In honor of International yoga month I wanted to take the time out to share a bit of my yoga journey with you while honoring the teachers that made a significant difference for me in my practice, in my life and as a teacher. Each week I will write a new post to share this journey, so please stay tuned!
Like a lot of people, yoga found me in a difficult time in my life. I was in the process of picking up the pieces of my broken spirit after much loss, depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. I had cleaned out my bad habits that I leaned on as a crutch, cleaned out friends that didn’t support a healthy lifestyle (which was all of them) and was making great efforts in creating a new life. After a slow and painful transition, a new friend in my life recommended that I try yoga.
I attended my first yoga class at my gym and let me tell you what happened… I HATED IT! Yes you read that correctly. It was slow, the teacher couldn’t wait to leave and my anxiety was running high. I couldn’t help but feel like I should be doing something else. It wasn’t relaxing or healing in any way. However, before I wrote it off completely I was encouraged to try a different class with a different teacher. This is where I met Kamila. She was funny, she was kind and you could tell yoga was really important to her. She came from the Ashtanga lineage which is a very athletic form of yoga. She challenged me, so much so, that I didn’t have time to think of other things I could be doing. She made us sweat. This was exactly what I needed at the time. I needed this athletic practice to get me out of my head. I started practicing 3-5 times a week. Within 3 months I was practicing my first arm balance pose. This was a turning point for me because I could see and feel a physical change in my body. It gave me a new found confidence and inner strength. It was this growth that made me think, what else I could do if I kept practicing and how would it effect my life in consequence? Kamila always said “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”. This has always stuck with me and I continue to pass this teaching on in her honor. She helped me fall in love with yoga, forever changing my life although I didn’t know it at the time.
Because of this experience, I understand that exploring different practices for new students is important. They need to find what connects them to the practice. Some need to sweat and work hard before connecting to the spiritual practice of yoga and some need to take it slower. Different personalities and bodies connect in different ways. For someone dealing with high anxiety, they may need to relax but something too slow could trigger anxiety. I also learned the importance of trying different teachers for many of the same reasons I listed above. I know I’m not the perfect teacher for every student and that’s ok. I’m grateful for these early lessons in my practice as they have helped me to connect to others who may be experiencing a lot of the same things I did when I first started. It’s also helped me guide them to the right practice and teacher before writing it off completely.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
What was your first yoga experience like? Please share in the comments below.