September 30, 2020 | St. Lucie Cultural Alliance | Member Spotlight – Little Giant Life
Contributed by Dorothy Kamm
Member Spotlight – Maritza Diaz
Maritza Diaz may be small in size but she’s large in personality. She’s been a professional dancer and dance teacher for 20 years, adding yoga to her routine 10 years ago. Not only did yoga enhance her flexibility and strength, but it also helped alleviate the high stress and anxiety levels many professional dancers encounter.
Having experienced the positive effects yoga had upon her life, three years ago Maritza became a certified yoga teacher. A year later, in 2018 she moved from Hollywood, Fla. to Port St. Lucie and created Little Giant Life. Little Giant Life offers classes in mindfulness and yoga to foster self-development and health and wellness to achieve a positive outcome. Due to the current COVID culture, Maritza offers all of her classes online in what she calls a mobile arts program.
Coming from a city with a strong and pervasive arts culture, Little Giant Life joined the St. Lucie Cultural Alliance to become part of a like-minded group and to use the Alliance to boost its presence in the community. “Some counties, such as Palm Beach and Miami/Dade, train teachers in mindfulness. In turn, they teach their students how to become mindful,” says Maritza. “I want to bring this to Port St. Lucie and surrounding areas. Imagine how much better prepared for life children will be if they learn techniques to relieve stress and regulate their emotions.”
Maritza creates her own programs. Although she teaches children as young as 3 years old to senior citizens, she focuses on children. Like her, children are small in size but they’re large in attitude.
While peace and calm are the goals, Maritza’s techniques are fun and even energetic. For example, in the 5- to 8-year-old age range, in one exercise each child is given a feather. They are told to use their breath to keep the feather up in the air and not let it touch the ground. The children practice breathing while releasing their energy. And of course, many end up laughing as they work to keep their feather afloat. Ultimately, through the breathing techniques, the children learn they are able to calm down their minds and bring the moment into focus.
When teaching yoga to teenagers, Maritza uses funky instrumental background music that makes them smile when doing poses such as downward facing dog. Maritza has the students focus on movement, their body, and breathing so that they become more comfortable with their bodies. They can apply the breathing techniques they learned when taking a test or experiencing anxiety to calm themselves down and enhance their focus.
The teenage group also performs a variety of creative exercises to get them to think positively about themselves and their actions.
Ultimately, she wants all of her students to go outside, look up, and take a breath instead of turning to technology when they are stressed.
To learn more about the St. Lucie Cultural Alliance and the benefits of membership, please visit ArtStLucie.org, email: info@artstlucie.org or call 772-462-2783.
To learn more about Little Giant Life, visit www.maritzaidiaz.com or call 202-714-7707.