User of the Month: Joseph Mata, Math Teacher
🤸🏽♂️joseph mata
♾ yoga teacher, former math teacher
🏙 new york city
For Joseph Mata, a former math teacher in the Bronx, yoga was a way for him to serve his students and community. Read on to learn more about our December User of the Month.
when did you start practicing yoga, and what made you decide to become a yoga teacher?
When I was 16 I started doing kung fu, a style called wing chun, for many years. And I loved it. However, I was always trying to protect myself as opposed to healing myself from within. And in about 2011, that's when I discovered yoga. I love the fact that it was bringing meditation and movement into one setting. From then on, I just started practicing daily. So much that I decided to get certified in it.
what drew you to alo moves?
About five years ago, I followed a yogi by the name of Dylan Werner and I saw him posting that he had videos online. It was called the True Strength training. He always inspired me, so I immediately bought the classes. I started practicing twice a day, in the morning and at night. I just became engulfed. I was doing every program that he came out with and other programs on the Alo Moves platform to develop my practice.
I'm on a teacher's salary. I realized that I could save time and money if I just practice at home. And I didn't have the time or money to run to the city, to Manhattan, to Brooklyn, to find these amazing yoga teachers. So Alo Moves gave me the opportunity to really practice with the best teachers.
how do you use alo moves?
I start and end my day with meditation to ground me and to remind me of the interconnectedness between the inner and outer worlds. I meditate at home, in the street, even on the subway. I usually meditate while I'm in transition from one place to another. I don't want to go into a cave and meditate. I live in the city, this is where I operate, so I should be able to tune in and tune out wherever I am, especially in New York City.
I practice yoga wherever I have the space to, whether it's in my house, in the street, even a rooftop, in a park. Wherever I can put my mat down, I'm definitely going to practice there. Some people may look — they shouldn't change my practice. My practice is for me and me alone.
what inspired you to become a math teacher?
I started teaching in the Bronx in 2007. I had a degree in mathematics and a desire to give back to the community. Bronx and Brooklyn happen to be the places in New York that have the worst test scores in regards to math. So I knew I had to give back. Math changed my life in a better way — helped me understand the world as well as the inner world. And I wanted to show other people in my community what math is about and where it can take you.
you went on to create a yoga math curriculum in your classroom. what sparked the idea for that?
Teaching high school students in the Bronx, specifically math, is extremely challenging. And one thing I noticed was that a lot of students wanted to learn but there was something that was getting in the way, and it was unhealthy habits. Things they were seeing in their community. Things I couldn't necessarily help with inside a classroom. And that's what got me the idea to incorporate yoga practices within the math classroom — for example, doing some breathing techniques before an exam or meditating before homework. I wanted them to use their tools, specifically their body and mind, to put themselves in a proper place to do the mathematics correctly. A lot of times you're trying to teach something that's outside of them, but I wanted to show them that math is inside of you.
what was the goal of your yoga math curriculum?
I wanted to show them that they are mathematical beings, whether they realize it or not. When they throw a football, they're not calculating the distance of their football partner when throwing the football. They're feeling the math. They don't have to think about it. I wanted them to embody the mathematics that's already within them, whether it's angles, parallel, or perpendicular lines. And through that curriculum, they were able to see that geometry in nature was the same exact geometry within themselves. That helped them build a connection between the outer and inner world within the context of mathematics and yoga. And of course yoga does the same thing — it bridges the gap between the inner and outer world. I used mathematical language to showcase that.
The same techniques you use to solve a math problem — the dedication, making mistakes, trying again — it's the same things that we need to have a fulfilling life. So my goal was just to provide that opportunity for students to be their best selves. If you're able to see the connection between nature, the shape of buildings, and ourselves, we'll realize that we are intimately connected.
what was the response like from students?
It was amazing. Students loved it. They've never experienced that. They've seen yoga on TV or maybe online, but no one in their families, no one in their community, ever experienced yoga. So I wanted to show them that. That this is not something that maybe rich people do or white people do. This is something that anybody could do. Some of the students continued the yoga practice, but more importantly, all of them continue using the yogic concepts of understanding that things are unified. We see things as separate to try to understand things, but students that took my curriculum see things from a holistic perspective and use that in everyday life.
why was it important for you to give back to your community in this way?
Many people within this community don't have healthy habits. They don't have examples of what it means to be their best selves in terms of eating right, moving right, and living right. So I wanted to change that and bring meditation or somatic intelligence, emotional intelligence, with the movement practice. And of course, yoga brings those two together. Bringing yoga to this community is going to change how people feel about themselves, how people see members of my community. Because that's what we need. We need healing. We need some type of practice where people can look at themselves and say, "You know what? I have meaning. I have purpose. I'm strong. I'm also vulnerable, but I'm strong and I have what it takes to go past someone else's judgment or go past someone else's fear."
The Bronx has a lot of trauma. And there's just not a lot of opportunities to deal with that trauma. People in the Bronx, they just — you know, you just got to do what you got to do. You got to keep it moving, hustle and bustle. But we have to stop and relax and look within and ask why we do the things we do. Why do we feel the way we feel? We need to heal, plain and simple. And not just heal, but inspire, expand, have fun, enjoy, be free.
I feel so humbled and so grateful when I know I've made a positive impact on my students’ lives. It makes me feel like, this is why you're here. And that's why I became a teacher in the first place. It's not that it's feeding my ego like “Oh, I'm a part of their journey.” It's more like, you know what? We are winning. It's not me winning, this is us, together we're rising. When you go to the top, you're supposed to pull someone up. And that's exactly what I feel my purpose and my passion is: pulling people up no matter where they're from. It's what drives me. I don't need a thank you. I can see you developing years later and maybe you forgot about me, but the fact that I know that you've grown, I'm good with that. I'm good.
