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Cara Denny has never shied away from redefining herself and her interests. Flowing effortlessly through careers as a gymnastics instructor, real estate broker, and fearless roller derby skater with the Faultline Derby Devilz, she also owns two businesses in San Juan Bautista: Daisy’s Saloon and Living the Green Dream.
In March, Denny opened her newest venture, the Mystic Health and Wellness Center, after what she described as a “significant spiritual awakening in my life” during a trip to Sedona, Arizona, in December.
“I came to a place of total surrender,” she said. “I felt an openness to change and to being awakened to more than what I had already experienced in life. I got counseling that helped me to see my true, authentic self.”
Denny said she went to Sedona after realizing she needed deep healing from “traumas that I wasn’t even aware of.”
“I found myself waking up and actually praying that I would be taken off this planet,” she said. “Many people don’t know that side of me because they just see an upbeat business owner rooted in the community.”
Coinciding with the Winter Solstice, Denny said, she felt a doorway opening that allowed her to start looking at things differently, leading her to a place of continued healing. She was determined to “change the programming instilled within me” to find a greater enlightenment.
“It was not an ‘aha’ moment for me,” she said. “It was a gradual process that started with seeds planted throughout my life. I started thinking, ‘You have all these people and things around you. Why can’t you just be happy?’”
She also felt a need to provide a space for others to come together in the community and heal in a way they had not experienced before, just as she had.
“I had been doing yoga for the last five years,” Denny said. “I had gotten certification in yoga and as a personal trainer, so I had that in my pocket. I rented a space at Pepper Tree Corner and started holding yoga instruction classes on Fridays and Sundays.”
On occasional evenings, Denny has branched out to other theme-based practices, such as those related to the moon’s phases. One of her goals, she said, is to guide people into setting new intentions for themselves as well as releasing ideas, feelings or behaviors that don’t serve them.
“We’re all having a hard time because our lives are full of distractions,” she said. “We maintain a heavy work schedule to meet the economic demand. And we have all the issues we feel in relationships with family and friends. It’s very hard to remain present.”
Denny said that yoga and meditation offer people a way of bringing awareness to what is happening within them.
“Quieting the mind has been linked to being healthier and stable,” she said. “It allows us to proceed through our years with a sense of peace and inner calm. We need to break down our programming that says we’re supposed to be doing things a certain way.”
Briana Tome, one of Denny’s students, said she started coming to the center because it was new to town and “very welcoming.”
“I’m glad something like this is finally here,” she said, “The classes are consistent. We do breath work, then a little bit of meditation, get into the yoga flow, and then meditate again just to calm the mind for the day.”
Tome said she felt the center had a sense of community and allowed her to get to know many people in town she would not have normally met.
“We kind of connect with the shared experience, which I find very enjoyable,” she said. “I hope the momentum keeps going, and more people come to try a class.”
Besides Denny’s breath and yoga classes, self-love and meditation retreats, and full moon and new moon yoga practices, she has also opened her center to classes featuring guest instructors, such as ceramic painting with local artist Cindy Couling and chakra sound bowl balancing.
“I want to bring like-minded people together,” Denny said. “To make a real impact on the energy in this community. I want us to meditate on ways that we can move forward in a positive way and then take action as we brainstorm on things.”
Mystic Health and Wellness Center
413 Third Street Ste. D
San Juan Bautista, CA 95045
MysticHealthInfo@gmail.com
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