Finding Yoga

We all have our stories on how we found yoga, how it became such a large part of our lives. It usually has to do with stress, pain or disease. A lot of times we ignore our bodies until they are crying out to us.

I’m no different. I was working a stressful job, my anxiety started to build and soon I had a panic attack. It only took one panic attack for me to try yoga. I didn’t need anymore warnings. 

My husband was in PA school at the time so we had absolutely no extra income, taking a yoga class at a studio was out of the question. Confident that yoga was the answer to my stress I decided I would take the video route. I was hooked. After I finished my first power yoga video ( took me a few weeks until I could finally make it through the whole thing) I felt like a limp noodle. So relaxed. I was hooked.

Two years later I attended my first teacher training at Core Power Yoga in Denver. At that point in my yoga journey I was attracted to the physical aspect of the practice. My mind was racing too much to notice that there was more going on with me than just my physical body. That first day of my training was my first yoga class. It was intense but I loved it. 

The training was two months long. I learned a lot about myself and yoga. I also learned about something called Yoga Therapy. At the time it was a pretty new field. There wasn’t a lot of information out there on how to become one and trainings were far and few between. I knew then that it was something I wanted to do, but couldn’t afford at the time.

I taught yoga for about 5 years before the time finally came to do my yoga therapy training. At the time I had a two year old and leaving for a month to do the training wasn’t an easy decision. Every moment I was away from my baby girl and husband was a constant question as to whether I was doing the right thing. But every day I learned something new and inspiring. Something about myself that I could use later to help people. I realized that my yoga practice up to that point had been all about my body and that I was leaving my mind out of it.

You see, the training or journey to become a yoga therapist isn’t an easy one. All the tools you learn to help your students/clients, you must first try on yourself. You dig deep into your being and discover stuff you didn’t even know existed. You come out on the other end of the training with some great resources and the excitement of wanting to help others, but also new stuff that you will have to address about yourself and continue to work on.

Yoga therapy isn’t a quick fix. It is about taking time to dig deep through all your layers to find the thing that is festering. The thing that is making you sick, anxious, depressed, angry or whatever sensation or feeling that is obsessing you.

Your being (body, mind and soul) is like an onion, you have many layers. What happens on one layer can affect the other. Until you find the source of what your pain is, you can’t be healed. Yoga therapy treats your physical, emotional, energetic and spiritual being. No part of you is left out. You are the practitioner. You know your body, therefor you are the best one to heal it. As a yoga therapist I'm just there to guide you in the right direction.