I practiced yoga for the first time when I was 15 years old. A couple of friends and I decided we wanted to try something new, so we signed up for a once a week beginner yoga class. I can remember looking at the poster outside the studio of all the most advanced poses and thinking how amazing it was. It was like seeing something from the circus. It was amazing to see, but I couldn't even touch my toes. There was no way I would ever be able to bend that way.
Each class I would spend so much of my time staring at the clock wishing time would go faster. I would leave feeling pretty good, but when the three month session ended, I had no desire to sign up again. I had tried yoga, it wasn't for me.
A few years later, a studio opened up near where I live. I decided to give it another chance. I had been hearing all about the amazing benefits of yoga, and I figured it was about time I started caring about my health. So I bought a groupon for three months of unlimited yoga. I went three times.
I just could not find the motivation to go. I said I couldn't quiet my mind enough, I wasn't flexible enough, I didn't like the feeling of burning muscles as I had heard some people did. Again, I had given it a try, and it wasn't my thing.
Over the next few years, I finally did find the motivation I needed to have a regular exercise routine. It took me gaining twenty pounds to find it, but I finally had the desire to live a healthier life. I went to the gym a few times a week, and slowly but surely started eating better.
However, when was 19, I all of a sudden fell into a rut. Suddenly I couldn't find the motivation to go to the gym. When I did get myself there, I would do a couple little circuits, get bored, and go home. I couldn't figure out what had happened. I started to gain weight again, and I was miserable.
One day, on my way home from school, I saw a sign advertising free hot yoga. It turns out a new studio had opened up, and was offering free classes for the first week. I had never tried hot yoga before, and decided it was worth a try. At the very least, maybe it would give me the motivation I needed to get back to the gym. I remember the feeling I had the first time I walked into the change room at Hot Yoga Wellness. I looked around, and I just knew I would be spending a lot of time here. I couldn't explain it. I hadn't even tried a class yet, but something about it just felt right. It felt like home.
Sure enough, I loved the classes. I went almost everyday for that first free week. And as luck would have it, they were looking for energy exchangers. This meant that in exchange for free yoga, I would work at the studio four hours a week, mopping floors, folding towels, anything that needed to be done around the studio.
After only a few weeks of dedicated practice, I found myself craving yoga. Not only that, but I was back at the gym! I was eating healthy again, and I cared about my wellbeing.
After only a few months, I started to notice a difference in my behaviour, and how I felt in general. The "yoga high" I felt immediately after leaving a class started to last longer and longer. I found myself having more control over my emotions, and seeing life more clearly. It was like a fog had been lifted and I was now truly living life.
Inevitably, I wanted to spread it. I wanted to tell the whole world about how yoga had changed my life. And that's when I started researching teacher trainings.
Today, I can not imagine where I would be without yoga. It absolutely changed my life. I feel so grateful for the many opportunities I got to try yoga, and I am so incredibly thankful that one finally stuck.
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