My Yoga Why
Yoga has been incredibly healing for me. My mat has been a sacred space for 5 years now. Yoga has given me a better relationship with my mind, body, and emotional capacity. I am a Black woman adopted into an all white family. At a very young age, I had a hard time conceptualizing why I didn’t look like my family or why my body was shaped differently than my friends. I grew up feeling different with no way to navigate my relationship with my body. I was an athlete my whole life but still had curves despite my small physique. In high school, I battled depression and anxiety. I was put on medication that resulted in weight gain which added more insecurities around my body and how it compared to white counterparts.
I was always driven by movement. Growing up playing sports, it was all I knew. When I was dealing with mental health issues in high school I naturally gravitated to the concept of it. My dad had the P90x DVDs and I always did the yoga class. It was a change of pace from soccer and volleyball but had so much emotional power over me. I dabbled with yoga a little bit in college, but my priorities weren’t in self-improvement but rather chasing the next party or boy. During my senior year, my grandpa passed away unexpectedly. All for health issues that were preventable. I quickly shifted the way I approached food, exercise, lifestyle as a way to cope with that. That summer yoga was reintroduced back into my life and I haven’t looked back since.
It has been my safe haven and place for me to grieve and connect with my health in a very holistic, all encompassing way. I am raw, genuine, and fearless when it comes to my radical self expression and that wasn't possible until I started practicing yoga. Yoga has taught me to appreciate the journey and fall in love with the process of being. Yoga is a practice for a reason, there’s no end. There’s always a lesson to learn. I connect a little deeper with myself each time I step on my mat. I think the same goes for self-love. I don’t think anyone will ever fully be there, but we can appreciate the small wins, the growth, the shift in perspective, the entire process.
