by Cara McMaster, Certified Ma Yoga® Instructor
I’m a cafeteria-style yogi. I’m neither die-hard Eastern yoga nor die-hard Western yoga. Frankly, I don’t know a lot about energy work or chakras, although I do love a good yoga nidra and I’ve enjoyed dipping my toes into Ayurvedic practices. And while I love a good hot yoga class, I have a hard time with some of the Westernized yoga-as-exercise beliefs. It makes me sad when the integrity of someone’s joints is sacrificed just to get a little deeper into a pose.
My background has always shaped the way I approach movement. I have a degree in Health and Kinesiology from the University of Utah, with experience in physical therapy and a larger background in elementary physical education. I also received my 200-hour RYT from Salt Lake Community College. I loved that program because it was divided into five semester-long courses with five different teachers who each brought very different yoga beliefs and experiences to the table.
One thing I’ve learned through all of this is that our bodies are temporary. They are the vehicles through which we experience an incredible amount of joy, learning, and connection, and I believe it’s our responsibility to treat them with care.
I’m also a mom to two wonderful daughters, and I’m surrounded by moms. I love gathering women and connecting them with resources and with each other. I’m pretty comfortable calling myself the community’s resident “village leader.” So becoming a Registered Prenatal Yoga Teacher felt like a natural extension of the work I was already passionate about.
My prenatal yoga education during my 200-hour training was essentially, “Don’t twist, and keep it gentle.” As someone who loves running and believes that pregnancy can be a time to continue building strength, endurance, and confidence, that approach didn’t quite sit right with me. I wanted to understand how to support pregnant women in movement—not simply how to modify every movement down.
That’s what led me to Ma Yoga. I wanted a program that respected both the wisdom of yoga and what we understand about the pregnant body through modern research.
When I began my Ma Yoga training, I was pregnant with my second daughter and right in the middle of marathon training. I immediately connected with the freedom of the Sacred Steps, alignment principles for every pose rooted in the five natural elements – space, earth, water, fire, and air. I especially loved Sacred Step One: Making Space for Baby. Rather than thinking of pregnancy as something that required me to put my normal movement practice on hold, I began thinking differently about how I could adapt and make space for my changing body.
That shift completely changed my prenatal running experience. I started incorporating what I was learning into my own practice and began teaching some prenatal classes with my local church group.
Then, of course, life happened.
My daughter was born breech via C-section, recovery was trickier than I expected, and months passed before I returned to my Ma Yoga training. I stopped practicing and focused almost entirely on completing the coursework.
And I really wasn’t learning.
The most bittersweet moment of my certification journey came while preparing for my second—and final—practice teaching class. With lots of mentoring and reflection, I finally realized that I had been trying to understand the Sacred Steps with my brain when I really needed to experience them with my body.
The Sanskrit word yoga comes from yuj, meaning “to yoke” or join together. That idea suddenly felt very literal. The physical, emotional, and spiritual parts of ourselves are not separate pieces. Our practice is where they come together.
So I went back to practicing the Sacred Steps.
And I fell in love with them all over again.
I began to understand that the Sacred Steps aren’t simply a checklist of things to teach a pregnant woman. They are intentionally designed to help mothers move, find relief, cultivate strength, and connect with their changing bodies. They gave me a framework, but they also gave me freedom – the freedom to teach from a place of understanding rather than simply memorizing modifications.
Perhaps the biggest thing Ma Yoga taught me is that our teaching really does come from our practice. I couldn’t authentically teach something I wasn’t willing to embody myself.
As I step into this next chapter as a Certified Prenatal Yoga Instructor, that’s the lesson I want to carry with me: practice first, teach second. When I stay connected to my own practice, I can create space for other mothers to do the same – to move with confidence, care for their bodies, and remember that pregnancy doesn’t mean putting themselves on hold. It means learning to move with a body that is beautifully, wonderfully changing.
