My Yoga Story

The story of events leading up to yoga, how I began practicing, and how it has changed my life.

When I was a kid, I was interested in ballet and gymnastics, but I didn't stick with either one. I found it to be more work than fun. My family lived in Arizona until I was 9, and I spent most of my time swimming in our backyard pool. I loved the water and nothing could keep me away from it.

After moving to North Carolina when I was 9, then Virginia when I was 13, we finally settled in San Antonio at 15 where I still live.

Then, the summer before high school, my sister saw a commercial on TV for a diving class. We both loved playing on diving boards but hadn't since we lived in Arizona. She and I got really excited, and our parents eventually gave in to our persistent begging. We loved diving! I would look forward to practice all day every day. My biggest weakness in diving was my lack of flexibility in forward bending. I couldn't do a pike position for anything. I tried to stretch to gain that flexibility, but I didn't know how to do it properly. Stretching seems so simple, but gaining flexibility like that takes a lot of time, patience, and proper technique. I lacked all 3. My biggest strength was my back flexibility. I naturally have a crazy bendy back. This made back dives and reverse dives super easy for me, while they were hard for everyone else.

In 1998, when we turned 16 (we're identical twins, so it was the same day), our dad pushed us to get jobs and work. Our family didn't need the money, it was just very important to him that we got jobs. He drove us to Six Flags (down the street from our house) and made us apply for jobs. Then he discouraged diving (costs money) while encouraging work (makes money). He won, and diving didn't last.

Around this time, I started to get chronic back pain. Doctors x-rayed it, and nothing was wrong. I had a giant backpack that caused horrible posture, and constant lumbar arching as I walked around. Not only did I look really funny walking around like that, but it was wreaking havoc on my back. Since nothing was medically wrong, everyone treated me like I was lying about pain, so I just lived with the back pain.

Then in college there was a yoga class for PE credit. It was so popular that I could never get into it because it was always full. I figured it must be amazing if it's that hard just to get into the class. That's when the yoga seed was planted in my head.

Finally, in August 2006 a lady came to my office offering yoga classes during lunchtime. I was VERY excited about it and couldn't wait to sign up. I didn't know anything about yoga at all, but I really, really wanted to do it. I don't understand why I was so enthusiastic about something I knew so little about, but I went. The teacher wasn't very good at all. Her verbal cueing was so bad that we all strained our necks to see her demonstration, and she was mean and insulting. The room full of beginners who had each handed her $8 for class struggled to hold plank pose (top of a push up) for a long time. She said in a very insulting tone, "I'm a senior citizen, and I can do it, why can't you." Seriously, lady? Maybe because we've never done this before. I was very disappointed and didn't go back to her class, but it did sprout my yoga seed, planted just a few years before.

I immediately found yoga classes at the Spectrum gym near my house and got a week trial. I LOVED it. Saturday morning was a very gently easy yoga class, great for my beginner mind and body. Sunday morning was more vigorous, but I still loved it. Tuesday/Thursday were "yoga fitness" which were much more vigorous, but fantastic. They began with sun salutions and included vinyasas between poses. I'd come home from class every time talking about how great I felt. I joined the gym and went to every class that fit my schedule. I noticed my back pain disappeared as long as I consistently practiced yoga.

This lasted until March 2007 when we moved across town. I had become bored with the classes that used to challenge me, but didn't anymore, and I didn't realize that there was a Spectrum very close to my new house. As far as I knew, yoga classes were inconvenient to get to, so I didn't bother.

In August 2007 I started looking for yoga studios. I went to San Antonio yoga and loved it at first, but I didn't stick with it. The studio is beautiful and the classes were challenging, but it wasn't fun or enjoyable. He made an example of me in class for having my knee slightly bent in Triangle pose. My knee easily hyperextends, so it was a struggle for me to keep it straight. That one position between bent and hyperextended was difficult for me to achieve and hold. I'm sure he saw it as a teaching opportunity about the importance of perfect alignment, but I didn't like being in the spotlight for doing it wrong, especially since I hadn't been going there for very long at that point.

In January 2008, my back pain got unbearable again, and I was fed up. I had been living with back pain for 10 years. I realized just how messed up it was for a 26-year old to be able to say, "I've had back pain for 10 years." People didn't take my pain seriously because I was too young to have back pain. This was the moment I realized that it should be taken MORE seriously because I was too young to have back pain. What would happen when I got pregnant, if my back was this bad normally? I didn't want to find out.

Instead of getting back into yoga again like I should have, I tried to take the lazy approach by going to a chiropractor. He seemed to know what he was doing and gave me temporary relief. I was still going to him regularly in March when I sprained my ankle very badly. This meant that I couldn't do yoga, even if I wanted to. Even though I didn't seem interested in going back to yoga before I sprained my ankle, once I couldn't do yoga, I wanted to again. I was getting tired of depending on the chiropractor, and by this point it was pretty obvious that he just wanted me to keep coming back and dropping off more money. He originally outlined a plan to get me better, so I'd stay better, but it seemed to me like he wanted me to keep coming back as much as possible forever.

So I did nothing. No chiropractor or yoga. I played a lot of World of Warcraft. Some days I'd have to stop playing WoW because my back hurt so bad that I couldn't sit any longer.

Finally, one morning in December 2008, I woke up with a terrible crick in my neck. I looked up yoga studio schedules online, and found that there was a yoga class at Nydia's Yoga Therapy at 5:30. I didn't have yoga clothes or a mat with me, but I didn't use that as an excuse. I'd been nothing but excuses for a long time. They sell yoga clothes there and have loaner mats. So I went, and it was great. I love that teacher. She's fantastic. Her style, her demeanor, everything was wonderful. Then she stopped teaching in February because she was going to spend a year in Afghanistan to help rebuild their legal system. Very noble and scary, but I wanted her to stay and keep teaching yoga! I took a few weeks off, mourning the loss of my new favorite teacher, then I started going to other teachers at Nydia's, but no one clicked with me the way Karen had.

That's when I tried Bikram, once, and only once. EVER. That was a terrible experience. The heat was unbearable. My pale white complexion was BRIGHT RED before the class even began. The poses were very easy beginners poses. The only challenge was tolerating that heat. I felt woozy and had to lie down through a lot of it, but I was determined, so I kept getting back up and doing what I could. The teacher knew it was my first time, so he made a point to know my name and use it, a lot. He called me out when I wasn't doing a pose just right several times, but didn't call anyone else by name. I felt picked on and annoyed. He talked like an auctioneer even during Savasana. I just wanted him to be quiet and let me relax.

After that terrible experience, I took a month off of yoga. I had read a lot about benefits of heat, and I wanted to try hot yoga again, but the authoritarian, mean environment wasn't something that I was interested in putting my money and free time into.

Emilie, the teacher of the yoga teacher training program here in town, sent me an email about a free yoga class at the Synergy Studio taught by the graduating students. I signed up for it, and read more about the studio.

Then I found a Hot Bodhi Yoga class at the Synergy Studio. I was nervous and curious after my Bikram experience, so I emailed the teacher a bunch of questions to make sure it wasn't authoritarian like Bikram. She convinced me to come, and I really loved it. She and the other Hot Bodhi Yoga teacher had a very similar style that I liked a lot.

After the classes taught by the graduating yoga teachers, I was really excited. I talked to Emilie afterwards, and signed up for the next year's class. I love yoga, I love teaching, and this level of commitment was sure to keep me from quitting yoga again.

I continued to go to Hot Bodhi yoga twice a week, and I noticed a lot of benefits. It was a vinyasa flow class in a heated room, not as hot as Bikram, but hot enough to make you sweat. I was getting stronger, used to the heat, and my skin got much prettier. My skin wasn't bad before, but consistent yoga practice gave it a healthy glow. People at work noticed. They asked what I was doing and said they wanted to do whatever I was doing. Wow, what a compliment!

As I told people I was signed up for Yoga Teacher Training, I was told about a yoga teacher who works in my office, Ken. I was too shy to go find his office to introduce myself, but someone told him about me, and he came to my desk to introduce himself. Then he sent me a link to Yoga Shala, the studio where he teaches. The description said intermediate to advanced. I considered myself intermediate, so I figured it'd be about what I was used to.

Wow, his class was REALLY HARD! I spent a good portion of it collapsed on the floor. I sweated more than I did in Hot Bodhi Yoga because I was working so hard. This class was what I needed. I'd become too used to the hot vinyasa and it wasn't challenging me anymore. I was a big fish in a small pond. Ken's class humbled me and showed me that I should never get bored of yoga, because there is always room for more challenge. I kept going to Hot Bodhi Yoga and Ken's class, bumping my yoga days up to 3 days a week. Then I tried the other teachers at Yoga Shala and abandoned the 12 classes left on my Synergy Studio class pass to go to Yoga Shala as much as my schedule would allow (usually 3-4 days a week). The classes I attend at Yoga Shala are Ashtanga based. Ashtanga is the most vigorous style of yoga there is, and I love it. I've been consistently practicing Ashtanga and Ashtanga-based vinyasa classes since September, and I feel great. All the benefits of every other yoga class are magnified by Ashtanga. People even describe me as "fit" now. I've never in my life considered myself to be fit.

With Ashtanga yoga practice I've become pain-free, stronger, thinner, happier, more energetic, healthier, and much much more. My doctor hasn't seen me in a year now. Last time I saw him he lectured me to exercise more. Next time I see him, he'll be shocked, and I'll get to say, "I teach yoga now." Also, I can almost bend into a pike position, but I still struggle with forward bending flexibility. I've very grateful to Ken, and the people who introduced us to each other, for exposing me to this life-changing style of yoga.