My First Breath On the Mat

I paid for 6 weeks of classes through Macomb Twp Parks and Rec and I was determined to get my money’s worth.  Those were the thoughts that were going through my head at my very first yoga class when the teacher asked us to come down and touch our toes. Toes! I couldn’t get my fingers past my knees.  I thought we were just going to all sit around in a circle and chant “om”.  No one said anything about touching toes.  I was sore and cranky the next day but went back the next week and the week after that and the week after that.  Then I was hooked!  I felt what I had only heard others talk about.  I experienced the “yoga high”, that feeling of contentment, bliss and balance that comes from a yoga practice and I wanted more.

Fast forward 13 years. I became certified to teach yoga, opened a yoga studio and now have the honor to teach others to become teachers so they can pass on to others this wonderful journey into the inner and outer workings of yoga.

And that brings us to the purpose of this blog, to share how this practice of yoga has changed my life inside and out over the past 13 years. I learned that it’s OK if you can’t touch your toes, you’re still doing yoga and the seemingly “magical powers” that resides in our breath.  You don’t have to be a size zero and 20 years old to do a headstand (as a 58 years old, I speak from experience) and that the true essence of yoga is so much more that getting a “yoga butt”.

I also learned that even if I complete just one inhale and one exhale, a cycle of breath, that I am doing yoga.  Did you know that the medical term for an inhale is “inspire”.  So be inspired to change your life…..and just breathe.