Puerto Rico Yoga, Rafael Martinez Fly from Spain to Puerto Rico with AeroYoga®.
Before Puerto Rico Yoga…It has been 53 years since Rafael Martínez was born in a small town in Albacete, La Gineta, a typical place in La Mancha, with its whitewashed houses and baked clay tiles…
In this town, something insignificant, but which stands out from afar for a majestic church tower, it was where Rafael spent his childhood.
Raised with 7 siblings and shopkeeper parents, who developed their business until they created a small local emporium, which consisted of a supermarket and a tobacconist in the Plaza Mayor.
In La Gineta there was not much to do, but Rafael always enjoyed a lot of imagination and initiative and at the age of 14 he opened his first art workshop, on top of his parent tobacconist, whose walls he painted in colors with the old powder paints that still remain in the warehouse.
At the same time, at the Albacete Book Fair, he discovered a book that would change his life forever. ¨The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga¨ of Swami Vishnudevananda.
It was thanks to this book and publications that he found in the newsstands of the provincial capital, such as Integral magazine, that made Rafael change his philosophy of life. He began to practice yoga and enjoy the delights of the natural and vegetarian diet (of course it was a little scandal for his parents … suddenly rejecting the «tajás» of bacon and orza sausages was not very well considered by that then around the area).
Although in those years Rafael held several art exhibitions in Albacete, he got a bit bored in these local environments and he didn’t like working with his father in the supermarket too much.
As soon as he finished high school in Albacete, where he came and went daily, many times by bicycle, and at the age of 18, he went to study Fine Arts in Valencia.
There he discovered a more cosmopolitan world. He immediately made many friends, where he enjoyed his studies and the development of his creativity. It is where he actually began to stand out for the originality of his proposals.
Soon he received a scholarship to study a year in Paris at L´Ecole Nationale Superieure de Beaux in Paris and of course, he did not stay a year but 8 in the city of light, because the magic and the power of attraction of Paris made him see the world from other perspectives …
In Paris he continued with his practice of Yoga and meditation, but on a personal level, since on a professional level his dedication was in the plastic arts …
Over the years, Rafael lived and worked selling his work. Two years in Montreal, Canada, in Mexico City. He spent time in New York and Washington. He finally finished his international tour in Berlin before returning to Madrid at the dawn of the 2000s, eager to discover that he had been from his country during all that decade of unstoppable travels.
Return to Spain.
It was in Madrid where Rafael made a radical change in his life and realized that he should give priority to his yogic work and to more intimate aspects of his life such as nutrition and philosophy of life.
Thus, he created his first Yoga center open to the public in Madrid, in his own home, on the street Príncipe de Vergara, who called it Madrid Yoga Studio. It was where people from the neighborhoods of Hispano-America and Salamanca began to come, to end up attending audiences from all over the capital.
At this time he finished his Yoga studies at the Federation Française des Ecoles de Yoga, obtaining a 4-year diploma in Natha Yoga.
Inspired by this ancient philosophy, he developed his own method that he called Creative Yoga © (Yoga Creativo©). This system, its postures and philosophy are registered in more than 160 countries.
Although his obligations with his own Yoga studio were many, Rafael Martínez always took advantage of summers to travel and it was on one of these trips through the United States that he discovered a platform of work that would give a radical change to his career, the yoga swing or swing of Yoga.
It was this instrument that allowed Rafael to get down and do a thousand pirouettes. He adapted all the postural sequences of Creative Yoga © (Yoga Creativo©) to the Yoga hammock (trapeze), allowing him to create the AeroYoga®.
What is AeroYoga ®?.
AeroYoga® for Rafael is an «artistic method of personal growth in suspension», since it allows the practitioner to grow physically, mentally and emotionally, allowing him to enhance the creative aspect of being. With this new initiative in his career Rafael opened a new space in the heart of Madrid, the AeroYoga® Institute, which was a success from minute one and in such a way that reports were made on all national televisions and newspapers made reports on this new method that seems to revolutionize the yoga of the time …
You can see all these reports on his website aeroyoga.es.
Immediately the fame of this method became international and Rafael Martínez began to travel around the world again, this time teaching teachers who wanted to develop in this new discipline. It was during this stage of his life that he registered the AeroYoga® brand internationally, both in the United States and in Canada, practically all of Latin America, the 27 countries of the European Community, Russia and even Australia.
Puerto Rico Yoga
Where he began to teach teacher training courses was Puerto Rico.
An island so wonderful that it attracted his attention and his desire to live on it. That is how, 5 years ago, Rafael permanently moved to the ´Isla del Encanto´ and opened the AeroYoga® Institute Puerto Rico, in the mountains, in the middle heart of the island, with beautiful views over the island and the sea, from where it then offers its Yoga Puerto Rico classes, retreats and international teacher training.
About Puerto Rico Yoga.
Puerto Rico Yoga is the concept that Rafael has developed on the island, to help the public reconnect with himself and combat stress in this time of crisis. Puerto Rico Yoga is a series of activities that aim to bring to a maximum of public on the island the teaching of traditional yoga and in particular Natha Yoga, energy yoga and AeroYoga ® (Aerial Yoga in swing / trapeze) .
All this through courses, classes, retreats, and teacher training that give everyone access to Puerto Rico Yoga. Whatever your age, physical condition, or experience in the world of Yoga.
In addition to Yoga, in Puerto Rico Yoga Rafael works the dissemination of alternative therapies such as Ayurveda Rasayana with objectives of toning body and mind, detoxification, weight loss and anti-aging. Likewise, aromatherapy is applied, (working with organic essential oils) and lithotherapy, (use of hot stones and semi-precious crystals that help relaxation and combat stress).
Rafael Martínez always remembers his town with affection and of from time to time he gazes at the sea from his studio, and while he sees the north of the island and the Atlantic Ocean, he think that Spain and his beloved hometown, La Gineta in Albacete, are always there, just a few thousand kilometers in a straight line …
Do not hesitate and discover everything about Rafael Martínez and Yoga Puerto Rico on the web www.yoga-puertorico.com
