https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog daily 0.75 2021-04-21 https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/jillian monthly 0.5 2021-04-21 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1619041943789-VFDFQBC7S98NTQVGLW3W/DSC05931.jpg Blog - JILLIAN ‘Like many, this has been a painful period for me. Due to trauma unrelated (and related) to the pandemic, I go through waves of deep depression. Sometimes I feel my physical body lock up and I feel almost unable to move from my bed. It is through the seat of the teacher that I am able to find the softness, openness and the humanity to continue on. I have found that serving others is the fastest way to feeling better and I am so grateful for the opportunity to continue to teach and build community during the difficult time, no matter how different it looks.’ https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/joanna monthly 0.5 2020-01-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1579831832436-OQWJ204B587KUJZ3K612/DSC07033.jpg Blog - JOANNA “Moja praktyka uległa zmianie, dlatego nie czuję, że muszę być doskonała w każdej pozycji. Słucham mojego ciała.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/wes monthly 0.5 2020-01-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1579831615670-15GG2SGXWZ14GUMAX9XU/DSC07508.jpg Blog - WES “My mental health struggles helped me find yoga, or yoga found me. I found it at work, at this rehab I worked at.. but this is almost less important rather that I was in a major and traumatic transition point in my life and I felt it, WOW, a flood of emotions and energy, life.. light shoot through me. I remember telling my therapist who just did not get it.. I think I just felt spirituality. I was in tears.. it felt so good to feel connected. It was like getting shackles taken off after over 15 years of them holding me back. It was freedom. It was new life and energy. It was like the “magic pill” all the psychiatrists were trying to prescribe to fix me, but it came from within me.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/alison monthly 0.5 2019-11-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1573248773208-79WOA8U8Z5AN5DWS3NW6/DSC01336.jpg Blog - ALISON “I’ve been practicing yoga on-and-off since I was twelve when my mom brought me into a class during a family summer vacation. Towards the end of highschool and into the beginning of college I began to get more serious about my practice when I started struggling with anxiety, waking up nightly with panic attacks but without any support from trusted adults or anyone to talk to about what was happening. So I didn’t know they were panic attacks. I just would wake up, bolt upright in bed and my mind no longer felt like my own. I was shaking, I would get sick to my stomach, and I was terrified. I had no idea why it was happening but I was losing weight and my dad started to think I’d developed a drug problem due to the rapid weight loss that came along with this mental torture.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/dana monthly 0.5 2019-11-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1573248691145-2ISN8AVJPR7IIKSXFOR9/DSC01392.jpg Blog - DANA “When I was 20 or 21 years old I was introduced to yoga by my brother, which was unlikely introduction. He took me to a traditional Ashtanga studio in Somerville, MA. I remember the class feeling incredibly long and I was humbled by my physical limitations, in spite of being in good cardiovascular shape. I had never seen adults outside of gymnastic competitions and performance arts who were as limber as the seemingly “normal” appearing people in this class. The room was slightly warm, comfortably packed with an eclectic crew of women and men and smelled of patchouli. My brother next to me was the least flexible person in the room, but he was engaged in every aspect of class and witnessing his willingness to participate fully with having much less range of motion compared to those in the room also gave me space to be ok with what I was and was not able to physically or mentally.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/pete monthly 0.5 2019-09-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1568778787747-23J9TQ090MVD9BFFP5P0/DSC07826-2.jpg Blog - PETE “My life was taken from me, then given back to be reconfigured. Thirty nine years ago, when I was 19 years old, I suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. I was propelled from the car traveling at a high rate of speed after we hit the base of a bridge going over the interstate we were driving on. My body was found 150 feet from the car and the emergency crew pronounced me dead at the scene. Apparently, God had a different path for me. A friend of my family (a rescue team member) happened to be driving by and decided to try again to find some life in me. They found a heartbeat and got me to the local hospital, where after no success, they immediately sent me to the nearest medical center with brain injury experience. This was risky since there was very little chance of me even surviving the ride. However, I did arrive, but in very serious condition and deeply comatose. They had to drill my skull to relieve the pressure, I underwent five hours of brain surgery, plus had a punctured lung, bruised kidney and fractured skull. After surgery, when most of my frontal Love was removed, the temporal lobe was stitched up, the lung and kidney patched up and I was connected to multiple machines to keep me alive I was moved to super intensive care. It’s said that I was the first one to come out of that place alive.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/trish monthly 0.5 2019-09-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1568778310760-LLEXC2TFFSU7UDBOYK4C/DSC09310.jpg Blog - TRISH “I stopped practicing for 7 years because I was frustrated with how capitalist the practice was and I struggled with what my role was as a white person practicing yoga. I most certainly didn’t teach it. But, eventually, I became very energetically out of balance and I was trying to figure out what worked for me. I knew yoga had helped so I decided that ethically for me the only was to do it was to go deep and really, actually learn about it—the philosophies, the context, etc. So, I would say that now sometimes I forget people view yoga as “exercise” and that I can be viewed as a “fitness instructor” because the asanas are a physical body maintenance for me that allows me to tap into my higher self.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/meredith monthly 0.5 2019-09-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1568777639374-NNZHK1G7IE485YBLPCX3/DSC09182.jpg Blog - MEREDITH “It’s already happening, but I would like to see Yoga in the West move beyond Asanas. We need more Kirtan (music) and Karma Yoga (selflessness.) Because what the world so desperately needs right now is more compassion and more appreciation for simple things. Even the United Nations is telling people that the best way to reduce carbon emissions is to eat a plant-based diet. The world is telling us to make better choices and to take better care of our fellow beings, and cultivate gratitude for basic things, like clean air and clean water. It’s an invitation to see the divinity in Nature and our surroundings. “Simple living, high thinking,” as Swami Sivananda taught. We need to stop our mania of trying to find happiness by accumulating things and achieving things. It’s the only way to save ourselves and our planet.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/chrissy-2 monthly 0.5 2019-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1567564230960-J6QKMI2HP1OBY1IPN2OL/DSC09038.jpg Blog - CHRISSY “After that first YTT day of handstands I remember my hands were sore. I had never felt that before. I remembered laughing so much I cried and that it had been a while since I laughed like that… In the beginning I was enthusiastic to say the least (borderline obsessed) with practice. I was practicing everyday either at home or in the studio, once and sometimes twice in a day. I felt great! The learning of sequences, history, language, anatomy, meditation and otherwise sparked my student soul. At university I dreaded the teachings, the spaces and the system. At YTT I couldn’t get enough.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/lizzie monthly 0.5 2019-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1567564073770-6X42VLB7946JXQYPUR6G/DSC08497.jpg Blog - LIZZIE “When I graduated from college and began my first post college job in a law firm, I found the transition from college to work life so difficult that I often had a hard time getting out of bed in the morning and regularly slept through several alarms. I decided to start practicing yoga again because I remembered I always feel better after class.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/kelly-1 monthly 0.5 2019-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1567563929160-FZA5U1OW4KUC7MFIW4IH/DSC07371.jpg Blog - JULIE “I think there’s a misconception that yoga teachers are these magical, spiritual beings who have it all figured out. I know that for me, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. I struggle with anxiety and depression and feel as though I’m still searching for that “supreme joy” even though I know that I need to stop searching in order to find it. Yoga helps me to be a better, kinder person but it’s not a cure-all and I think that’s important to differentiate. Just because we have yoga as a tool for self-love and self-inquiry doesn’t mean that it’s the only tool out there.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/sasha monthly 0.5 2019-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1567563734487-X8YXQADTUQ1X0NBSAV3H/DSC03427.jpg Blog - SASHA “I had a difficult relationship with my birth mother. There was a lot of fear and uncertainty when living with her and through my formative years. She was physically abusive and manipulative. After finally moving to live with my dad, I had a lot of anger and confusion.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/laura monthly 0.5 2019-09-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1567563625668-9FFMDGKGKB7UQGRA1LFR/DSC03058.jpg Blog - LAURA “Meditation taught me how to find calm within myself. I would leave the center with peace. It didn’t always last very long -- I don’t mean to imply that it was an instant cure to my very big sadness. But it did teach me that it was okay -- even wonderful -- to be still and to be present. I didn’t have to take planes, trains, automobiles, or drugs to escape my pain. Those things usually didn’t work anyway. I just had to come home to myself.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/wp7nn7za3tp52k9s1z8323tm9hl92e monthly 0.5 2019-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564359103450-PT4M14S0X98CYJKOT9YM/image-asset.jpeg Blog “I began to read. A lot. The first yoga book for me, “Fierce Medicine” by Ana Forest cut me open, Forest naming things I was unable to articulate and strengthened my desire to explore recovery and yoga. I was sexually assaulted at 13 and what followed was 22 years of drinking, cutting, and a vicious eating disorder. Poetry began to play an enormous role in my home practice. Rupi Kaur and Yung Pueblo have given me hope and the words to describe my healing. I would read and then flow. Everything about me had been compartmentalized and labeled. As my understanding of the practice grew I began to feel whole. Not until I was 36 years old had I ever genuinely content with myself. I began to tap into my strength and see a woman who was putting herself together, finding beauty in my perfectly imperfect journey. I no longer thought that I was forever broken and damaged.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/jill monthly 0.5 2019-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564358977063-P14QMNCUR37KW3A9A2O0/image-asset.jpeg Blog - JILL “In the beginning I was more focused on progress where now I am able to be present and enjoy.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/charlotte-1 monthly 0.5 2019-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564358762689-URBU425MJL6U0N77LYJH/DSC08846.jpg Blog - CHARLOTTE “Yoga always gives me exactly what I need if I stay long enough to listen. For example, if I am seeking peace, my practice may give me peace, but may come first in the form of awareness. If I am resisting myself and life and seeking peace, the awareness will be uncomfortable, and first may feel like chaos, but being with that may lead to peace. Yoga has taught me that if I stay with the practice, my feelings will transform into surrender which ultimately leads to peace.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/ashley-1 monthly 0.5 2019-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564358568740-PZYQKKFF7JRJK2WUIR1S/DSC05614.jpg Blog - ASHLEY “The teacher who has meant the most to my process these days is Theresa Wynne, the creator of Story Yoga, the 200 hour YTT I graduated from this April. Without her, I would not be a certified teacher as it was not within my financial means or scheduling allowance, even though it was something I’d been wanting to do for years. Her dedication to making yoga and teacher trainings available to those in unfortunate situations and affected in someway by addiction shows her selfless nature and speaks to her desire to make change on a global level. She inspires me to want to be a better person, yoga teacher, social worker and friend. She made me feel whole again by accepting me, all of me, during a time when things truly had fallen apart. The bits and pieces of me strewn out in front of her during those long teaching hours, and she so delicately supported me in picking them up and placing them, with intention, where they belonged. I’m not sure I’d be back on my feet again right now if it weren’t for my weekends spent in Wellness Collective, in the graces of Theresa Wynne and our classmates. An experience I wouldn’t trade for the world.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/kayleigh-1 monthly 0.5 2019-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564358537766-GRKNL6VWAHJEG1YKFM04/image-asset.jpeg Blog - KAYLEIGH “If I had to describe my first couple of years of consistent yoga practice into a few words they would be: hard, structured and forceful. I was practicing like an athlete. Eventually along the way I began to soften towards myself. I was more patient and forgiving. I started to replace expectation for the practice with gratitude. And now, my practice is much less about me and much more about the world I exist in. I’m trying to give more, love more, serve more. I think that’s where a lot of Western yoga practitioners get stuck; their practice remains completely focused on themselves when, if you allow it, it can do so much more. We have a larger capacity for giving than we think we do.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/gabrielle monthly 0.5 2019-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564358423857-LVEVIYN9EGPPZ3CXLQYA/DSC08207.jpg Blog - GABRIELLE “What has really kept me going with yoga is my battle with anxiety. Even from a young age I struggled with it, being borderline OCD, there are times when it completely took over my life. Practicing yoga regularly reminds me that I can deal with those anxious feelings. I can accept the waves of fear, discomfort or stress because I know it will eventually pass.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/chrissy-1 monthly 0.5 2019-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564357198486-GMBSGRLP8OEFY69B6VWN/DSC02674.jpg Blog - CHRISSY “After college I was still working full time in the restaurant world so I started looking into other options. Someone told me about VSAC, which grants money for low income Vermonters to complete non-degree programs. Finances had always kept me from yoga, so I figured this would be a great way to immerse myself in the practice for cheap and learn how to do it on my own. I had no intention of becoming a yoga teacher.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/katie-1 monthly 0.5 2019-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564355116642-GAKI0ZUI345CUC0R203A/image-asset.jpeg Blog - KATIE “So what probably should only have ever been a summer fling turned into a full-blown, committed, adult relationship. I think I realized earlier than I would like to admit that something just wasn’t quite right about the whole thing. But I was young and in love and my rose-colored glasses wouldn’t allow for me to listen to that instinct. So after a year of exhausting and emotionally debilitating long-distance, I made the bold decision to move to Turkey, where he was living and teaching english. If I were to get into the gory details of it all, this would probably take me much longer to finish writing. I’ve only recently been able to identify what happened over the course of the next two years of vicious emotional abuse and even more recently have I truly felt comfortable speaking about it. I was beaten into the ground. Made to feel useless, stupid, worthless, crazy, like there was something wrong with me. He made me question my relationships with all of the people that I hold closest to my heart, like I should be ashamed for feeling alienated and homesick, like the loss of my sex drive was my fault, like I was a prude for not wanting to pose naked for the graphic pictures he wanted to take of me, oh the list goes on and on. Six months in Turkey were followed by six weeks with his family in South Africa which were slightly more comfortable as we were surrounded with the love of a very close-knit family who were thrilled to have us visiting, but they were also fogged and blurred by copious pot-smoking and wine drinking. Luckily, I did find a nearby yoga studio that I bought an unlimited monthly pass to and went to nearly every day. In this ritual, I found a bit of peace. An hour or two every day where I could just be myself. Be alone. Engage in a practice that, at that point in my life, felt like it was mine and only mine. A time to retreat. To think. To meditate on and ponder what I was doing with my life and, more importantly, who I was doing it with.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/emily monthly 0.5 2019-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564355019429-XAN0LSQNDLMOX8DHZ965/image-asset.jpeg Blog - EMILY “These photos demonstrate the chaos, joy and surrender that is family life. When my son was little I used to do sun salutations while I held him between my legs. Many mornings, I have stopped my formal meditation practice in order to clean up from a kiddo who didn't quite make it to the bathroom or to console a crying baby. I am no longer in control. It took me awhile to accept this but I am beginning to understand that letting go of my demands for others doesn't mean that I have to give up my self.“ https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/maggie monthly 0.5 2019-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564354143085-LIMK3MSPVY4YZA8GGOQM/DSC00738.jpg Blog - MAGGIE “Our teachers gift us tools, then it is our job to practice using them. Knowledge without application doesn’t do much. Learning what to do with these tools requires deep internal work and self-compassion. I’m still sifting through the dust and old stories that were stirred up by the learning process. Trying to slowly chip away at the illusions my ego has created while simultaneously reminding myself that this whole process doesn’t happen all at once. My teachers talk a lot about yoga being the practice that allows us to overcome the obstacle of the mind in order to awaken us to our true nature. As I am stumbling/walking this path I hope to link arms with others that are trying to do the same. After all, regardless of what self-actualization practice we choose, we’re all on this journey home together.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/ashley monthly 0.5 2019-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564353093915-JEQ10X7VZADYT73JON2L/DSC05486.jpg Blog - ASHLEY “I want to see more trauma informed classes in the area. Ones that feel normal and like that’s how it’s always been. No hands on. No unexpected teachers floating around the room. No triggering sad songs in the teachers playlist that send you into a crying spell in your pigeon pose (okay, sometimes it’s just the hip opener...). Yoga isn’t as accessible as it could be for the folks who really struggle getting out. Having something available online or an optional Zoom/FaceTime class would be really neat to see implemented as the norm in studio classes.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/steph monthly 0.5 2019-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564352932842-HLGZIWUFW02K9LT5HUER/DSC06087.jpg Blog - STEPH “The first day of YTT, we all introduced ourselves. Everyone said that they were doing this to share love and because they love life and love yoga. I said it was because I’m mentally ill and yoga is saving me from myself. My therapist told me it would be a bad idea to lie, but looking around at the shocked faces I kinda regretted that. YTT was hard and I would not say that I enjoyed it. Of course, I learned and gained so much from the experience, but it was not fun. I guess real growth is never fun, but other people seemed like they were having a great time so maybe I was doing it wrong. I don’t know.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/sarah monthly 0.5 2019-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564352796024-EHTIIODHTP34S4N2DF29/DSC08075.jpg Blog - SARAH “Teaching has changed my practice so much, in terms of my internal workings. I approach my own practice with so much more intention, curiosity and eagerness to learn, because I want my students to feel that. If I don’t practice with that kind of energy, they will never feel any of that from me. How we practice is how we teach.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/shawn monthly 0.5 2019-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1564352595008-88Y7S401V5ESMCHECF5J/DSC00308.jpg Blog - SHAWN “It’s not enough to be kind or open or friendly. We need to pay for teacher trainings for trans people, fat people, people of color, people with disabilities. We need dedicated classes and studios.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/kaylee monthly 0.5 2019-06-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561814152185-WWVPWW8KOOJZ15IRKE3H/DSC06806.jpg Blog - KAYLEE “I had a series of injuries which resulted in many surgeries and recoveries over 7 years during my 20s. I define myself by my body. I AM flexible. I AM fit. I AM strong. I AM an athlete. My jobs were physical jobs and if was not able to move my body optimally I was not all the things I told myself I was. If I was not a skier, or a runner, or a hiker, or strong, or fit, who was I than.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/sara monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561511586768-6XCWTUOLPM5EJDLX4SLI/DSC01076.jpg Blog - SARA “When I first started I had a life partner. I was building a foundation for future with another human. This person would come to be my personal hero, and we loved one another. He provided an opportunity for me to allow myself to be loved, which perhaps was among my biggest triumphs as a woman with dwarfed confidence and self-esteem. When he passed away out of the blue, suddenly while I was out of town, my practice darted into the fray along with him. So did my identity, so did my spirit. I suppose I am trying to say, it was evolving, disappeared, now has returned, alas in a way I am still trying to acquaint myself with. What is different now, is that I am different. Grief is a profound animal. A lawless vociferous, and yet isolating, silent jailer.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/gaby-1 monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561510777085-57MVIPBPDYSDKGUJMD4J/DSC07729.jpg Blog - GABY “ I moved to Burlington to begin teacher training and my inner judge crept back in. I struggled. I wasn’t at the same physical level as others in my training and I was overweight. At this point I had lived at both Kripalu and Integral Yoga Ashram where I don’t recall feeling so self conscious. Anyhow, I still kept showing up because that’s what the Swamis taught me to do - even if it’s only 15 minutes a day, do your practice. Even when you don’t want to, do your practice. I’ve been meditating on and off since I was 15 and that’s a whole other journey. Home practice is ideal. In my own space I’m able to explore more openly and deeply.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/chrissy monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561510666169-ZY6KW36Z8BQ23E09GTJY/DSC02474.jpg Blog - CHRISSY “Yoga can teach you to listen to your deepest self, but you’ll have to be willing to listen. I am immensely grateful for compassionate teachers, classical texts and supportive friends + family. With the help of this network of true knowledge, I believe my best self has a chance to shine bright if I just give it a chance. Not one chance, but an eternal chance. Evolution, change and failure are all guaranteed in life, yoga is not. Yoga is hard work and it’s a lifetime work; you have to want to be the light which at times means recognizing, dealing with and confronting the darkness.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/jessica-1 monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561510300280-OM79MF16R2P7308O97GX/DSC09993.jpg Blog - JESSICA “I began to read. A lot. The first yoga book for me, “Fierce Medicine” by Ana Forest cut me open, Forest naming things I was unable to articulate and strengthened my desire to explore recovery and yoga. I was sexually assaulted at 13 and what followed was 22 years of drinking, cutting, and a vicious eating disorder. Poetry began to play an enormous role in my home practice. Rupi Kaur and Yung Pueblo have given me hope and the words to describe my healing. I would read and then flow. Everything about me had been compartmentalized and labeled. As my understanding of the practice grew I began to feel whole. Not until I was 36 years old had I ever genuinely content with myself. I began to tap into my strength and see a woman who was putting herself together, finding beauty in my perfectly imperfect journey. I no longer thought that I was forever broken and damaged.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/kayleigh monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561510049478-4DIFDETG4YAJ0US7NWRF/DSC03002.jpg Blog - KAYLEIGH “When I first started practicing a lot of yoga, I otherwise existed completely apart from my body to the point of abuse. I was using drugs and alcohol, eating poorly, overworking myself. I used to leave yoga and smoke a cigarette as if I was leaving a particularly difficult therapy session. But that’s really what it was. Yoga is a mirror that shows me how I am – even when I don’t want to look. Yoga helped me stop abusing substances, it gave me the clarity to leave a negative relationship and it offered me a mental home within which to digest it all. Now yoga helps me deal with issues large and small – from the death of a family member to waiting in line at the grocery store. It’s brought me to a more clear, honest space from which I can experience it all.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/kelly monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561509721359-N9FGLDCTRKZECH04S7DA/DSC03195.jpg Blog - KELLY “Yoga and meditation have taught me to meet whatever is arising in my life with a quality of gentleness, rooted in kindness. I am continuously learning how to fall completely in love with myself, and to believe to my core that there is nothing to judge, change, or fix. Alan Cohen says that “completeness is your birthright and the unshakable condition of your existence”. Yoga is a means to remember that we are perfect, whole, and complete just as we are and just as we are not.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/graham monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561509180021-0NONRA2MKIKBRTOXT98V/DSC01342.jpg Blog - GRAHAM “Early on yoga was a way to engage with my body. It became a way to feel safe in my body and to work through trauma, and now it’s a way that engage with the world. I hope to use my practice to bring some balance to this existence. I describe myself as striving to be a proton in the atom of humanity. A positive charge that is but a part of the whole.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/annie monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561508639302-646Q47696YGJA1LIQWH4/DSC07525.jpg Blog - ANNIE “During my YTT we had a couple of “free-flows” and it was such a humbling experience. I felt so out of place and lost without taking direction from someone. But after the first few times I found myself flowing through sequences I didn’t even know I had in me.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/kemper monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561508422829-L8N0WCXE2B3BV9QFUIO6/DSC00979.jpg Blog - KEMPER “Yoga saved my life. I discovered it three years ago during a very low point. I just lost a relationship I had built up to be paramount to my existence. I was out of school and had no direction. I spent most of a year alone. Someone recommended yoga, and I couldn't stop. I wept like a baby for days in practice alone. I became enraged and had to leave the studio in public. Then the euphoria came as I'd practice for hours a day. I took 200 hr training. Then 500 hr training. I couldn't get enough. I travelled to India. That's when the yoga actually began. My heart opened to children there. Their need, their struggle, and how easy it was to help! That's what yoga is to me. What you can give, with heart.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/taylor monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561508247123-HLTROO7YR8YSARZZAFL7/DSC04038.jpg Blog - TAYLOR “As a child I developed scoliosis, a condition causing curves in the spine and rotation through the hips, ribcage, and shoulders. My condition was serious enough that it needed to be addressed through surgery at the age of 12. This surgery fused the majority of the vertebrae in my spine together, permanently and severely restricting my range of motion. As much as I thought I understood that it didn’t really matter, I came to resent the fact that regardless of how many sun salutations I do, I will never have the most beautiful upward facing dog in the room. Despite the consistency and diligence of my practice, I’ll never be able to “master” shapes that require moderate spinal movement.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/jessica monthly 0.5 2019-06-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561508108873-11NCNYM0BAFIFR04NGZ6/DSC09943.jpg Blog - JESSICA “I was in the process of going through the 12 steps and yoga was my outlet to grieve and weep as I slowly began to connect to the parts unseen. I was broken and scared/ The future was unknown, but what I knew I could do was continue to work on my sobriety and show up on my mat and turn it all over, relinquishing control.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/nalini monthly 0.5 2019-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561494828916-CZSNWK6YQBLRO8JB053J/DSC04175.jpg Blog - NALINI “I was 19 when I found yoga. Struggling deeply with my relationship to my body and food. All I knew was force, beating my PR, and counting calories.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/charlotte monthly 0.5 2019-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561494647511-W1CRSGDRE5WY45V82HGC/DSC08846.jpg Blog - CHARLOTTE “Yoga always gives me exactly what I need if I stay long enough to listen. For example, if I am seeking peace, my practice may give me peace, but may come first in the form of awareness. If I am resisting myself and life and seeking peace, the awareness will be uncomfortable, and first may feel like chaos, but being with that may lead to peace. Yoga has taught me that if I stay with the practice, my feelings will transform into surrender which ultimately leads to peace.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/katie monthly 0.5 2019-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561494391940-I6PCLAGKJZA87XOB1QMR/DSC00101.jpg Blog - KATIE “And, as tends to happen, it took me 7 months teaching yoga in Cambodia, several near break-ups, a lot of self-medication, 7 more months back in Vermont with my family, quite a bit more deeply damaging inner turmoil, excessive screaming, crying, and guilt-tripping before I finally mustered the courage to end things for good. And I know this seems like more of a story about a shitty relationship than anything about yoga, but what I’m really trying to say is that throughout four of the most tumultuous years of my life to date, yoga was the one constant. The one thing I always had with me. Away from my friends, my family, the people and things that I hold most dear - yoga became my family. When I needed to pause, reflect, let something go - rather than crawling into my mom’s bed or calling my brother, I would get on my mat. Yoga was my confidence, my love, my peace. When I was in the darkest of spots, yoga brought people (strangers, really) into my life that reminded me what love should look like. Sharing the practice of yoga with my students began to teach me what I should be seeking in my own life. And even after I had returned to the familiarity of my parents’ house in Vermont, being in the studio, teaching, was the time that I felt most at peace. Most centered. Most grounded. Most myself. Yoga brought me home. Yoga brought me myself.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/katey monthly 0.5 2019-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561494127653-MQC1V5MY5NTXWUN39LBT/DSC06603.jpg Blog - KATEY “The teacher dimmed the lights, lit candles and spoke in a gentle tone that had an effect on my Pitta driven psyche. I slowed down. I sank in. And I fell in Love. I fell in Love with the quieter places inside me - places I had rarely visited.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/gaby monthly 0.5 2019-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561492616337-41UN4GSCMJUNXYE42YBK/DSC07661.jpg Blog - GABY “ My practice has evolved in that I don’t get debilitating anxiety and walk away from the building I was about to step into. I was so self conscious of my body and self when I started out. It took tremendous courage to show up. I used to verbally beat myself up about not being able to get inside the door to class or do all of the postures. I was self conscious about my weight, sweating, how I looked and the list goes on and on. It’s fucked up how women are taught to see themselves in American culture. Societal expectations place lot of pressure on people to be something they’re not or could never physically be.” https://www.beingsofyoga.com/blog/5bc7lzmdsivn2hanxy8qxtja0e7ifz monthly 0.5 2019-06-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d1261896a1e1c0001f440bf/1561486737708-X5263GH4ES83X3YPBD0H/DSC00473.jpg Blog - KAT “I’ve always felt fat and strong and I have a complex relationship with that pairing. There are times when I fully lean into this dichotomy, owning my own body, feeling content, proud, comfortable in my size, allowing myself to take up space. There are other times when I wish away that fat part of this body equation. Where I would gladly shrink down and take up less space. As someone fat and strong, sports/fitness is a complicated and complex landscape. Where do I belong? 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