The “One Human” Experience
Sep 01, 2025 06:00AM ● By Diane Eaton
“Let’s feel into this together.”
Veronica Clark spoke those inviting words—and countless others—to a room of yogis and non-yogis, me included, attending her One Human Experience, an immersive three-hour evening event at the Wellness Spot in College Park on the last Saturday in July.
The program sprang from a vision she had in December 2024 after she’d been teaching and developing many of its components at CIVANA Wellness Resort in Arizona for four years. It was a lofty vision. “It became clear to me that I was to go out into the world and share what it really means to live yoga,” says Clark. “One Human came as a reminder to humanity that we’re not alone, that we’re here for more and that we are here to experience peace.”
While key principles of yoga are woven deeply into the themes and practices in the class, the material is still well-suited even for those who have no idea what a down dog is. “The eight limbs of yoga provide a map on how to return to the Oneness, and One Human is an embodiment of that invitation,” says Clark. “If the heart of yoga is samadhi—a state of oneness, unity, and full absorption with all of life—then One Human is a way of remembering that truth in real time.”
The evening consisted of a few relaxed periods of teaching and inquiry, 30 minutes of accessible yoga asanas, and several experiential “laboratories,” or exercises done in pairs. Along the way, we participants got to notice some of what stirs within our oceans of unconscious beliefs, judgments, expectations and assumptions—the bricks and mortar of what keeps our sense of separation in place, she points out.
Our unconscious thought processes, says Clark, “are playing out over and over and over again. They’re what’s getting in the way of our love and our connection … Once we bring awareness to those patterns, we can begin to choose differently. We can stop participating in what separates us.”
For Michael Caserno, a yoga teacher, podcaster and owner of a transportation business, the One Human Experience helped him “peel back some of those layers so you can see. And then if you find a blind spot—well, now it’s not a blind spot anymore. Now you can decide whether or not it’s something you want to work on.” Another takeaway for Caserno, who took the program twice in Chicago where he lives, was his elevated sense of connection to people. “I gained the ability to really look deeper at people,” he says, “and to just let people live, let people have their story, let people have their defeats and their victories.” Says Clark, “People come out of these experiences feeling more connected to themselves. And they actually describe feeling love in a way that they had not felt love before.”
It’s important to Clark to create a safe space for people to relax into. Clark herself had been raised in an extremely abusive environment, and it galvanized her journey. “I felt so unsafe in my life for so long that I had to learn how to create my own safety and to feel safe in this world.” With the help of her yoga practice and some deep inner work, she says she’s created a “safe landing place in myself that allows people to feel safe, loved, seen, accepted, welcomed—so that [participants] can do this kind of deep work in a very short period of time.”
She also chose The Wellness Spot for its vibe. The studio is “the only boutique fitness studio and full-service wellness spa on the south side of Atlanta,” says certified yoga teacher Vashti Dennis, the wellness director of the studio, who co-hosted the event and led the yoga portion of the evening. A Black woman-owned small business with a membership business model, the Wellness Spot has flourished and grown beyond expectations since it opened four years ago. “Making sure that [the community] has access to try these wellness services has been just such a joy and a gift for me,” says Dennis.
By the time Clark spoke those words, we had formed two lines, each one of us facing the one in the line across from us. We had just completed a few exercises that helped us become more aware of what weakens our connection to each other. That’s when something clicked for me.
Now, I’ve been a meditator for many years, and I have a deeply held intention to “be here now” as much as possible. But facing another person so nakedly in that moment? My mental chatter was at high volume. And as I dropped down into my body, thanks to her guidance, I knew in my bones that I had absolutely no idea who the person in front of me really was. That any thoughts I had would only be fiction, conjecture or projection. That knowing then created an openness that allowed me to discover her, hear her, be present to her and be enriched by her. Being in my body—rather than a subscriber to my mind’s endless patter—made me profoundly aware of the aliveness in the room and the mystery of each soul walking around in a body there.
Clark is planning to develop a yoga teacher training program around One Human Experience so she can certify others in the U.S. and around the world to lead events, too. “We need every single one of us to be fully alive,” says Clark. “Yoga has always taught that separation is an illusion. That waking up means seeing clearly—what’s real, what’s not, what connects and what divides. That’s the path from darkness to light, from forgetting to remembering.”
Veronica Clark will be bringing One Human Experience back to Atlanta in February 2026. For more information, visit OneHumanExperiences.com. ❧
Veronica Clark
The program sprang from a vision she had in December 2024 after she’d been teaching and developing many of its components at CIVANA Wellness Resort in Arizona for four years. It was a lofty vision. “It became clear to me that I was to go out into the world and share what it really means to live yoga,” says Clark. “One Human came as a reminder to humanity that we’re not alone, that we’re here for more and that we are here to experience peace.”
While key principles of yoga are woven deeply into the themes and practices in the class, the material is still well-suited even for those who have no idea what a down dog is. “The eight limbs of yoga provide a map on how to return to the Oneness, and One Human is an embodiment of that invitation,” says Clark. “If the heart of yoga is samadhi—a state of oneness, unity, and full absorption with all of life—then One Human is a way of remembering that truth in real time.”
The evening consisted of a few relaxed periods of teaching and inquiry, 30 minutes of accessible yoga asanas, and several experiential “laboratories,” or exercises done in pairs. Along the way, we participants got to notice some of what stirs within our oceans of unconscious beliefs, judgments, expectations and assumptions—the bricks and mortar of what keeps our sense of separation in place, she points out.
Our unconscious thought processes, says Clark, “are playing out over and over and over again. They’re what’s getting in the way of our love and our connection … Once we bring awareness to those patterns, we can begin to choose differently. We can stop participating in what separates us.”
Like Never Before
Michael Caserno
It’s important to Clark to create a safe space for people to relax into. Clark herself had been raised in an extremely abusive environment, and it galvanized her journey. “I felt so unsafe in my life for so long that I had to learn how to create my own safety and to feel safe in this world.” With the help of her yoga practice and some deep inner work, she says she’s created a “safe landing place in myself that allows people to feel safe, loved, seen, accepted, welcomed—so that [participants] can do this kind of deep work in a very short period of time.”
She also chose The Wellness Spot for its vibe. The studio is “the only boutique fitness studio and full-service wellness spa on the south side of Atlanta,” says certified yoga teacher Vashti Dennis, the wellness director of the studio, who co-hosted the event and led the yoga portion of the evening. A Black woman-owned small business with a membership business model, the Wellness Spot has flourished and grown beyond expectations since it opened four years ago. “Making sure that [the community] has access to try these wellness services has been just such a joy and a gift for me,” says Dennis.
Aliveness Beckons
“Drop down into your body.”
Vashti Dennis
Now, I’ve been a meditator for many years, and I have a deeply held intention to “be here now” as much as possible. But facing another person so nakedly in that moment? My mental chatter was at high volume. And as I dropped down into my body, thanks to her guidance, I knew in my bones that I had absolutely no idea who the person in front of me really was. That any thoughts I had would only be fiction, conjecture or projection. That knowing then created an openness that allowed me to discover her, hear her, be present to her and be enriched by her. Being in my body—rather than a subscriber to my mind’s endless patter—made me profoundly aware of the aliveness in the room and the mystery of each soul walking around in a body there.
Clark is planning to develop a yoga teacher training program around One Human Experience so she can certify others in the U.S. and around the world to lead events, too. “We need every single one of us to be fully alive,” says Clark. “Yoga has always taught that separation is an illusion. That waking up means seeing clearly—what’s real, what’s not, what connects and what divides. That’s the path from darkness to light, from forgetting to remembering.”
Veronica Clark will be bringing One Human Experience back to Atlanta in February 2026. For more information, visit OneHumanExperiences.com. ❧
Diane Eaton, MCIS, is managing editor of Natural Awakenings of Atlanta and a professional freelance ghostwriter and writing coach. For more information, visit DianeTheWritingDoctor.com or call 404-585-7590.
