Meet Claudia Torres | Children’s Mindfulness Teacher & Podcaster

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

Hi Claudia, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
My business idea arrived in the midst of the pandemic. Like most people I lost my job and stayed at home. I started to realize how much I was enjoying staying home because I’ve had a life long practice in mindfulness, meditation and yoga. Those tools prepared me mentally for the lock down and not allowing media fear to seduce me. At the same time it made me think of everyone else and how most people haven’t been home for this long with themselves and their families. Most people weren’t ready to be forced to reflect on their lives. That thought simmered through my mind for awhile and I wanted to figure our if there was something I can perhaps offer to the collective during this difficult time. In the fall of 2020, I finally put my strength together to do something I’ve never done before; creating a live YouTube mindfulness series. In which I interviewed multiple people in the wellness community and have deep meaningful conversations on how we can maintain and sustain our mental health in different ways. Creating those videos really helped me conquer my own fears of public speaking and self-doubt. After sometime, an angel investor gifted me a podcasting class because he had seen my dedication and intention to helping the community was real. Once my podcast was launched, I shifted the conversation to 1:1 platform and host healers from around the world as they share their journey to self-discovery and self-healing. I named it Presently Aqui with Claudia and ‘Aqui’ means here in Spanish. A sort of play on words if you will. On one episode, I was lucky enough to interview an amazing woman that teaches spirit camp to children up in Maine. We instantly connected and stayed in touch. I share my life story with her about my previous experience teaching kids yoga. Time passed and I received a call from her one day and asked me if I’d be interested in teaching children mindfulness at her school via zoom. Immediately I was in shock, happily accepted the offer and felt deeply honored to provide my passion of mindfulness to her students. This divine task that was asked to perform changed my life in a way I never anticipated, especially because I never planned for any of it! Not the YouTube channel, the podcast or teaching kids mindfulness. Shortly after teaching at her spirit camp for a few months, I decided to start my very own online children’s mindfulness school, called Our Mindful Kids. Opportunities + experience + surrendering to life = Personal Transformation. Through this experience, I learned to listen to my heart, trust the Universe and most importantly, love myself unconditionally.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Starting an online children’s mindfulness/meditation school was definitely not an easy task especially since it was an unplanned goal in my life. As most entrepreneurs know, we wear many hats when we first begin; creative, IT tech, marketer, social media manager, photographer, videographer, etc. Adding a podcast to this journey as well didn’t help ease the workload. I managed by taking one step at a time and help from amazing people in my life. Also, being in the mindfulness space has it benefits with having the right mental tools to get through the stress and anxiety of becoming an online teacher and podcaster. Meditation, journaling and practicing gratitude were my top 3 tools that really helped me not feel overwhelmed by it all. I wish I could share all the lessons I’ve learned through this entire process because there are a lot of good ones but I would say that the most important lesson for me has been how to love myself deeply and unconditionally. Which I did not anticipate to learn at all or even knew that I wasn’t deeply loving and accepting myself completely but that’s the gift of teaching children. They invite you to tap in to your inner child and I chose to allow my inner child to be front and center of my life. Once I made that decision I invited deep childhood traumas to arise to be healed and loved. Teaching children is my medicine! What I would want my legacy or brand to be known as is the free-spirited woman who fought our children’s light not to be ever extinguished again. No longer by any outdated system or programming that oppresses our children’s divine sovereignty. Our children, our future deserves that we put them first on our priority list of our evolution and nourish their uniqueness. Without that there’s no point in making any plans to progress or evolve as a human collective. It is my mission to positively shift the way our children are valued, heard, seen, healed and unconditionally loved by us all.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If you were visiting me in Los Angeles for the first time, I’d have the perfect itinerary! I love to collaborate with my guests so I always list out my favorite nature spots first: Griffith Park, Topanga Beach, Santa Monica boardwalk and Huntington Gardens. I’m originally from NYC so there will be lots of walking, especially if we’re doing a taco truck tour in Koreatown. There’s a lot great dessert spots in Koreatown too but my favorite connecting neighborhoods to walk and eat is Silverlake, Los Feliz and Echo Park. Alcove in Los Feliz is a must for cakes! Pazzo Gelato in Silverlake is heaven, especially when they have Guava gelato in season…yum! Echo Park has a great pizza shop called Masa of Echo Park but get the deep dish, you will not regret it! But take it to go and eat it at Echo Park lake down the block. On the weekends would be a good time to walk around DTLA, the flower district, Little Tokyo and the arts district. Impossible for me to list all the great places there but I will say that you must go to the US Bank Tower and get a drink at their famous restaurant located at the very top named 71 Above. You will be thanking me because the views are spectacular. One my favorite things that I appreciate as New Yorker living in LA is the melting pot of people that live here, the eclectic food and somehow there’s enough space for everyone’s dreams to come true, no matter what they are.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Absolutely! My heartfelt shoutouts go to: Yai Vargas, Eva Goulette, Edwin Licona and Crystal Dawn. I love you all and I greatly appreciate your support and for believing in me!

Website: https://presentlyaqui.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/presentlyaqui/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-torres-6b889772/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@presentlyaqui

Other: https://ourmindfulkids.com/

Image Credits
Mari Diaz & Oscar Ku