Did I forget to breathe? I step into the familiar hustle of Heathrow Terminal 4 departure lounge. My life once more on my back just the way I like it, alone, Birkenstocks with warm cashmere socks on, a yoga matt strapped to my bag, no make-up, ready to fly. For those that want to join me on my journey to becoming a Yoga Teacher, come fly with me! Over the next six weeks I will write and share with you some of my experiences on this amazing path that I have found myself on.
A little about my story and how I have come to be here in this moment.
I have always been a very athletic person. I was the girl competing against the boys, the girl that couldn't sit still for long, who had to move and use her body; and moving is what I have always done best. I rode horses as fast as I could, scuffed my knees playing street hockey, bruised my wrists playing volley ball, somersaulted on trampolines in my leotard, ran cross-country wherever my feet could take me, swam (mostly underwater) until I was blue in the face, if i could move I would.
So when I was sixteen I took my first yoga class. My body felt awkward and frustratingly inflexible. My mind wandered, comparing myself to the people around me, my breathing was difficult and why was I sweating when I was practically still most of the time?! However, I walked out of that class feeling something I hadn't felt before. I was familiar with the post-exercise endorphin rush that comfortably ran it's course through my veins but there was something more. There was a deep calmness that held my natural high and cleared my mind as if I had just come to some sort of epiphany. Perhaps I did, perhaps this is why I am here now about to start my Yoga Teacher Training.
Yoga has been my friend, my companion and my solitude. We have travelled to some amazing places across the globe together, practiced all sorts of different styles, and although we haven't always seen eye to eye with one another, like any good friend, you don't always have to see them to know that they are there.
Now here I am, in this moment, the only moment that really counts, excited, driven, liberated, filled with so much gratitude and ready to move.
"Movement feels like flight when wedded to space" - Yoga SΕ«tra-s of PataΓ±jali
Namaste
Myrthe