Hi babes! Happy belated Halloween. Today, I wanted to answer a question I get asked frequently enough, “Why yoga?”. Well to put it simply, I found peace by becoming a yoga teacher. Of course, a sentence barely breaks the surface of one’s life experience. It’s time I get vulnerable, here’s how I got started on my story yoga journey.
From a Boardroom to a Yoga Mat
This may come as a surprise to some, but in my earlier life I was fully engrossed in corporate America. Yep, that’s right, I was a cog in the machine! I’m talkin’ an executive portfolio, C-Suite office and sales director of a telecommunication company. All jokes aside, I’ve always been passionate about business and I’ve been lucky enough to have entrepreneurial spirit to complement it. That, plus my constant belief in self-expression, even saw me starting a chain of children’s art studios in Dallas, Texas.
Like my husband, I love sales. For me personally, being inside boardrooms and owning my own business, has taught me invaluable lessons about humans, life and relationships in general.
Along that Journey came Motherhood
I’ve been pretty blessed to have four amazing children. However, after birthing my first child (my son’s now 28), I went through a spell of anxiety. I love being a mom but, for me, motherhood came with huge adjustments. It was overwhelming and very much sensory overload. I was now a mother, a wife, a daughter, a human, an employee and an employer, all while trying to balance everything life throws at you.
To help soothe my anxiety and to try to heal my soul, I decided on trying out yoga. At the time, I barely had much time to myself so I got a yoga VHS tape (for the younger readers, click here to find out more about this ancient artifact, ha!). I didn’t mind it, so I decided to check out a big box gym yoga class BUT that experience had me like, “this breathing and savasana shit is stupid” (if this ain’t irony, lol).
Anywho, the stress and anxiety didn’t go away, so I decided to go a different route. I took my first 200-hour yoga teacher training course over a decade ago. That’s when I got much deeper in my personal yoga practice. I learned so damn much about myself, my relationship with the world and how to find peace among chaos and noise. It was seriously life changing.
A Word or Three on Mental Health
You may have noticed that I’ve mentioned my struggle with anxiety and effectively managing stress a few times. I come from a family with a history of mental illness. In fact, I have several first blood family members that have struggled with severe mental health illnesses. I thought if I learned about it, I could avoid falling fully down that well and help ‘cure’ myself. Poor younger me; my intentions were pure, but I’d eventually grasp that you can’t cure mental illness (you can however treat the symptoms and live joyfully with it). I also learned that awareness is just half the battle and self-awareness is the next big step.
I decided to dedicate my life to mental wellness. I saw how focusing on it had changed my life and I wanted to help others along their journey. So, back to school I went where I studied and received a Masters in Behavioral Science with a focus on Mental Health Clinical Counseling. My life changing experience with my first 200-hour yoga teacher training class never left me though and I knew that yoga would benefit my clients. That’s when I decided to take another 200-yoga teacher training course as a refresher so I could teach the practice safely and confidently.
Can I tell you something? I learned even more the second time! There are things that we need to hear and experience more than once for it to really stick and resonate. This was my experience with yoga.
As I head into middle age, I’ve found that yoga practice is integral to my overall health. I’ve also found myself leaning more and more towards a Yin practice. But that’s not all, these days I do my best to mix in other health-related activities like spinning or jogging to help with my rest, repair, and healing as well as daily infrared sauna use and cold showers.
Life on the Mat as a Yoga Teacher
Yoga changed my life and learning in depth about yoga improved my life for the better. I’m proud to pour my knowledge into my students and help them find their sea legs along the journey. Honestly, my most memorable moment as a teacher is when a private student gets so in touch with themselves that they cry in class. This experience is cathartic, and it moves me each time I see it happen. Want to hear something funny? I did NOT initially see it that way. In fact, the first time it happened I slightly panicked because I thought I did something wrong, hehe. Eventually I learned,
Yoga can bring up ‘issues’ we store in our tissues.
And that’s what makes it so effective as a health and mental wellness tool.
But it hasn’t always been moonshine, and sunflowers. Like any journey in life, you’ll still face tribulations even when you do what you love. For me the challenge is living what I teach. It is so much easier to identify what our students should do to improve their lives. Being fully transparent, sometimes we teachers forget to also live it.
Life as a Yoga Teacher Presently
Being a yoga teacher has shaped my personal life and those around me, especially my kiddos, in a very profound way. It’s brought me peace and equanimity. It has also earned me a few eye rolls or two from my family and friends. But overall, my girls mostly love doing yoga with me.
If you’re just getting started with yoga or more advanced, stick with it if you find that inner peace. I am not a big believer in a one size fits all. But I do know for most, yoga brings in a sense of peace and calm and belonging that is healing and needed. I also highly recommend for people to try different styles and different teachers to find what resonates with them.
To close, if you’re new to this lifestyle, don’t try to figure it all out right away. Explore, teach different things, find what speaks to you, and then grow from there.
Until next week!
XOXO Shannon
PS interested in finding out what the yoga teacher training that transformed my life is all about (even if you don’t plan to teach yoga)? Check it out here.
