Several months after my revelation to teach full time my husband and I found ourselves in Atlanta, starting a new life. Life was good. I was focusing on building my own business as a yoga instructor and we were exploring a new city with new friends. It was then we felt it was time to start trying for a baby, a month later I was pregnant. I continued to teach private clients and group classes around the city but my personal practice had slowed down. I didn’t have much energy and I found myself increasingly light headed. This time was a great learning experience for me to slow down even more than I ever had before and to really listen to what my body needed, after all, it growing a human being. Yin and restorative yoga were about all I could handle so that’s what I did and as a teacher I stopped relying on demonstrating to teach my students. This helped me grow tremendously as a teacher, allowing me to become much more present with my students but even more so it allowed me to tune into the practice instinctually rather than physically. I had to rely on my cues through this instinctual feeling to get my students into the proper alignment. My teaching style grew with this challenge and for that I am truly grateful.
28 weeks into my pregnancy I felt called to advance my yoga training through prenatal yoga. I felt this was an opportune time to learn the practice of prenatal yoga while being pregnant myself so I could really connect to what was being taught. My teacher, Amani was a beautiful woman several years older than me with lovely tattoos and deep connection and passion for prenatal teachings. She intertwined Ayurveda, Bhakti and Hatha principles and practices together beautifully. She also focused on connection and intimacy during this time. Through this training I deepened my knowledge around the physiology and spirituality around natural birth, and how to navigate an ever growing body through pregnancy. Amani’s stories of natural birth, postpartum, yoga and loss sparked something within me but I wouldn’t know what it was until after I delivered. I didn’t know it then, but this would become my dharma (calling) in the world, the universe just needed me to experience birth and postpartum first. Thank you Amani for being the first to educate me prenatally, light a passion I didn’t know I had and being a part of the journey that’s led me to being the teacher I am today.
Yoga is a lifelong practice, ever growing and transforming the way we view and experience life. As we grow and change, as does our practice, our passions and our gifts. Yoga teaches us how to navigate this flow of life, making our practice on the mat as well as off. I’m humbled by my challenges. Yoga has taught me every uncomfortable experience is an opportunity for transformation. It doesn’t mean it will be easy but it will be worth it. Although I feel I’ve found my dharma and will continue on this path of empowering and healing women through yoga, I keep myself open to new lessons and callings as I continue to grow. I now trust Yoga will always find me, right where I am time and again.
I’m grateful all the amazing teachers I have come across during my 11 years of practice and all that they have taught me. Because this was a four section blog post I wasn’t able to fit a story for each yoga teacher but I have left a list below to acknowledge and thank those that have had an impact on my life. Of course, there are many more than this as everyone is a teacher but here are a few I’d like to name that I’ve had personal experience with Namaste.
Claire – Thank you for your guidance in assisting and collaboration
Jo – Thank you for your adjustments and yoga business sense
Chaz – Thank you for teaching me that by being true to yourself the right tribe will follow
Michelle – Thank you for always being vulnerable and reminding me teachers are human beings too
Carrie – Thank you for being an example of living your creation
Holli – Thank you for being an inspiration of how to make it from the ground up as a yoga teacher while having fun
Tain – Thank you for combining and sharing your other gifts of reflexology and music inside of yoga. It’s a beautiful example of yoking your passions and being of service.
Dawn – Thank you for always making yoga accessible and affordable and for everyone & the integrity in which you teach.