Sacramento’s Yogi Homie Inspires Through Flow and Music

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) – Veronica Bolds strives to “bring unity back into the community,” as she creates a zen, inclusive space for Black and Brown people to practice yoga and find healing in Sacramento. Bolds, a 28-year-old woman of Black and Guatemalan descent, is the founder and owner of Yogi Homie Yoga. She collaborates with community arts and activism organizations to provide donation-based yoga classes and wellness events in Sacramento. 

She talked to The Click about the importance of prioritizing wellness and self-expression while on a healing journey. Yoga has been pivotal in her own life and now she’s made it her personal mission to share the peace she has found with others.

The Click: As a curator of the Black wellness community in Sacramento, what are your intentions with Yogi Homie Yoga?

My intention with Yogi Homie is to bring unity back into the community because we’ve gotten so far away from each other. I just really want to reframe [that] yoga is like a lifestyle. You don’t have to be super skinny and be able to fold up like a pretzel to be a yogi. It’s being patient, being kind, practicing non-attachment… just being a good person.

Yoga is like a form of transformative justice. It’s like preventative care. The things we learn on the mat, we use in the real world. It teaches you how to respond, rather than react. If emotions come up, and I don’t really understand where they’re coming from, I move [and] get into motion. Instead of getting into my head, I get into my body. Yoga has helped me do that.

Bolds, owner of Yogie Homie Yoga, strikes a tree pose. [Credit: Yamani Smith Murrell @MRxGoodEyeDEAs via Instagram]

How did you decide to incorporate music as a major part of your yoga classes?

I was going to a lot of R&B shows and getting inspired for Yogi Homie. I want[ed] to do R&B yoga but instead of it just being yoga, it’s relax-and-breathe yoga. I wanted to bring the studio experience to our community and have that luxurious, uplifted vibe with that familiar homegirl feeling. People come in and it’s very welcoming. We have tea, the lights are low, the vibe, you know, the music I select, I’m very intentional with the music that I’m playing.

For each of her classes, Bolds sets an intention and curates a playlist to accompany the yoga flow. She aims to create a welcoming community for her students, offering journal prompts, inspirational quotes and music that relates to the chosen intention.

What advice do you have for people starting their yoga journey?

Get out of your own way and have grace with yourself. One thing I’ve learned through my healing is we tend to live in shame. We need shame to help us become better, but we shouldn’t live in it. To evolve, you have to be willing to let go but also take time to process who you once were.

What inspires you to inspire? 

I think what inspired me was realizing my own personal power and how vulnerability cultivates community. I grew up a Black girl in a Latina home, going to a predominantly white school. I was never Black enough for the Black girls. I was never Latina enough for the Latins. I was never white, so [it] was always like get in where you fit in. I always had different friend groups and different mixtures of people that I hung out with. I realized that was my power. My power was connecting people. My power was being my authentic self. We’re all just reflections of one another. I wanted people to realize that the light they see in me is also within them.