Meet Danielle Vardakas

We were lucky to catch up with Danielle Vardakas recently and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle, thank you so much for joining us and offering your lessons and wisdom for our readers. One of the things we most admire about you is your generosity and so we’d love if you could talk to us about where you think your generosity comes from.

I feel that my generosity comes from the experience of being from a single parent family and being a single mother myself. I watched my mother not take time for her own selfcare and wellbeing while raising me. I work to find time and energy for selfceare and create mindful lifestyle for my son and myself. With the rising cost of living and the decline of employment with benefits, I feel that providing free mindfulness and yoga classes and teacher trainings can help lower income families on EBT and Medicaid find these modalities with out the additional stresses of affording them. Yoga and wellness are an expensive commodity that most folks just can’t afford. With Garnet Heart Wellness 501(c)3, I give tuition free access to individuals that otherwise would not be able to experience.
Generosity has also been sparked by loosing my cousin Kryssy. She died of a drug overdose. I offer yoga and mindfulness to those in early stages of addiction recovery. I would love to share coping methods to prevent relapse and inevitably death.
I have worked with those in detox and know the good that comes from creating new healthy habits and paths. I have researched and written thesis about mindfulness and quality of life for those in recovery.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Garnet Heart Wellness, a 501c3 nonprofit, provides a peaceful practice led by passionate, knowledgeable teachers to help individuals achieve liberation in life. We focus on serving underserved populations through free yoga, meditation, dance, and sound energy healing. Through our “Buy One, Give One” model, every paid Yoga Teacher Training tuition funds a full scholarship for another student. With grant funding, we aim to expand our scholarship offerings even further.

Danielle has graduated with a masters degree summa cum laude in yogic studies and a mindfulness instructor certification from Naropa University. Originally from Philadelphia, she studied dance and art at the Philadelphia Creative & Performing Arts High School and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Temple University and the Tyler School of Art in 2001. Danielle fell in love with yoga in 1994 while dancing with a junior ballet company and began teaching yoga in 2000. Her practice continued to create balance in her body and mind through her professional dance career which included mainly Hip Hop and Breakin with a bit of Contemporary Modern. She was mentored by Cara Bradley of Verge Yoga. She is also strongly influenced by her teachers Dharma Mittra , John Friend and Kausthub Desikachar. Danielle is continuously training and has completed over 4000 hours of teacher training programs all over the globe. She is a registered 1000 hour Advanced Teacher with Dharma Yoga. Danielle & her family moved from Philadelphia to Vermont in winter 2009 where she had a yoga center before moving to West Palm Beach in 2019. Now she is thrilled to be starting this 501(c)3 Garnet Heart Wellness named after her son, Garnet.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Resilience: Things will fail. There will be set backs. We must continue to strive forward.

Flexibility: It is ok to shift and change to adapt to the ever changing needs of yourself and your community.

Studentship: The best teachers are often the best students. Always develop your skills and learn new modalities that further your dreams and expand your mind.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

I am looking for half way house directors that are interested to bring their recovery groups to my free yoga and meditation classes in West Palm Beach.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.garnetheartwellness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/garnet_heart_wellness/
• Other: https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/consumermyinfo?studioid=5742495&tg=&vt=&lvl=&stype=&view=&trn=0&page=&catid=&prodid=&date=2%2f7%2f2025&classid=0&prodGroupId=&sSU=&optForwardingLink=&qParam=&justloggedin=&nLgIn=&pMode=0&loc=1

Image Credits

Tristen Davis