Why I Abandoned Yoga, and How I Found My Way Back to it

Pre-pandemic, I was an avid yogi, practicing five times a week at my local studio, Village Yoga, which is a more athletic vinyasa studio. I completed a 200-hour Yoga Alliance-accredited instructor training program just before the pandemic hit.

But then, everything changed.

For the first few months during lockdown, I tried doing some online yoga classes, because I was being super COVID-cautious. Before long, though, I dropped out of yoga completely.

Two months ago, I tried virtual yoga classes again but it just wasn’t working for me. Why?

I wasn’t being honest with myself.

I struggled to be fully present at home: I was too busy multi-tasking, checking text messages and emails, and taking breaks during the practice.

It would take me several hours to do a one-hour class – I’d do 30 minutes, get distracted by another task, and tell myself I’d resume the second half of the class later. But it never happened.

I became complacent. And I wasn’t challenging myself to advance my practice.

Yoga is such a personal thing. For some people, it’s functional fitness: The practice builds strength, flexibility and agility for sports and everyday life, plus it prevents injuries.

For others, yoga brings calmness and challenges you. The gentle poses have a calming effect, while the more difficult poses take you outside your comfort zone to find your edge.

And for some people, yoga is the ultimate mind-body experience: It’s perfect for Type A people who think yoga is too slow and boring compared to cardio workouts. I know this because I used to be one of those people. Yoga has taught me balance, equanimity, harmony, patience and joy. I’ve learned how to focus and be present.

Regardless of the intent, I think this quote really hits the mark:

Practicing yoga is all about the journey, not the end result. It’s about creating a space where you can see yourself as you are. In fact, the poses represent the various situations and obstacles we encounter in life: Some are easy to master, while others force us to push through discomfort.

Last week, I finally returned to the mat in the Village Yoga studio. Running my home-based virtual Conference Wellness business, I realized I needed more structure and routine in my life.

I made a three-day-a-week commitment to yoga, balanced with other forms of exercise including dance, swimming, cycling, and pole walking.

Right away, I noticed huge benefits to my in-person yoga classes:

• I love being part of a yoga community and having that human connection while being inspired by other yogis’ practices. It’s amazing seeing women my age displaying beautiful postures, inversions and arm balances that appear to defy physics.
• Being in the studio inspires me to push beyond my comfort zone.
• I’m back to setting goals. I’ve always wanted to learn arm balances and inversions, and I love experiencing the joy of my body in stillness and in motion while seeing what my mind and body are capable of doing together. It reminds me of my gymnastics days: Visualization, repetition and practice turned me into a self-taught gymnast.
• Yoga reinforces self-compassion. In the last class, my contact lens tore, so I had to practice while seeing out of just one eye. I was completely off-balance. But yoga is about accepting myself each day of my yoga journey.

I pursued the yoga instructor course for my own personal growth, and the desire to integrate yoga into my professional speaking business -- I keep attendees engaged and energized throughout my talks with seated and standing yoga poses.

My knowledge has helped me craft my library of video yoga micro-breaks (bedtime and desk jockey yoga), which are used at virtual and hybrid meetings, as well as at workplaces.

Here’s a sneak peek of one of my yoga micro-breaks which comes with a downloadable tip sheet with images and descriptions of each of the 5 standing yoga poses.

Feel free to book time to chat with me about your upcoming virtual or hybrid events by getting on my calendar HERE..

Be well,