I have never felt comfortable in my own skin. I spent the better part of my early life trying to keep the peace in my family, and was always worried about everyone else. After a few traumatic events in 1998, 2008 and 2010, I was lost, broken, and in need of a spiritual fix. I first tried yoga at community college in 2005, and then again in 2010, but it didn't really stick until 2013. That is when I truly believe yoga began to save my life.
I was a runner and used to run five to eight miles a day, so I was already in the groove of a daily workout routine. However, the winter weather in Columbus led me to try yoga with a friend. I started at a hot power studio, with loud pumping music, rigorous sequences, and left drenched in sweat. I began going to classes pretty much daily right from the start. That's just how I am, an all or nothing kind-of gal.
At first yoga was a way for me to turn off life for an hour. I was in graduate school at The Ohio State University and was under TON of pressure. Yoga was a way for me to get out of my head. To let go of the negative self-talk. To stop comparing myself to everyone else, and just work on myself. As my practice grew, I moved on to a non-heated, non-power studio, fell in love with a teacher's style, and signed up for her 200-hour yoga teacher training.
It was in that training when I came to terms with how affected I was by my past, though I still wasn't sure how to move through it. I spent a few more years getting by, using my practice more and more as a way to tap into my inner self. However, it wasn't until 2018 when everything came to a head and I was at an ultimate low.
I finally took a deep, dark look at all of the traumatic events that had happpened in my life. I used yoga and other programs to peel away all of the layers, and start rebuilding myself from the ground up. And I have done just that. So much so that I opened Zen Yoga in July of 2019.
I am grateful every day that I get to live this dream we call life and spend each day trying to give back the gift of yoga.