In honor of Millennials around the country currently enjoying spring break, The Stream has launched an exclusive new series entitled “The Millennial Difference,” featuring Millennials who are using their passion to make a difference in the world. This is the third installment.

Naomi Mattay’s childhood dreams included becoming a missionary, a wife and a mother. Yoga instructor? Not so much. Now she’s in the process of obtaining her second yoga instructor certification, which she hopes to use to share Jesus with young women.

In the meantime, the 23-year-old is learning what it means to recover from depression, wait on God, and find her own identity in him.

Helping Women Flourish

Raised a pastor’s kid in North Texas, Mattay discovered her passion for ministering to young women while serving as the chaplain for her cheerleading squad in high school.

Mattay is specifically interested in reaching girls between the ages of 12 and 20, “The years of beginning to figure out who you are,” she said. Culture’s message to teen girls is “just distorted about who we are supposed to be as women.”

“Comparison and competition is a thing you see so constant in the American culture of women,” Mattay continued, adding that in America’s sex-obsessed environment, women are often viewed as objects for pleasure and nothing more. Many teen girls think they have to look like the unrealistic images of models on magazine covers, “or else I’m not going to be enough, I’m not going to be worthy, I’m not going to be wanted.”

“I want every one to know the Lord, because that’s where we discover who we truly are.”

Mattay wants to tell young women that when they discover who they are in Christ, they can flourish. “He brings you into the fullness of your identity,” she said. “For me, that was learning to what it is to be loved and cherished by God. … We don’t need value from anyone else. We don’t need value from culture, because our worth and our value is in Jesus Christ.”

But Mattay didn’t think she’d use fitness to get that message across.

After Depression, Holy Yoga

It was around the same time that Mattay was discovering her passion for young women’s ministry that she was introduced to yoga. When Mattay did the stretches for the first time as part of a cheerleading exercise, she said she was bad at it and never thought she’d do it again. But then her battle with depression began.

In 2015, “I hit a wall,” Mattay said, despite having always been a cheerful, optimistic person.

Fortunately, Mattay received the support she needed to pull through. After a year of biblical counseling and a regimen of anti-depressants she still takes, Mattay considers herself recovered. Part of that recovery also included regular exercise. Signing up for yoga classes helped keep her accountable. “I liked yoga during depression because it’s not competitive,” Mattay said. When a coworker recommended she look into the non-profit ministry Holy Yoga, Mattay thought it sounded like “cheesy Christianity.” But she looked into it anyway, and discovered “a beautiful thing.”

How does Holy Yoga work? In general, yoga focuses on postures, stretching and concentration that can help to develop new thinking patterns in the brain. Holy Yoga combines those physical practices with meditation on God’s Word. “When you bring Scripture and the Bible into it, you learn new ways of thinking,” Mattay said, referencing Romans 12:2:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

Now Mattay is earning her second instructor certification through the ministry. But training with the non-profit involves more than physical exercise — instructors are also trained to be ambassadors of Christ.

“Our heart is to spread the gospel through the nations through yoga,” Mattay said, and a yoga class is a “safe place” for people to experience the heart of God. “Jesus went to the people that were unsafe, untouchable. As disciples of Christ, we want to be that for people,” she said.

Mattay views Holy Yoga as the perfect way to fulfill her passion of ministering to young women.

Mattay views Holy Yoga as the perfect way to fulfill her passion of ministering to young women, particularly those recovering from traumatic experiences, since the relaxation of yoga opens up opportunities for people to heal. When she earns her second certification, Mattay said she’d love to incorporate Holy Yoga in outreaches to refugee girls in the north Texas area.

“When it comes to the refugee population, they’ve all gone through such deep heartbreak and trauma,” she said. Holy Yoga would provide an outlet for them to work through that pain and also be introduced to Jesus. Eventually, Mattay hopes to teach yoga classes overseas during short and long-term missions trips.

Mattay is excited about what the future holds. But like many Christian Millennials, she’s still waiting — for doors to open, for God to lead, for that future to come to fruition. The wait is something she’s learned to embrace. And as she’s waiting on God, she’s discovering her identity in Christ.

“He brings us out of darkness into his marvelous light,” Mattay said. “That’s my heart. For people to know the Lord. I want every one to know him, because that’s where we discover who we truly are.”

Check back with The Stream for future stories about Millennials who are making a difference. Read previous installments about Chelsea Patterson and her advocacy for foster children, and how the Millennial-led organization Cross the Line is using sports to spread the gospel.