At the beginning of 2010 I left a great job during a recession, gave up my iPhone and decided to move to a more expensive apartment. Its all in the name of becoming a yoga instructor. Some may call these changes foolish, stupid or even crazy, and its possible that I am all of these things. This choice however, call it what you will, is something I can tell will change my life.
In the past few weeks, since I've been increasing the number of times I go to yoga from 1-2x a week to 3-4x, I've felt shifts in my mind and my body that I just never thought were possible. I'm beginning to really want to move my body on a regular basis and more than ever I can feel the impact that the food I eat has on my mood and my ability to do the things I want to do. Aside from periodic episodes of exercise and participation in some team sports in college. I've never considered myself an athletic girl until about a year ago, when I began to practice Bikram yoga at least once a week.
Beginning February 26th, I'll be shaping my practice and learning the fundamentals of yoga from a handful of instructors at Yoga Tree in San Francisco. To be honest, I don't know a lot about this program. I chose it because the timing and structure were right for what I wanted to accomplish. It meets every Friday night (8-10pm), Saturday and Sunday (1-4pm) for 6 months and during that time I will develop a yoga practice that I plan to sustain (and build upon) for the rest of my life. At the end of it, God willing I pass my tests, I'll also have a 200-hour certification to teach yoga. I'm taking classes at Yoga Tree and like what I've found - mostly vinyasa with a lot of chanting and storytelling woven into the classes.
To support myself while my training is going on, I'm also doing some work that has thrown me for a lifestyle loop. After a little more than two years of fundraising for progressive non-profits, I now spend my days playing with, feeding and changing diapers for an 8-month old named Mira OR creating invoices for a company that is run by a wonderful woman I met on BART out of her home in Berkeley. And, despite the hassles of Cobra and my current baby-induced cold, these dramatically different days have been like a breath of fresh air. I've realized how easy it is to assume your world view is just like everyone else's. Au contraire, I'm learning, my day-to-day activities have a huge impact in shaping both my body and my mind.
I want to share the ups and downs of the next six months here so I can keep a log of these changes. After all, I did major in History. I hope you enjoy my insights and that you share your reactions to my posts, either below or face to face.
Deep thoughts about the picture above: I saw a dog doing what this dog is doing the other day and thought "That movement looks so natural for him." Now, this may seem like a given, since the yoga posture that he's doing is called "downward facing dog" but the image is something I want to carry with me to remind me that movement, on the mat or anywhere else, comes naturally to me as a human being and I don't have to be afraid to go where my body moves me...
No comments:
Post a Comment