My name is @noelbakeryoga & this is my #yogasavedmylife story 🙏

Aged 5 I began to have intrusive & disturbing thoughts that made me feel so shameful & alone. . I had no idea I was beginning to develop OCD tendencies, I simply thought I was broken. By ninth grade, so desperate for my brain to shut off & afraid of my obsessive thinking that I thought ending my life was the only answer. I wanted peace & saw no way out. If I could go back & love on that sweet child self, I would hold her so tight & whisper everything is going to be alright. Therapy helped, for a while . In college the OCD came back with a vengeance in the form of anorexia. I feared food like it was my enemy. I was depleted, a total shell, my mind felt totally hijacked by this disorder & I was suffering big time! . Hot power yoga entered my life at 18 when I was beginning to develop my eating disorder. But I used it as a way to compensate for food, to push my body to lose weight, doing up to 3 classes a day. My hands were callused from the mat & I definitely didn't see what yoga is truly about . I got my real introduction in 2014, when I did my first teacher training & learned that asana is only the tip of the iceberg. I began to understand meditation, mantra, & the use of Yoga to calm the mind. This is when I truly began to heal. I felt at peace for the first time in a long time & it felt so sweet. I wasn't so lost after all! Freedom was right there within me the whole time, I just needed help uncovering it . Using Yoga to befriend my mind rather than run from it was a game changer. I now know that I am not my thoughts, my emotions, or my body but something far more precious. I am soul. I am not alone but intimately connected with all life. I will be eternally grateful to my teachers & practice for that. There is hope. Today I'm a therapist working with anxiety & eating disorders and I share the gift of Yoga through teacher trainings and my online course called "Nourish: the Art of being Vibrant" Once you know how Yoga heals, you don't keep it to yourself! My soul's blueprint is to share this message with the world & I am so grateful to Fierce Calm for their contribution to the cause . Noel 💚