Yvonne Hernández

Meditation Teacher | Founder of Decide Balance® & Host of the Decide Balance Podcast | Reiki Master | Bilingual Latina Mom, Wife and Girl Scout Troop Leader

What are 3 words you would use to describe yourself?

Intuitive, spontaneous and teacher.

What is your origin story and how do you identify culturally?

Both of my parents are from México. My mom moved to the U.S. as a child, went to school out here, and [attended] the University. My dad moved here when they got married.

I was born and raised in Texas, on the border, where everyone spoke Spanish, everyone was brown, and 90% [of people] were Latinos. For a long time, I identified as Mexican American.

When I went to college, it was an eye opener. I had a really good friend, who I called my twin, from El Salvador and another friend from Puerto Rico. It was cool to meet mujeres that have roots in other Latin American countries.

I also thought it was fascinating that [in college] people could never guess where I was from by looking at me. They guessed everywhere but México. Being part of different organizations, I felt like I needed to embrace my deeper latinidad because I knew my roots weren’t just from México, I knew there was more to me.

As a way to honor that part that I don’t know, I started to identify as Latina.

When did you start your meditation practice?

I started meditation because I learned that it would help me get rest. At one point I had three kids, all under five years old. I was on call 24/7 and running on fumes. I started with Yoga Nidra every night and that helped me feel rested, at least for the four hours that I slept, so I could function the next day.

What inspired you to launch your business Decide Balance?

Third grade was a big transition year for my son at [his dual language immersion] school. They moved from classrooms to bungalows due to construction at the school, and third grade is when they started learning vocabulary in both languages.

I knew that if he was struggling other students were probably struggling too. And I knew that meditation was a powerful tool that could support them emotionally [through the transition].

I reached out to his teacher to ask if I could do some breathing exercises and guided meditations with the kids. I am forever grateful to her for saying yes because that was my first big opportunity to share meditation practice with students. At that point I didn’t have any formal teaching so I was intuitively guiding them.

When a friend questioned me about the meditations and asked if I still believed in God, it made me realize that I needed to be transparent with the parents about the meditations I was sharing with the kids in the classroom.

That’s when I got the idea to start a podcast. I needed a bilingual name for the podcast because I was teaching the meditations in both English and Spanish. Decide Balance came to me and I immediately got all the social handles, the everything! Things started evolving from there and I was continuously guided to the next step and the next step.

At the same time, during this journey, I was trying to heal myself of the vitiligo that activated from [various forms of] high stress after getting married and moving from Texas to California, leaving my family and my core group of friends, becoming a mom, trying to fit in, and stress on my body from laser hair removal treatments.

My elbows, the side of my neck, my underarms and legs, and the skin above my eyebrows turned white. It was a very difficult and challenging time for me.

It guided me to really learn about self care. I learned that it’s ok to take a break as a mom and get rest. And not feel guilty about it. I started taking meditation and breath work classes and learned that it’s ok to do things for myself. I let go of toxic relationships and stopped watching the news. Without realizing it, I was learning how to balance my inside.

It was a divine message to choose the name Decide Balance for my podcast and now my business. We don’t control the outside, but we can take control of our inside. We can decide balance within us.

What are your go-to tools that keep you aligned and allow you to show up for yourself on a daily basis?

Deep breathing, checking in with myself, and waking up at 5am to meditate in silence.

5am is the time that I have to myself, when no one is interrupting me. Even on the days when I am really tired, I still get up and meditate in silence. It makes a world of difference in my focus, my creativity, and my connection to my intuition. It’s just incredible.

I also check in with myself a lot throughout the day. I check in to see how I am doing, how I am feeling, how my body is doing. If there is any tension or tightness, I take some deep breaths.

You show up as a strong leader. Have you always had leadership skills?

As a child, I was very quiet. It was this mentality of colladita de ves más bonita so I never spoke up.

In high school I started coming out of my shell and participating in student council. In college I joined the organization HBSA - Hispanic Business Student Association. I wanted to be on the board making decisions. I was the historian, parliamentarian, and my last year I was president.

Once I became a mother, I forgot that leadership fire that I had inside of me. I had learned that I had to give up everything when I became a mother, which is false. So I had to relearn that I am a leader and surround myself with mujeres who remind me who I am. Wendy [Amara] and the We All Grow community have been super powerful in reminding me that Yo soy una jefa.

I can see the leadership qualities in my daughters and I want to be an example of what a mujer poderosa looks like for them.

How has community supported you? And what are your goals as you build your community?

Community is one of my words for this year. As I am building community, I want to be completely connected with those that I’m aligned with and vice versa. Community has given me a safe space to be vulnerable and grow at the same time. I want to give that to others as well, creating a safe space to be vulnerable, to uplift each other, to heal, and to grow.

What is reiki and when did it become part of your life?

Several years ago, my husband showed me an article about reiki being used on athletes to help them heal faster. It planted a seed and I started looking into it.

Reiki is a Japanese healing modality. It is the universal life force energy, which is everywhere. Energy is all around us - in animals, plants, people. Reiki can travel through time and space because it’s all energy. What really got me interested in reiki was a study (at Duke University) where reiki was being used in hospitals pre and post surgery to help speed up the healing process.

Our bodies are very powerful. Reiki helps your body heal itself by bringing everything back to center and rebalancing your energy. There is no touching with reiki so you can send it to the person right in front of you, your pet, your water, or a child.

During the pandemic We All Grow offered an intuition workshop with Vanessa Codorniu, the Biz Bruja on instagram. I had already been looking for a reiki teacher, but things never worked out. Then, Vanessa shows up. She offered reiki level one training and I was in.

The night before the training, I felt my intuition telling me to ask my mom to join me. I called her and she said yes.

We went through the whole training together, all three levels, and we both became reiki masters. It has been a beautiful experience to be on this awakened path together. We are both healing on a deeper level.

I found meditation training in a similar way, through We All Grow. An amiga shared that she was doing a meditation teaching certification program with Deepak Chopra. I sent her a message to tell her that I had a bilingual meditation podcast and was volunteering at the school teaching meditations. I wanted to learn more, and that’s how I ended up at the Chopra center to become a Chopra certified meditation teacher.

I knew I was in the right place when I shared a quote I heard from the Dalai Lama that “If every eight year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence in one generation,” and my counselor said Deepak references that same quote often. It was total alignment.

What is a challenge you have worked through?

My biggest challenge has been being open to receiving money. It’s something that still lingers a little, but I’ve come a long way to be ok with charging for [my offerings].

Something that has helped me is saying “I receive” whenever someone gives me something. Receiving, like abundance, comes in many forms. It doesn’t always have to be money.

A lot of women of color struggle with feeling deserving to receive. I say “I receive” to remind myself that I am open to receiving abundance - the compliments, the words, the help, the support, the friendships, the safe space.

What are you most proud of?

So many things. I am celebrating that people are supporting my mission to teach meditation to one million children. I am proud of allowing myself to be received well by strangers who don’t know the journey I’ve been on. And allowing them to see that my work is needed.

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