I found yoga late. Or maybe it found me. Before I tried yoga I ran marathons. I did Pilates and kick boxing. I went to a gym.
I thought yoga was silly and would be a waste of my workout time. Plus I thought it was weird and controversial, which were two things I didn’t need more of. My art style had the corner on those things already. Changing my art didn’t feel like an option, yoga wasn’t on my radar.
One day I hurt my knee and my PT friend suggested a few things. One was that we go to a yoga class at our gym. Pain made me agree.
A woman I had never seen before was our instructor. She showed up in red stilettos and a leather jacket. Probably the coolest person I’d ever seen in real life, she was beautiful and muscular and Jada Pinka Smith confident. Yoga was like complicated Twister. Right hand here, left hand there. My knee felt about the same, but I went back. We would see our instructor drive up on a red Vespa in her signature heels. We were both temporarily hooked. Stretching and facia rolling might have healed my knee, but when the cool yoga girl disappeared, we lost interest.
Years later, a juice bar opened near our house. Green juice was my husband’s health thing at the time.The juice bar was attached to a yoga studio. They had an introductory offer of thirty days of unlimited yoga for thirty dollars. If you showed up and did thirty days of yoga classes you earned a t shirt and a deal on membership.
Thirty days later, I signed up and quit my gym. Obsessed. I loved the way my brain felt. I was physically stronger. I hadn’t heard much about breathing or mind quieting before, I learned that I really knew nothing about yoga. I had preconceived ideas about it. I thought it might be religious, I thought it was all stretching. I thought it was for limber 20 year olds. I thought it was for a very specific kind of person. What I found was that yoga is very diverse. I tried many forms. I never found it religious. I did hot, Yin, yoga with weights, yoga in the dark, at night in the morning, to AC/DC, to rain water, etc
Every instructor has a different style. I enjoyed most all of it. I did trainings to learn more about why my brain felt so good. Breath to movement was for me, magic!
It still is, eight years later, I’m still hooked. People say :”I should do yoga” I try to explain that there is no should about it. Yoga is its own reward. It’s like saying “ I should have a good cup of coffee” or “ I should eat a nice meal” yoga is not like going to do a workout. You feel good the minute you sit down on your mat and start breathing. As the instructor runs you through the postures you can only concentrate on your body and your breath. Somehow your mind relaxes. Somehow you walk out feeling amazing. Calm, cool headed, confident.
No stilettos for me, but I definitely feel like getting down to work on my big projects after a good mind calming yoga class.
Peace Kit 