Read this if you feel fat, tired, stiff, or old.
I want to tell you a story about how I felt before I went to my very first yoga class.
Actually, let's rewind; I will tell you about my first and my second yoga class experiences.
My first yoga class was at a gym, I went with a friend who told me how great yoga was and how much she loved the practice.
I didn't know anything about yoga besides what I had seen on the cover of a few magazines at the grocery store [remember those, I'm old school] and thought it looked pretty "chill".
So I went with her. What could I lose?
It was anything BUT chill. It sucked.
It was super fast paced, the teacher didn't explain anything, I was out of breath, and frustrated as hell.
I was mortified that I "couldn't do the moves" and I told myself a story that I couldn't do them because I was "too fat" and that was that.
I would resign to the fact that I would just never go to yoga again because clearly I wasn't cut out for it.
Years later I was in a LOT of pain.
I could barely walk a block without having to stop and "stretch" so I could go further.
My back was on fire when I stood up, my legs were stiff, I could barely reach down to put my shoes on [let alone tie them, so I made sure everything was a slip on].
I wasn't sleeping well. I was cranky because I was in a constant level of pain. And I didn't know what to do.
Was this a part of being "old"? Is this just what happens?
[I was 27 at the time and thought that was old...]
But I literally thought that this was how I was going to live the rest of my life.
I had gone to the dr. on a completely unrelated note to my back and something told me to look up a yoga class.
Do you ever have those intuitive downloads but aren't sure where that crazy idea came from?
I started looking up yoga classes for beginners because what I did before clearly wasn't for a beginner like me.
I found a place where the teacher had tattoos, looked like she swore [she did], and wasn't the "yoga model" type.
I was nervous as heck to go to that first class.
I was late.
And I didn't have a mat.
I wore some stretchy pants that I had for years, but this was the first time they would be doing yoga.
What happened in that class was nothing short of magical.
I felt like I could breathe again.
The worries and stories that I had told myself about yoga, that I had told myself about who I was, had somehow melted away and I felt "light".
I slept like a rock that night.
And my pain had gone from about an 8 to a 3. In a single class.
I was hooked. I wanted to feel that good all the time and if yoga was going to be the thing that did that for me, well...sign me up!
Since then, after creating a regular practice that I could maintain, I have released that pain from my body.
It shows up every now and again when I slip back into my old ways of sitting or standing for long periods of time, but I have the tools to correct it.
I feel fresh, centred, energized, and downright youthful when I practice and it is glorious.