My Personal Yoga Journey

How I found joy in movement and peace with my mental health.

I first heard of yoga in the mid 1990s as a teen dealing with undiagnosed anxiety. When I found a yoga VHS tape (remember those?) of a woman in a blue unitard telling me all about yoga, I felt drawn to it. This woman on the tape was telling me about breathing deep, matching my breath to my movements, and telling me to held poses for a few breaths making me become aware of my breath and my body. The more I practiced this tape, the more I realized that yoga was helping me deal with the headaches, stomach pains, and unending feelings of worry.

“Do not lose yourself in the past. Do not lose yourself in the future. Do not get caught in your angers, worries, or fears. Come back to the present moment, and touch life deeply. This is mindfulness" ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

From repeating this one VHS tape so often I virtually had it memorize, I moved on to finding actual yoga classes when I attended university. It was around this time that I was diagnosed with GAD and finally had a name for all the physical, mental, and emotional symptoms I had experienced throughout most of my life. When I moved back to Oshawa after I graduated, I found ways to drag my mom to classes at the local college. I kept expanding my knowledge and practice of yoga and began to realize that I preferred a slower and more gentle practice. The mindful movements were exactly what I need for maintaining a sense of balance in my own mental health.

The Past Decade

In my 30s I found myself bouncing around from studio to studio trying to connect back to the mindfulness of yoga. So many classes seemed to focus on asana and the physical, athletic aspects of yoga. I experienced great classes with excellent teachers, but I felt like I needed to know more, to understand yoga much more deeply than I was getting in a 60 or 75 minute Vinyasa flow practice. As I went through my 30s, I gave birth to my two daughters, I experienced worsening symptoms of GAD, I developed Osteoarthritis, and I struggled with the feeling of my body just not being able to keep up with what I had always been able to do. I found it harder to find the type of yoga class that I imagined I wanted to be in.

So, I signed up for a YTT 200 course with the intention of just learning how to safely practice yoga on my own and now I find I just can't stop learning. I have gone on to earn a certificate in Yin Yoga and am currently working on a certificate for teaching yoga to seniors.

I hope to bring some of the peace I have found in slow, mindful movements of gentle Hatha yoga and the meditative practice of Yin, to others who are struggling with stress, anxiety, unbalanced lifestyles, or changing, aging bodies.

Love & Light