"I was being treated for anxiety and my 4th bout of clinical depression, plus healing from 15 years of disordered eating. I was feeling lost, alone untethered"
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"After getting coaching and finding my way to transformational breathwork, I also found my way back to yoga, which I practiced sporadically from the age of 12
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Although this time, instead of being a thin, able-bodied, multi-sport athlete, I was in a larger, more mature body ravaged by injuries and a chronic rheumatic disease that seriously challenges my physical & mental abilities on the best of days. I wasn’t sure how I would even do yoga with these changes, but it called me to show up anyway
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I spent over a year trying to find the right class, but everywhere I went, they were all the same: asana-only taught by a thin, young, white, cis-gendered, able-bodied woman with a class full of her doppelgängers. I felt so alone in crowded rooms
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As I got more comfortable with my size in my recovery (14/16 - the U.S. average), I was less conscious of it but increasingly aware that no one really knew how to instruct for a body like mine. I constantly had to alter even basic poses to suit my body’s needs (hello tits & ass!) - which led me to find revolutionary instructors like @diannebondyyogaofficial, @amberkarnesofficial, @jivanaheyman, & my YTT-200 teacher, @ms.jamieshane, who opened up a whole new world of yoga to me
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Not only was yoga so much more than just physical, but it was also an instrument for self-study, a tool to help treat my anxiety and depression, a community, & an agent for social justice. Most importantly, I now know that no matter your size, shape, color, orientation, experience, or ability, yoga is for EVERY. BODY. And every body is perfect just the way it is!
Now, I am in my YTT-300 with @susannabarkataki, continuing to learn how to appropriately bring ALL aspects of yoga to my students with love, respect, and honor for a practice that is not from my culture, & to continue to fight for the marginalized. Because to do anything less would disparage the fact that #yogasavedmylife
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