At 42, I have more flexibility, balance in my mind, and tools to navigate life’s great challenges than I did in previous decades of life. All of this is greatly attributed to my yoga practice.
Yoga has been weaving in and out of my life for more than a couple of decades, starting in college at the University of Arizona. The first class I attended felt earthy, out of my comfort zone, and didn’t speak to me at all! In my 20s, I found Bikram yoga, which was a great workout, but it felt a bit like a cult with its structure and rules (which was later validated when all sorts of issues about Bikram came to light).
In my 30s, after tragically losing my brother, I found myself in a hot vinyasa class. I was miserable, overworking myself, and lost in grief. I didn’t know how to turn off my phone out of fear of missing a work call. This 75-minute class was my first experience learning how to fully disconnect from my work, life, and commit to myself.
Another thing that developed during these 75 minutes was my acceptance and comfort in my body. It was extremely hot in there, and I needed to wear minimal clothing for comfort. I grew up in the era of extremely thin supermodels, had a career in fashion, and was always self-conscious about my weight after years of swim sports, a love of food, and bulking up as a result. The yoga environment taught me how to disconnect from the surface and go within. I fell in love with it and never looked back.
Fast forward to 2020. The world shut down due to the pandemic, and after several months of homeschooling my ex’s kids, preparing countless meals, cleaning, and drafting business recovery plans, I found myself in a Zoom yoga class. My teacher, who I had been following for several years and learned so much from, mentioned yoga teacher training. Yoga had saved me from losing it years earlier, and I couldn’t sign up fast enough for the teacher training!
Teacher training was the best gift I could have given myself. I literally learned how to heal myself both physically and mentally.
By trade, I am a fashion stylist in the fields of advertising and entertainment marketing. This means that I am walking miles per day for work, either on set or shopping and sourcing products for shoots. My job requires me to lift very heavy equipment, work long hours, and my body suffers from it. By the age of 27, my back was going out monthly, and there were days I was crawling on the floor trying to get to some ibuprofen so I could get back on my feet and to work.
I felt too young for such extreme pain and feared what that meant for my body in the future. Rarely does this happen to me these days, and I’m now 42! Thanks to my yoga practice, I am stronger, more flexible, and leaner than ever before. This summer, I had a six-pack for the first time in my life.
Yoga works on both the body and mind from the inside out. It is a beautiful balance of breathwork, moving meditation, strength, and flexibility. Learning yoga is like learning how to build the vehicle that you ride on your life’s journey. It teaches you the building blocks that guide you to go within and learn the intricacies of your mind and body so you can steer your ship in the best way possible.
Through my yoga practice and teacher training, I have been able to dive into the Ayurvedic sciences and how they weave through diet, seasonal changes, and the effects on the body. I am writing this at the start of fall. Several of my friends have thrown their backs out, one daughter’s shoulder is broken, and my neck was out of alignment in the last couple of weeks. In Ayurveda, this is the Vata season, which is dry, airy, and not very grounded.
To balance this out, it helps to eat and drink warm fluids, do hot yoga practices, use saunas, and add warmth to the body. After adding some extra yoga to my busy schedule, calming my nervous system with heating pads, tea, and mindfulness, my neck is 90% better, my posture is upright again, and I’m on the mend. Ten years ago, I would have been in pain for days, if not weeks!
I could go on and on about my lessons in yoga for a lifetime because I see myself exploring yoga throughout my life. I know it will continue to evolve because there are so many layers to the practice, and the more I dive into the process of learning the sciences of yoga, the more I uncover about myself. That’s a wonderful gift to give myself! As our teachers say at the end of class, “I am grateful for those who came before me to share this practice,” and I am always happy to share my experiences and gains from yoga with others, as it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
