How Yoga Changed My Life

People often ask me how or when I started on my yoga path. I was 18 years old when I first step foot into my first yoga class. It was my senior year of high school and I was in the midst of lots of change. I had no idea where I wanted to go to college. My hope was to get into a Musical Theater program of choice but, I ended up not getting into any of my top choices. I worked so hard to prepare the right songs and monologues and essays and I felt truly defeated and the perfectionist in me fell apart. I experienced real anxiety for the first time in my life and I didn’t know how to get rid of it. I know I needed to find ways to quiet my anxious mind and accept the reality of what I was experiencing.

There comes yoga. I attended my first yoga class at the gym and in no time, I learned how to quiet my mind, tune into my breath, and do yoga poses that helped ease my anxiety. Within the breathing and fluid movements, yoga allowed me to get in touch with my inner strength and wisdom. Through the pranayama breath work and continuous repetition of yoga poses, I began to settle my mind and tune into an inner dialogue that whispered to me…’You are exactly where you should be, just let go. Let go of expectations, let go of where you thought you would be, just let go.’

I let go alright. I gained more than 10 lbs of letting go. I wasn’t happy about it. I didn’t feel good in my body. I turned down a Musical Theater scholarship to Muhlenberg University and an entry into the College of Music at Penn State University and decided to enroll in Penn State College of Communications instead. The College journey began and my freshman year was a rollercoaster. Not only did I deal with the normal changes of going to College, I moved dorms three times in one year. Despite the ups and downs, which life always brings, I found my way back to yoga. I would go to yoga classes at the gym because I knew that no matter what I was going through, any yoga practice would bring me back to that feeling of groundedness and strength. It was in those classes that I could come back to myself and find peace within despite the changes things outside of myself that I had no control of.

My senior year of college, I had the opportunity to take yoga as an elective for credit. I couldn’t believe that I would be taking yoga and getting a “grade” for it. I had the most special yoga teacher named Gaby, who inspired me even more to love yoga. She had required reading materials as part of the curriculum that I immediately dove into. I connected to everything about yoga. The philosophy and physical aspects of the practice resonated with me immensely. I knew I was just scratching the surface in that yoga class and I knew deep down that my yoga path would continue.

Fast forward to a couple of years down the road, post college graduation. I was a girl with a big time College degree and some hopes of living in New York City. ‘Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it’. Well, I got it. I got the real job, with the real salary, and a beautiful apartment with my best friend on the East Side of NYC. Life seemed really perfect from the outside but, on the inside I was terribly unhappy and knew deep down that this job wasn’t the path to get me to living my greatest potential. Living in New York City didn’t make me happy. My empathic nature wanted to retreat from the constant bustle, crowded subways, and fast paced lifestyle that came with it. At that time, I continued to go to yoga. I sought out some of the local studios nearby. I loved going to Yoga to the People where they would pack 50 students in one room but, we all shared our sheer love of yoga. The teachers were profound and the dharma talks that were woven into their sequences changed my life. I left those classes feeling enlightened, physically stronger, mentally calmer, and more open to the possibilities of life. It was those classes that inspired me to ever consider teaching yoga someday.

Fast forward to age 26, I had been practicing yoga four to fives times a week with some of the best teachers in New Jersey. I felt that my practice had reached an advanced level that I craved something more from it. I enrolled in a 200 Hour Teacher Training and never looked back. It was the most transformational six months of my life. I had been so keenly focused during that training that everything else in my life was put on hold. I felt kind of selfish but, I also knew that in order for me to fully experience the transformation, I needed to spend less time doing other things. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be a teacher in any capacity but, yoga truly brought out the teacher in me. During those six months of training, creative ideas flowed out of me like never before. My openness to life’s possibilities allowed me to feel comfortable enough in my own skin and get keenly focused on what it was that I wanted to pursue.

I don’t say that yoga changed my life lightly, I say it with a depth and humbleness because without yoga I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.

 

10 THINGS YOGA HAS TAUGHT ME AND HOW IT CHANGED MY LIFE:

1. When you quiet your mind, tune into your breath, you can connect to that voice inside that has all the answers (it’s called your intuition).
2. Find calm in the chaos. Despite the ups and downs of life, yoga has helped me find the positive in every situation.
3. Repetition is GOOD. The continuous repetition of yoga poses made me stronger and I could find ease and a new perspective in the poses that I felt comfortable in.
4. Balance and Focus are necessary to move forward successfully with your life! The balance and focus that I engage in on my yoga mat, I bring with me off the mat into my own life.
5. Self-care is very crucial to living an abundant life. Yoga teaches you the importance of taking care of yourself physically and mentally so that you can thrive in every way.
6. Don’t take yourself so seriously! Learn to laugh at yourself and life in general…As Marie Forleo says, “Everything is figure-outable”
7. Yoga teaches you mindfulness of the world around you! Practicing yoga allows you to look at everything around you with a mindful eye. It allows you to assess things in your life mindfully instead of making rash decisions.
8. It’s okay to fail. If things don’t work out, it’s a blessing in disguise. I    truly believe this now more than ever before.
9. Your path is your path, not anyone else’s path. You are a unique being which, means that your path is not going to look like anyone else’s. Don’t get caught in the comparison game. I love what Steve Job’s said: “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”
10. Perspective is everything. Every once in awhile a headstand or handstand can help you to see things with a different perspective.