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Embracing Discomfort with Rosco Difini

Meet the Teacher

2020 was a year of embracing discomforts. The global pandemic, drastic changes, and social distancing forced us to face many challenges. Routines changed and people turned online to find new means of work, leisure, and exercise.

Physical activities that were once conducted outdoors and in groups are now done privately at home. Yoga is no different. Yoga trainers have had to learn to use digital platforms to stay connected with existing clients, and cater to the influx of new students drawn to yoga as a mind and body activity that can easily be done remotely.

“I want to help more people wake up to their true nature and live more liberated from fear, guilt, and shame.”

Rosco’s career as a personal trainer led him to discover the healing benefits of yoga. Growing up as a gay man in the deeply religious conservative South forced Rosco to endure shame and mental distress. He found solace in yoga and aims to enrich the lives of others through the same tools that helped him embrace his own discomforts.

When and how did you get started with Yoga?

My very first experience with yoga was with a Denise Austin VHS tape when I was about twelve. I thought it was so boring. Fast-forward about ten years to when I was in college at Auburn University in 2010, I was a personal trainer at the Student Activities Center and just so happened to be very flexible, outgoing, and not afraid of leading groups. So, the director of Wellness & Group Fitness recruited me to do a YogaFir Level 1 training and become a teacher. That was the very beginning of me finding my path and calling as a yogi.

How has yoga helped you cope with change as a person?

I used to be very attached to my youth, physical body, and fitness. I had a fear of getting old and developed disordered eating and exercise habits. I would chronically over-train and under-nourish my body. Yoga initially helped me to loosen my grasp on that by listening to my teachers speak about aparigraha (non-attachment) and ahimsa (non-violence) in classes. Once I started practicing yoga and meditating on these foundational ideas, it wasn’t long before I started to realize that I was operating out of fear and doing violence to myself, mentally and physically. So I started to value balance and rest. My mind started to open, but the big work was still to come.

Has yoga played a part in your journey to accepting your sexuality?

As a closeted gay Christian, I struggled emotionally and mentally and built rigid walls to guard the conservative beliefs I had had since childhood. Finally, I felt pretty exhausted and mentally unwell. At age 25 I decided to try letting go of the identity and life I had known. I moved to a new city. I stopped working out. I stopped going to church. I stopped reading the Bible. I started talking to most of my old friends a lot less, and I started therapy. During that period, one thing that remained consistent was my yoga practice. Besides starting new work, making new friends, and spending a lot more time in nature, the most profoundly transformational experience in that chapter of my life was entering a trauma-oriented yoga teacher training called MindBody Centering Yoga (MBCY) where the main emphasis was healing the chakras and striping away unwholesome “mental formations”.

It immediately became clear to me that my first and second chakras were completely blocked because of deep-seated fear and guilt about my sexuality. The essence of the second chakra is change, so on the second weekend of that teacher training, I decided to fully embrace change and see if any miracles took place. I was still not sure if I could accept myself as gay. I still hoped that somehow I would heal and become straight, but I threw away my beliefs that were keeping me stuck, and then my second chakra exploded open and I exploded out of the closet. It was the biggest release of my life. In one day, my perspective on everything shifted. Since then, I have been able to embody fluidity and allow change without fear, and man oh man has my life changed over the past five years!

Could you describe what a yoga session with you is like?

All of these styles I teach in their pure form, but I also blend them together if what a person or group needs is Rainbow-Ashkabonga or Free-Ballin’ Ashkabonga!

As far as the actual yoga sessions, I usually begin with chanting, followed by some mantra (chanting), pranayama (yogic breathing exercises), asana (physical postures). I end the session with savasana (deep relaxation) and/or mindfulness meditation. I love curating playlists that take students and myself deeper into the experience. I’m very impacted and inspired by music.

I like to talk, but with people who need to be heard, people who have more trauma to work through. I do 1:1 life coaching in combination with regular, physical yoga practice.

Why did you choose to name your classes Rainbow Yoga and Ashkabonga Yoga?

That’s a funny story! Rainbow Yoga was the first class I started to create based on chakra theory after coming out of the closet and completing the MindBody Centering Yoga teacher training in 2016. Rainbows are a big theme in my life.

Ashkabonga was a style of yoga that started to form as I modified the Ashtanga Primary Series and mixed it together with MindBody Centering Yoga, Calisthenics, and Primal Movement. It is meditative and also somewhat silly. One day, a friend of mine (who doesn’t know anything about yoga) jokingly called the class “Ashkabonga” and it was like music to my ears. It stuck.

How do you create a personal connection virtually?

I start out by asking if there is anything interesting going on in the student’s mind/body and listen deeply to what they say. I try to let them know with my words and body language that they can talk as long as they need to and tell me anything they want, that they will not be judged. I try my very best to mold the movement session by what I hear and see from the person in front of me. I also check-in and follow up after the session.

What are the advantages of a private yoga session?

Primarily it’s that I get to focus on the needs of only one person, their physical form, ability, pace, strengths, and weaknesses. In a group, I have to be careful not to let any one-person take up too much space. In a group there are many different minds and triggers too, so I have to be much more careful with my language so as to not upset anyone or create confusion. When there is only one student, it usually feels much more casual and personal because there is an ongoing conversation and the one student gets to take up all the space they want.

What do you want your students to feel when they finish a session?

Ideally, I want them to have stepped out of the self-centered mentality to a more expanded reality — the bigger picture. I want them to walk away from their practice feeling like they got a change in perspective and can transition back into their day with more clarity, self-confidence, enthusiasm, and compassion for themselves and others.

What advice would you give to someone who is just starting their yoga journey?

It’s not about building up the ego, finding the answers, and taking on more. It’s about letting go, stepping away, and finding more questions.

Do you have a mission as a yoga teacher? What is it that you want to achieve?

I want to help more people wake up to their true nature and live more liberated from fear, guilt, and shame.

What fun, non-yoga related activity do you like doing?

I love riding my bicycle aimlessly, going to music festivals and playing in nature.

And finally, what is your favorite quote, affirmation, or mantra?

“Relax, nothing is under control”

Rosco is offering various classes — Rainbow Yoga, Ashkabonga Yoga, an Introductory Yoga Session, a Personal Training Introductory Session, Naked Yoga for Men, and a Special Five Session Bundle.

🎁An introductory session with Rosco is free of charge.

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Our mission is to empower instructors with simple and effective tools to run and grow their business, so they can focus on what they love to do — teach, train, create and inspire. For students, we offer a place where they can easily practice and connect with great instructors — anywhere, anytime.

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