This blog is dedicated to a yearlong study of yoga in 2011. I would love for you to come along with me on this magical journey that I didn't expect to be taking...
I sort of stumbled into yoga over the summer as I was searching for a way to get into better shape. My youngest child is now four years old and I knew I had to quit using her as an excuse for the extra roll of flab on my tummy. I wanted a more energetic body and I wanted to feel better about myself. However, I've always had a hate-hate relationship with exercise. For me, working out was grueling, uncomfortable, unfun and a poor excuse to consume gross amounts of chocolate just because I got my heart rate up above the glub-glub of stagnation.
I had a few yoga and Pilates DVDs stashed away from past resolutions long broken and forgotten. In a fit of motivation that is usually quite foreign to me, I put them in and got to work. And I kept at it for more than two days! The yoga poses spoke to me. It was challenging work, and yet there was none of that get-this-over-with feeling, no exhaustion and no desire to self-medicate with sugar because I had "earned" it by forcing myself to sweat.
Soon I was searching for a teacher and studio, and the Infusion Yoga and Pilates Studio was right there like a gift just waiting to be opened. (It didn't hurt that they were offering an amazing introductory package for new students, either!) It took me a good few weeks to work up the guts to go to a class, but once I experienced the studio setting with a live teacher and a room full of students, I knew it was where I was meant to be. Only rarely have I felt so powerfully drawn to something.
After only a few classes, I knew that yoga was something I had to have as an integral part of my life. Not only that, but it is something that I feel compelled to share with others. (I can see those of you who have already been begged and cajoled into joining me smiling at this.) When I learned that Corena Hammer-- the founder of the Infusion studio who simply glows with yogic enlightenment and grace-- offers a teacher training program, it felt like the heavens had opened and rays of sunlight were pouring through a darkened sky directly onto my head while choirs of angels sang, "Yooohhhgggaaahhh!"
So for the next 12 months, I will be studying, learning, practicing and living the art of yoga. And sharing it all with you. Thank you for joining me.
Namaste
