Yoga transformed me. I was led to yoga 19 years ago. My older sister, who was happy to drive us just about anywhere, had a new drivers license and wanted to use it. The first yoga class I was drawn to, on one of our sister outings, was in a rowdy gym in Orange County CA. I became so very curious about the mental states I accessed during class, especially at the end. From the beginning, yoga changed me in all possible ways - mind, body and spirit. As an awkward teenager, I learned about my potential as a human “being”. I realized for the first time that I wasn’t just the physical body. Gym yoga turned into “real” yoga at a popular yoga studio near my home, and I realized that yoga wasn’t just movement - it was prayer, intention and consciousness too. Yoga opened me to a new knowing and my body’s ability to transform - muscles started to shift, new ways of focusing developed using breath, and maybe most importantly, I learned how to surrender. I see things differently now, and the physical, mental, and philosophical parts of yoga show up in my modern daily life. I view the world with different lenses, seeing everything as a new opportunity.
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