We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Grillo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I decided to pursue a more creative route in my career because nothing else lit me up the way that teaching yoga & breathwork does. I always felt a rebellious pull from the societal norm and truly had no idea what exactly I wanted to do after high school! I went into trade school for esthetics and worked as a bartender & esthetician for around 7 years after school, during which I found a deep connection to serving & caring for people. I encountered some darker life events that drove me into pursuing a deeper yoga practice! I traveled solo to the jungles in Costa Rica for 4 weeks and fully immersed myself into a yoga & conscious living training which turned out to be one of the best things I ever did for myself!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m most proud of the way I’m able to step into my most authentic self while leading yoga, movement and breathwork classes! Its taken me 8 years to feel firmly grounded in what it is I have to offer. It hasn’t been easy and there were quite a few times I questioned myself and Id be lying if I said there weren’t times where I still do, but when I step into the studio I teach at, when I’m leading retreats both internationally & locally, that imposter syndrome that tries to creeps it way in suddenly disappears. I see familiar faces almost daily and have been a witness to so many life changes for others and it inspires me to keep going, keep creating and keep it unapologetically authentic! I am an imperfect human, I was in a dark place in my life when I decided to go into yoga teacher training and even after I was still pulling myself out of the weeds of addiction. I gained a lot of will power over the years due to consistency to my practice of expanding and evolving. What I hope to continue to encourage people & myself is to walk alongside fear, and not let it control my days; ride the currents of what it takes to see something through. One of the most powerful quotes I lean on often comes from Marianne Willamson, an activist and author, “Life isn’t just about getting knocked down. It’s about becoming the people we have to be in order to get back up. We need to coddle our pain a little less, and embrace our strengths a little bit more. Remind ourselves and remind each other, we have what it takes to get through everything that is being placed in front of us.”

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I had a week long trip with my bestie, we would road trip all along the coast of Northern California! We would shop and eat in Carmel, hit the boardwalk in Santa Cruz, surf or boogie board at Ocean Beach in San Francisco, indulge on oysters in Marshall, wine taste around Geyserville Napa and Healdsburg,& hit up some hot springs in Ukiah.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to give so much credit to a few women who have inspired me and encouraged me since the start of my yoga practice! My first ever teacher & friend, Jenna Richardson who was the one that taught me what vinyasa was. My yoga training teacher Paula Tursi who helped me understand what it meant to dive deeper into my self and trust, and my mentor/friend Erin Gilmore who constantly inspires me to allow my compassionate, rebellious self to lead me further into this career path and let my creativity shine!

Website: https://www.vinyasam.com

Instagram: samgrillo_

Linkedin: Samantha Grillo

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/1233746653?si=33671299f69342a8

Image Credits
Gillian Stargensky & Carly Hackbarth

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