GIGGLES, FARTS AND RAISED EYEBROWS - MY INTRODUCTION TO YOGA:
Yes, giggles, farts and raised eyebrows were all a part of my first sessions of yoga. Very memorable that is for sure but 20 years ago I was given the most amazing gift – to experience of yoga.
My sister and I signed up for a short yoga course in our hometown. It was held in a TAFE classroom and I remember in my first-class meeting Miss Rita, our yoga teacher, who was a beautiful elderly lady who was larger than life (in both body, spirit and personality) with a soft, gentle English accent. She had the ability to move and twist herself in positions that most people of her age and size would never even consider, let alone with fluidity and grace – heck, I wasn’t considering them, and I was a teenager!!!! My sister and I giggled, farted and raised eyebrows multiple times during our first course of yoga – it really was a new, mysterious and a very calm world and I loved it!
I started yoga because I have what I like to call dodgy hips and they would ache and cause me pain and grief regularly. Yoga helped bring awareness and ultimately an end to these aches and pains. I still remember clearly the ache in my hips and pelvis that I experienced and the sudden gift of being able to help myself to manage this through movement, stretching and stillness. So for me, my journey started off for the physical benefits and I still do yoga for my hips (and all the rest of the creaks and groans), but it has become so much more to me now – it has become an integration into my daily life.
As my constant companion since those days with Miss Rita, yoga has moldered and moved with me through my journey around the world, into my years of self-discovery and perhaps rebellion and now into motherhood and beyond. 6 years ago, I completed my teacher training and since then have loved gifting my community and those around me with what Miss Rita shared with me – the experience of yoga. I always smile when I see a student giggle as it takes me back to the mat many moons ago with my sister. But honestly my heart sings when I see one of my students realise that they have discovered their own magic in movement and in stillness or when they float out of the room with clouds holding their feet and walk through the world standing a little taller. This for me is now what yoga gifts me and to build on that and be able to step up and gift people with my time, knowledge and experience as a yoga therapist – well hell’s bells and buckets that is something I never saw coming and could not be prouder, humbler and more honored to share.
So, take a quick moment to reflect on where your yoga journey has taken you (big or small) or is this still an adventure that is still to come 😊. As I always tell my students ‘no one comes to yoga flexible’ so if you get a chance to jump on a mat in my class or another amazing teachers then give it a go – who knows where your yoga journey may take you – I can tell you I didn’t!
As Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit said, “I’m going on an adventure!”
Sending magic from the mat,
Cheers,
Kim x