itinerary full of just the right amount of adventure you seek.

You can head to the City of Benicia, the original state capitol, grab a coffee or a delicious sandwich at One House Bakery and head down to the water for a leisurely walk or head over to Bella Sienna for a delicious lunch or dinner, all while being close to the water and the Bay Area breeze.

We also have wine! Village 360 in Suisun Valley overlooks lavender fields, grape vines, and rolling hills. Come and sit outside, sip on some coffee or wine or enjoy a lunch made from local farms.

Power up on local produce at Larry’s Produce Stand (June – December) before heading out on the many local trails either on bike or for a hike.

Need a little more adventure? The Napa Valley is 30 minutes away and within an hour-long drive, you can be in San Francisco, Sacramento, or the Central Valley.

Jamie: Since my transition to the Central Valley, I have become an avid gardener. Actually, I would call myself a student of my garden. It’s my favorite place to be in town, and the garden in the front yard has become a wonderful little community space for folks to come chat with us and check progress on the budding, fruiting, and wilting of our plant friends. The gardens have also become a sort of altar for us, honoring the indigenous land we occupy with native plants, remembering our ancestral roots with plants from our ancestors’ lands, and growing food to share with our community.

Outside of our little slice of paradise, Lake Yosemite in Merced is a nice little spot for a quiet picnic or meditative walk. The Merced National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife conservation refuge system that provides critical habitat for wildlife, and my kiddos love to visit and see what animals might show up. We also love visiting Merced’s Kiddieland, a lovely little amusement park that provides affordable and lively fun for kids while also supporting the surrounding community in many ways.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We want to acknowledge that we occupy Patwin, Miwok, and Yokuts land. We honor and hold gratitude for this land and these–and all–Native people who have been stewarding this earth for countless generations.

We honor and give thanks for our ancestors. Their legacy, strength, and love have informed and shaped our lives from before we were born to this day and beyond, and will continue to influence our children’s paths as well.

We are grateful for storytellers – everyone who has ever shared personal stories with us–especially the kinds that don’t get told enough. Birth stories, death stories, taboo-breaking and ignorance-dispelling truths that often get swept under rugs. Often the healing that we all need is wrapped up in these shrouded experiences.

Love and gratitude to our families and chosen families for the many ways they support us, and to our co-conspirators who work alongside us to strengthen our communities in various ways.

Website: www.TharavadaYoga.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TharavadaYoga

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TharavadaYoga

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSPtlmB24pPgzjxO4vYz9oQ

Other: Vegetation: Meditation in Community Podcast – https://anchor.fm/Vegetation This American Rice Podcast – https://anchor.fm/ThisAmericanRice