Our Story
In 2016 our founder, Yessie Chavez, moved to Seattle and got a temporary part-time job at an engineering firm while she grew her yoga schedule. During her day job she found herself giving her co-workers tips and tricks to reverse the effects of sitting at a desk. Each day she witnessed the engineers inventing innovative medical devices that would help cure ailments and allow others to feel better, but the engineers themselves often mentioned feeling aches and pains.
These conversations evolved into her teaching lunch-hour yoga classes at the firm, in addition to her administrative work tasks. The classes quickly grew in attendance and most of the participants had never done yoga before. It was incredibly rewarding for Yessie to create "yogis" out of people who may have not otherwise tried yoga had it not been offered at their workplace - this is how YOGAandTECH was born.
With the help of her empathetic, skilled and knowledgeable team of yoga instructors, Yessie will teach the entrepreneurs, creators, and innovators of today how to cultivate sustainability and connection within themselves. Yessie believes that optimized humans will create more mindful products and a better world overall.
Meet The Team
Yessie Chavez
Founder & Lead Teacher
What’s your favorite yoga pose?
Dancer’s Pose because it works my entire body and requires focus, it’s nearly impossible to think about anything else when I’m balancing on one foot. In this pose I feel strong, open, stretched and present.
What’s your tech guilty pleasure?
Spotify! I love music and I love that part of my job as a yoga teacher includes making playlists, lots of playlists, sometimes I feel like a DJ - it’s really fun!
What’s your favorite aspect about tech?
Connection to family and mentors! Tech has given me the ability to interact with people that inspire me by following them on social media and learning from them. Tech also allows me to stay connected to my family and show my loved ones the beautiful places I travel to in present time via Skype and Facetime.
What’s your favorite quote?
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” -Lao Tzu
Jaclyn Winters
Lead Teacher
What’s your favorite yoga pose?
Wheel Pose because it’s such an intense heart opener and vulnerable position. I feel we live in a society where we feel the need to stay guarded and boxed up. In Wheel, I feel the freedom to break out of the box. It makes me feel free and open. Also, it’s such a great stretch!
What’s your tech guilty pleasure?
My tech guilty pleasure is any kind of photography or video app. I have a secret passion of shooting photos and videos and turning them into artistic shots. Any app that helps with that, I love!
What’s your favorite aspect about tech?
My favorite aspect about tech is its ability to connect people from all over the world. Also, it allows us to get information about anything quickly. Allowing us to stay educated on any topic we research or find interesting.
What’s your favorite quote?
“Don’t move the way fear makes you move. Move the way love makes you move. Move the way joy makes you move.” -Osho
Jennifer Bell
Lead Teacher
What’s your favorite yoga pose?
Crescent Lunge Pose because it helps me build strength in my hamstrings while opening up the hip flexors. It's also great for practicing balance and keeping a steady focus. I like to modify the pose by interlacing my fingers behind my back, straightening my elbows a bit, and reaching my heart and gaze up toward the ceiling, which adds an upper-back-bend and shoulder opener.
What’s your tech guilty pleasure?
Instagram is my guilty pleasure!
What’s your favorite aspect about tech?
What I appreciate most about tech is how it opens up accessibility. Such as programs like screen readers that allow websites to be accessible for blind folks, and products/services like SquareSpace that empower small businesses and entrepreneurs. The creativity and empowerment that tech has provided is enormous and inspiring!
What’s your favorite quote?
"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it." -Rumi
Paul Clingan
Lead Teacher
What’s your favorite yoga pose?
Extended Child's Pose because it lengthens out my entire backline which is always tight. This pose releases tension in my low back and it's really relaxing because I can focus on my breath since my body isn't being required to do anything physically challenging.
What’s your tech guilty pleasure?
There's an app called Hitlist. I'm sure there are others like it, but it alerts me of really cheap flights abroad. So once a week, I'm debating if I can afford to fly to Helsinki for $320 dollars for ten nights.
What’s your favorite aspect about tech?
My favorite aspect of tech is that it allows me to do two things at once. I can workout and listen to a podcast. I can cook and watch a show on my phone. I can wirelessly video chat someone across the globe and eat pizza. Pretty sick if you ask me.
What’s your favorite quote?
“Which is recorded of Socrates, that he was able both to abstain from, and to enjoy, those things which many are too weak to abstain from, and cannot enjoy without excess. But to be strong enough both to bear the one and to be sober in the other is the mark of a man who has a perfect and invincible soul.” -Marcus Aurelius
