Twisting To Fold

How Yoga Transformed My Life

written in September 2024

Me (left) and my older sister (middle) sharing our new favorite hobby with our Aunt Sue.

My first yoga practice was in my living room in 2002. I remember watching my older sister follow along with a 75-minute VHS tape of Jonathan Fields teaching “Vinyasa Heat Live!” She stuck with it for about 30 minutes until it got too difficult. Then the next day, she picked up right where she left off. Every day after school, I watched her in awe from the back of the living room until eventually, I joined in.

“Intensity requires breath,” the teacher said as we practiced twisting deeper in Revolved Crescent Lunge. We didn’t know it then, but for 30 minutes a day, we were somatically processing the events that had rocked our childhood. At 13 and 17 years old, we’d recently witnessed our family unit transform when our dad was diagnosed with cancer. As he fought for his life in the hospital, our mom who had always been home with us, went to work to support our family. My sister and I didn’t know why we were drawn to yoga, except with each twist and fold we could feel our worries begin to melt. As we met in Mountain Pose, we felt the promise of a new chapter.

Ever since then, yoga has been my anchor in life. In my early twenties, yoga taught me how to love myself as I overcame disordered eating habits and loosened my grip on control. In my early thirties, meditation taught me how stillness could transform arrows into flowers. As a yoga teacher, I aim to be a conduit for loving transformation, walking alongside others on the path toward self-realization.