My thoughts on yoga:
Yoga has improved the quality of my life both in my physical and emotional health. To me yoga is my love, my hobby, my mission, an important part of my community, and my go-to when I need release. I embrace the metaphor of yoga being like sea glass. You keep at it and little by little the rough edges slough away. Sea glass used to be something else, perhaps a shard of a broken bottle. Eventually it is transformed and renewed into something more natural and beautiful. In yoga as in life, there is so much to learn and be shaped by. There is no end, only the journey.
I taught elementary school for 33 years. Children are a joy and kept me young at heart. Still I wanted to explore working with adults. Two years before I planned to retire, I decided to turn my practice into a more in-depth study and enrolled in yoga teacher training. Yoga was to become my pathway to a happy and fulfilled retirement. Yoga reminds us of what is important…breath, kindness, humility, honoring your body, staying hopeful, adapting to change, being present, and love. Yoga will be part of my life as long as I breath!
Favorite Postures:
The more you practice and experience an asana, the better you understand it. You appreciate its benefits and it starts to feel more like an old friend. This happened to me with Cobra (Bhujangasana) pose. It didn’t hurt but never felt yummy either. I kept practicing Cobra and now it is one of my preferred postures. Lesson learned… don’t be afraid of snakes!
Tree pose (Vrikshasana) is my favorite asana. I giggle to myself when I am finding my “inner-Groot”. I feel uplifted, stable and graceful standing in Tree. And I feel humbled when having a bad balance day. Tree pose is about finding balance. Yoga has helped me find balance in my life.