How Yoga & I Met + AM Yoga Video

Hola beauties!

I hope you've had a dazzling weekend. I got to spend time in my backyard, which is hardly ever a thing since the mosquitos have family reunions back there. I finally finished You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth. I also read her first You Are A Badass book. It was great, but this one really pushed me over the edge in the most positive way possible. Stay tuned for my thoughts on that.

Today I have a gift for you. Yes, YOU! I created my very first (yoga) Youtube video. It was pretty fun and not nearly as difficult as I anticipated it to be. There's definitely lots for me to learn, but it was great to get the first one out there.

I talk about yoga on my IG account a lot but haven't shared my journey here. So, here it is:

It's nothing crazy. My first encounter with yoga was Bikram. If you know nothing about yoga, just know that Bikram is like regular-ish yoga but in a sauna-like room. It's hell. I was in under-grad and one of our coaches had gotten a group of us to go. I remember being amazed at these old white women with hardly any clothing on (you sweat too much to wanna wear much of anything) essentially defying gravity as hefty beads of sweat dripped from them like a faucet. It was crazy! I was amazed but not interested. No thanks. It was an after thought.

Then after my college track and field days, I was still working out and running on my own but hated taking the time to stretch afterwards. So, I thought hot yoga would be something cool to try. It was heated, which made it a challenge since it was still a physical workout, but it also was stretching. I had myself a two-fer! I ate it up.

At first, it was just a workout. I would leave out drenched in sweat. I felt accomplished. But then I would find myself needing to go after getting into it with The Man or being upset over something. It's no secret that athletic people enjoy taking frustrations out on their workout, but yoga was a little different but I hadn't quite put my finger on what it was.

Then, I moved for grad school and practiced very minimally even though my interest peaked and was at an all-time high. My grad school program was very big on wellness being this multi-faceted thing, and thankfully I was able to learn a little about a lot of diverse ways to approach wellness. Mindfulness was a huge part of my program, and for me, that connected right on into my fascination with yoga.

I graduated, got married, and struggled to find a job. I found a job and made that my thing for a while until I wanted a little more. In came my second meeting with yoga. I had reached out to the studio I first began practicing, asking if they were going to have a spring or summer training. I saw I had just missed their winter session and was a little bummed. I didn't hear from them, and I forgot about it until a couple of months later when I sat down and wrote down a few goals I wanted to focus on - getting a yoga certification being one of them. I kid you not, that same day I received a reply from the studio I had reached out to months before letting me know that they were having a summer session!

It was... magical? The Universe? God? Karma? Good vibes? I don't know what you wanna call it, but I called it exactly what I needed. I signed up, made the money work ('cause these things are not cheap), and enrolled. That was just a little over a year ago, and I haven't stopped practicing yoga consistently since.

Like I said, at first it was just a practice, but then the more I practiced the more I felt it seeping into other parts of life.

"Maybe you shouldn't say that."

"Maybe you should think of this differently."

"He's just a dog. He didn't mean to throw up on the carpet."

"Don't be mad. At least he cooked dinner."

"She's like, 12. She has no idea what she's talking about. Bless her heart."

During my training, I even decided to go pescatarian. I meditate now, but not nearly as often as I should or would like. I can't imagine life without yoga and meditation now, and I can feel the difference when I go without it. I crave it, and I find myself ending up in class even on days when I don't feel like going. It has encouraged a deeper sense of gratitude and love within me. I think I'm kinder overall, and maybe a bit more compassionate. Well, at least I try! (It's a journey.) ;)

I've cried during class, even though (hopefully) no one noticed. Haha. Some days I feel great and each pose just loves my body. Other days, I can't even stand on one leg without tipping over or taking 10,000 breaks when we head for downward dog. And that's what I love about it. You're never done, and it's never perfect. There's always something to be learned, and each day is different. And through all of the physicality of the actual practice, my brain is working to better me as a person. Then it ropes my heart into it. Or maybe it's the other way around.

It parallels so well to our journey in life. There are so many opposing dynamics every day that we deal with that push us to find a happy medium... Ok, I'm gonna stop here because I feel myself getting too hippie dippie for my own good... I just saved you. You're welcome, but look forward to this on another day.

I'll just swing my tamborines and sing my yoga praises over here alone... in my cat suit.

But for real. Please try yoga. It can literally change your life, but it's your journey to discover. Yours will not look like anyone else's and that's the beauty of it. You can't do it wrong.

I made a thing. A yoga video. It's what I promised you. Try it out. Let me know what you think and if you'd like to see anything else from me in the form of video.. Or blog post, or IG post - whatever. Just let me know.

Thanks for reading!

-seria