I would have had the same question if someone said something so dramatic to me before I started practicing yoga and meditation regularly. Yoga is a practice of self exploration. Most people are surprised to learn that traditional yoga poses are simply meant to warm and stretch the body to sit comfortably in meditation for long periods. Meditation involves concentrating on your breath and the sensations in your body rather than allowing your mind to race from one thought to the next. Did you know the average person has between 50 and 70 THOUSAND thoughts each day? No wonder we’re stressed out!!!

Meditation is the discipline of concentrating on your breath and allowing those thoughts to pass by without labeling them as good or bad. The more you practice, the easier it becomes to do this even off your yoga mat and live in the space of peaceful awareness of the present moment, or mindfulness.  

It’s this power over our thoughts that is life changing. How? Well, our thoughts shape our beliefs about ourselves. Our beliefs affect our behaviors. Our behaviors shape our habits. Our habits shape the way we live our lives.

If is our fundamentally limiting beliefs about ourselves that keep us from living our most fulfilled lives. Examples of these include: “I’m too fat to date” “I’m too stupid to go back to school”, “I’m too shy to go to parties”, “I’m a failure”.

Change your thoughts, and everything changes. Make sense?

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in my joy over news of the safe rescue of all 12 members and the coach of the Thai soccer team that was trapped in a flooded cave. It took rescuers ten days to locate the team and several more days to safely extract them. The coach is a former monk and taught the boys to meditate in order to keep them calm in the cave while awaiting rescue. This seemingly simple act literally kept the boys alive: rescuers say that when they found the team, oxygen levels in the cave were depleted to the point where they would likely have run out if they weren’t conserving energy by meditating most of the day.

During yoga teacher training we started each session with 20 minutes of meditation. With consistent practice I noticed that my mind was clearer and more focused; my thoughts didn’t race with worry to the worst case scenario in every situation; I no longer felt constant anxiety in my chest; I was more accepting and less reactive when life didn’t go as planned. SimpIy, I was able to be present in each moment, and it felt like MAGIC.

Try it! Sitting with your back straight and your shoulders relaxed, close your eyes or lower your gaze and find somewhere where you feel your breath moving in your body: your belly, your chest, your throat, or your nostrils. Concentrate on that single point, gently bringing your attention back whenever your focus wanders. Remember, it’s a practice! There is no such thing as a perfect meditation. Even 5 minutes a day can make a huge difference.

I have yet to teach a yoga class where *something* hasn’t gone wrong. Like the time I forgot to bring a yoga mat to my first private session; when my phone overheated in the sun rendering me unable to play music; when I turned the lights too dim to see my own class plan and had to wing it; when I forgot--twice--to bring the business cards I’d paid for to be rush delivered.

This is not even close to an exhaustive list. With all I have going on in my life besides starting my own business, I often feel like a disorganized mess. And yet, thanks to some incredibly kind testimonials, I know I’m having the impact I hoped to have. Maybe it’s because of my imperfections rather than despite them that people are connecting with me as a teacher.

Dr. Maya Angelou once said “I’ve learned people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.  

Physical fitness has always been important to me. I started swimming competitively at a young age and then as a teen concerned with my weight, I started exercising obsessively, mostly in the form of running (which I hated) and aerobics classes (which I didn’t). While I enjoyed the camaraderie of group exercise, I detested stretching with the group at the end because I was SO inflexible it embarrassed me. Even worse, as a physical therapist I knew that my tight muscles would be make me injury-prone, and so in my mid twenties I decided to try yoga for the first time, “to improve my flexibility”.

I have to be honest. I HATED YOGA.

The tight, body-conscious clothes. The heated room. The unfamiliar music. Words spoken in a foreign language. Confident yogis in the front of the room doing poses I would never in my life attempt much less perfect.

I’ve never been one to give up easily. I tried different studios and different teachers. I always left with the same feeling: this shit wasn’t for me.

EXCEPT.  Every time I suffered through a yoga class, I had to admit that I felt physically--and mentally--better. The anxiety that resided in my chest as faithfully as my beating heart wasn’t so pronounced. I felt calmer, more focused and able to tackle the tasks of the day ahead. It’s why I kept going back even though nothing else about the practice connected with me.

In 2015 I finally broke up with chronic dieting and over exercising and for the sake of my mental health I took an entire year off from the gym. In 2016 I joined a new health club, mostly because it offered child care and had a great pool. Just looking at the gym equipment I’d wasted untold hours of my life on made me feel despair and so I decided to try yoga yet again in March of 2016.
 

And this time? It didn’t suck.

The teacher was welcoming and cool. His themes were relatable and gave me fresh perspective on challenges I was facing in my real life. He taught to every student regardless of level and helped me feel successful the very first class. He played music I’d heard before. It was actually fun. I started attending his classes regularly.
 

To my delight, with consistent practice I was able to enjoy that calm and peaceful feeling long after I left my mat. And as a secondary benefit, my physical strength and flexibility also improved.

Haven’t found *your* teacher or class? Let me introduce you to the powers of this practice.

I promise you won’t hate it.