My journey with yoga began twenty years ago. Yoga is ubiquitous these days, but in 1998, it was just starting to become widely accessible.
I haven’t maintained a regular yoga practice but every so often, I find my way back to my mat for a period of time. I’m sure I would be much closer to inner peace and never having back pain if I could maintain a regular, daily practice indefinitely. That’s ok though, yoga welcomes me back every time and seems to give me what I need at that time.
I started taking yoga at the Bally Total Fitness in Huntington Beach. The Sunday morning step instructor started offering yoga immediately after step class (yes, I was a step aficionado and I had the cankles to prove it). Gosh, I wish I could remember his name! He was a very sunny and bright spirit who was in the process of yoga training and wanted to share his journey with us.
I loved the opportunity to stretch and move in different ways. I studied Pilates in college as part of my dance studies so for me, my first exposure to yoga was evocative of that discipline (the intent and breathing is different but I’m sure that old Joe was influenced by ancient India somehow). For me, it was a non-threatening way to work on strength while retaining the flexibility and balance that I had developed through dance.
A few years later, my friend at work invited me to join her for a yoga class after work. We headed WAY into downtown Los Angeles (this was in the days that no one lived downtown). The class was a revelation, it was fast moving and energetic and transformational. I felt like I was attacking my practice with a sense of fearlessness. There wasn’t time for fear, you just kept moving and when you were finished, you realized that you had done things that you never would have thought you could. The owner/instructor always closes her lessons with, “wisdom, kindness, and love. Namaste.” Wherever I find myself, I still like to always close my practice with, “wisdom, kindness, and love.”
About two years ago, I was procrastinating with making a decision, nothing life-changing, just a little thing that was important to me. One day I decided to go to a random yoga class. Somewhere in the middle of class, that anxious feeling in my chest that had been hanging around for months went away and I knew that it was time and that I was making the right decision. How does yoga do that?
Currently, I do yoga at my gym. Usually but not always twice a week. The class is billed as “ yoga for athletes,” which is not a how I would describe myself these days and I was nervous to try it. But it was on the right day at the right time, and turns out is just right for me right now. The instructor is very straightforward and the class is only 50 minutes, which is long enough for me anymore. We don’t do inversions or crazy back bends or arm balances and I don’t need those things right now. It is challenging and strenuous, but energizing.
