As an artist and a yoga guru, Maria Calderon, 25, is in touch with herself and her surroundings.

Calderon teaches at least 10 yoga classes a week at Yoga Fix and Yoga Patch and for staff and volunteers at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and also paints with gouache and acrylic.

“My paintings are about my immediate environment,” she says. “I try to put together the two worlds I love most — folk art and KC.”

As a yoga instructor with lupus, an autoimmune deficiency disorder, Calderon says she is forced to “understand my body day to day. It’s constantly being aware of what I need to do to take care of myself.”

She does that by eating healthy, using medicinal essential oils and practicing yoga, which she says “calms the mind and soothes the nerves.”

Here are a few things she loves.