“I started to acknowledge the role that yoga plays in my life both on and off the mat and I started to become aware of how I can calm myself when stressed when I’m nowhere near my mat. How I can breathe just a few breaths to overcome nerves and go into a meeting and feel more confident.”
What are you doing tonight? asked my housemate Dave. Ah, not sure, dinner and chill probably, I said as a standard Wednesday night in London back in 2002 would have more than likely looked after a long day driving up and down the M1 working in my IT consultancy job. Come to yoga, Dave chirped, you’ll enjoy it yeah, are there any girls going I asked? Heaps he said. Ok, I’m in. what should I wear? Just shorts and a shirt, oh and bring a towel Dave smiled. That night as I stood in the very very warm Bikram yoga class with Dave and 25 or so other sweating, dripping, half naked bodies, following the instructions of a Russian Kylie Minogue lookalike, I wondered why I had left the comfort of my couch and come to this sub tropical hell hole in London to be told to play statue in postures for way too long for it to be good for you, let alone comfortable. The instructor, as cute as she was, was from hell I had decided. When will this end? Is she kidding me!! What felt like an eternity and then another minute, the class was over and I was grateful for the cool area outside the room and the shower that followed. How was it? Dave chirped. Fricken hard I said. He just laughed.
That night I slept, deeper and more peacefully than I had in months, maybe even years and my skin felt like a new born baby’s!! I woke up feeling cleansed and fresh!! Wow. What was this thing that I had done that wasn’t a team sport, was non competitive, there was no winner compared to the marathons and adventure races I was doing at the time. This was something different and I liked it.
I continued to go to Bikram for the following year, on and off, when I wasn’t travelling and I certainly felt the benefits of the cleanse as I would call it. Years passed and I moved countries from the UK to Australia. I had fallen out of my weekly routine of Bikram yoga and always had in the back of my mind that I would return to the mat. Maybe tomorrow, I told myself. Then one day I met a girl. A girl I quite liked. We dated for a few weeks and then when I suggested we meet one weekend, she said she couldn’t, as she would be away on a yoga retreat. Little did I know at the time, that 7 months later, this girl and I would be engaged, married a few months after that and I would be converting a 1950’s industrial shed into one of Brisbane’s most unique yoga studios, practicing yoga again more regularly and feeling more energetic.
Earlier this year I decided to step up and say yes to becoming a yoga instructor. Through the teacher training process I encountered something unexpected. I had always used yoga as a day off exercise from my mountain biking, surfing, running, jumping, skipping, living life activities, but what caught me unexpectedly was the mindfulness I experienced when I was immersed in the training. Feeling it, living it, breathing it. Through my training and the awesome guidance of my teacher, Tammy from Yoga NRG, I started to acknowledge the role that yoga plays in my life both on and off the mat and I started to become aware of how I can calm myself when stressed when I’m nowhere near my mat. How I can breathe just a few breaths to overcome nerves and go into a meeting and feel more confident. All of the training has left me with a few questions about life and the meaning of, without getting to airy-fairy about it all. Over the next few months, I’ll be concentrating my energy at growing our studio, running workshops, retreats and becoming more involved in yoga. Why I hear you ask?
Because, none of us are getting any younger, last time I checked and if I can be more flexible, more agile, fitter and help other people reach their goals to, then what I great life I can lead. In fact, years ago I toyed with the idea of going into the fitness industry as a career. Now the opportunity has found me and I’m welcoming it with open arms. For those of you who’ve never done yoga because you’re not flexible enough or are too intimidated by the girls in the class being better than you. Yes there will be more supple, more flexible people in the class, but they started right where you area standing at the top of your mat. Go and do it. It will change your life for the better.
Namaste
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