Yoga: the Upsides of Down Dog

"I literally could not touch my toes."

I first got into yoga because my boss at the time was really, really, really into yoga. I said, "I want to get to know her a little bit more so maybe I should take a class." The first one I went to I was scared out of my mind because there were all these people twisting like pretzels and scratching their heads with their toes, and I am just looking around going, "Okay, I can't touch my toes." That is what scares a lot of people away from yoga; they think they need to do all of that and weigh 90 pounds, but you can do yoga at any stage of life.

"I kept going back, and I felt something changing."

I felt a little bit stronger and more clear-headed. I felt more grounded. After the first class I couldn't get up and walk the next day, but after about a month, I noticed changes in my body. I felt my posture beginning to change, and I felt more aware and more confident.

"Pretty soon I found I was organizing my life around my practice."

I worked in the entertainment industry for three years, and I was excited about my job. People would kill for the job that I had -- I mean, it is nice to fly around the world and meet all sorts of people and get free swag. But when I started practicing yoga, I found that it just wasn't clicking for me. I started needing to practice at a certain time with a certain person. My friends would be like, "It's Friday night, let's go out," and I would be like, "No, I have class." I slowly went from practicing two days a week to three days a week to five days a week to seven days a week.

"I felt like there was something bigger out there that could make me happy."

Things started to fall away that weren't working in my life, and I feel that came from meditating and being with your breath. Aside from the crazy poses you do in yoga, it is the breath that is the conveyor of everything. You begin to notice where the tension is in your body, and then you begin to direct the breath to where that tension is, and then you can feel the tension start to release and soften. Then you move into another pose and it starts all over again. It is a continuous wheel of becoming aware in the present moment and how you react in the present moment. I think that is a mirror for life. The yoga mat is often seen as a mirror of life outside the studio. How you react on your mat is often how you react when you leave the studio doors.

"There is a calming sense that the practice brings."

Often in my interactions I felt really closed down. I felt like I had a suit of armor around me, like I had to wear this armor to protect myself because I didn't know what other people were going to say, what I was going to say. If someone said something that I didn't like, my first reaction was anger and frustration. It is like jumping to conclusions. You don't think about it because you are like, "This is how I feel. You are just going to accept it."

Now, I feel differently. I was teaching a class the other day, and there was this woman in class who was yelling out in the middle of class and being obviously disruptive. Of course there was a part of me that wanted to go over there and say, "Shut the hell up," but then there is this other part of me that says, "I don't know what is going on for her. She could be going through something really devastating." I could go over and sock her in the face, which I am sure a lot of people wanted to do, or I could look at the situation with a more compassionate heart and try and put myself in her shoes and react with kindness rather than anger.

"Yoga has taught me that we are all one."

Yoga has taught me that there is no difference between me and you. The only thing that separates us are our shells, the bodies that we wear, but there is absolutely no difference. We are all connected, even though we might not feel like we are. We are all connected, and we have an effect on each other.

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