I’ve done yoga on and off since middle school. I would join my mom when she went to yoga classes at our local gym. I wasn’t ever a particularly athletic person, so I struggled to find a form of exercise that I actually enjoyed. Yoga felt like a happy middle ground. It was a practice I could do in my own room to stretch and build muscle. Plus, it didn’t involve getting hit by a projectile or doing sprints in the summer heat. For these reasons, I ended up taking a yoga class for my gym credit in high school. I did thirty days of yoga challenges with the Youtube channel “Yoga with Adriene.” However, I never considered that I could become a true yogi. To me, yogis were the kind of people who spent hours meditating every day and at any given moment could expound on the chakras. I thought I wasn’t flexible or strong enough for all the advanced postures. So I kept my yoga practice at arm’s length. That is until I got to college.
At college, my idea of yoga and yogis transformed. I started going to the Vinyasa yoga class twice a week with friends. The current yoga instructor is a student and had a very similar story to mine. It made me realize that becoming a yoga teacher and taking yoga seriously was a possibility. It still felt like a pipe dream. I started to do research into yoga teaching training programs. Most of the in-person classes were summer intensives or weekend workshops that lasted for half a year. These were too expensive for my college wallet, some upwards of $3000. The Kenyon yoga instructor, however, recommended I look into My Vinyasa Practice. It was an online course that started during the pandemic. MVP offered live Zoom lectures along with recorded videos and readings. There was a 200 Hour Training course that was self-paced and relatively affordable. I made the decision to commit to it and spend my summer focused on yoga.
So far I have only begun the training process but it has shifted my perspective in ways I couldn’t imagine. Studying yoga has made me realize that flexibility and strength are only part of the holistic practice. Most of it is working with the mind. I have started to observe the ways I think and perceive the world. I can identify any irrational fears or spiraling thinking before they swipe me away. I’ve always been anxious, so having a dedicated time in my time to slow down and quiet my brain for a while is incredibly freeing. As I have been taught, yoga is a reminder to check in with the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual sides of myself. I have a greater awareness of my body and mind which has not only helped my stress level it has helped my self-image. I feel more confident as well as physically stronger.
That is not to say that yoga has been the perfect fix. I still have the same thought patterns and fears that I had before. Some days I’m calm and clearheaded, while other days I’m decidedly not. That’s part of the whole point. Yoga is about constantly reminding myself that I can go back to that zen. When life gets busy and challenging, yoga tells me to slow down and recenter. There are so many gifts yoga has unlocked for me. I’m so grateful that I made the choice to take it more seriously. Hopefully, this is a part of my life I carry with me for a long time.