Yoga

Yoga is one of my favorite forms of exercise. I started Yoga in 2011. At that time I was about 280lbs, and when I walked a block, I became sweaty, winded, and needed to sit down. I had just come off of a multi-year mental breakdown that included being completely sedentary and barely leaving the house. My muscles were nonexistent, and my cardiovascular system was in terrible shape. The beginning yoga classes at my gym saved me. The class was very accessible and designed for people completely new to exercise, basically just stretches, which was the perfect level for me at that time. I was able to move my body and get some relief from back pain without feeling like a failure. When I went to the gym to run on the treadmill or tried other exercise classes, I was so out of shape that I couldn’t participate fully. Then came the shame. Since I wasn’t able to perform in those arenas, I felt intense shame which demotivated me to try at all. Also, one way I dealt with shame at that time was binge eating. What a vicious cycle. However, these easy yoga classes made me feel successful. I could do the poses and fully participate without the shame. As I felt stronger and more limber, my total fitness improved, and I was able to try other exercises. I returned to the treadmill and experimented with circuit weights while keeping yoga in my routine.

Throughout the years I was able to attend progressively more challenging yoga classes. In 2020, I started Yoga Teacher Training at Core Power in January. Covid struck in March, and I didn’t complete the training, but I will remember my time there forever! I learned so much about the poses, the history of yoga, anatomy, and myself. I was able to improve several of my asanas through practice and learning more about the mechanics of the pose. In 2024, I completed a 40 day challenge at Yellow Brick Yoga in Lawrence Kansas. At the time, I thought I was signing up to do a short meditation and body movement every day for 40 days. Upon the first meeting, I learned that this would be an incredibly difficult challenge of doing yoga for 6 days a week, and each week we would add time to our yoga sessions. So first week was 20 minutes a day, second week was 30 minutes a day, etc. all the way up to 80 minutes a day! I was incredibly sore throughout the challenge, but I am so grateful for the strength and baseline fitness that this challenge helped me build. Again, I was able to master poses that were too difficult for me in the past. The owner and teacher at this studio is incredibly gifted and gives all the best cues to ensure you are getting the most out of every pose. She made us videos to use at home, and I still use them. I did this challenge while training to run a 5k, and my time improved by 4 minutes! I definitely credit all the strength I built through the daily yoga. In 2025, I repeated the challenge and had similar results. I learned about myself and improved my practice. I mastered poses I was previously unable to do.

I enjoy some of the spiritual aspects of yoga. Yoga teaches mind-body connection and using breathe to center your mind. While I focus on breathing and the way the pose feels, my inner voice is quieted. I heard somewhere that yoga was originally designed to prepare the body for meditation, and I definitely feel more grounded after practicing yoga.

I’m lucky that I have a little area in my home designated just for yoga. Hope to add wall hangings and candles sometime soon!