Yes, I know. I titled my first blog after a Katy Perry song. Please don't tell my older sister. The thing is this song hit me right where I needed it, when I needed it. It's corny feminine power good times ego boosting lyrics gave me power when my voice was squeaky.
So here I am. Roaring.
I've wanted to start a website and blog for sometime now. Every time I would get started these nasty voices would pop up in my head. "Great, another 20 something girl teaching yoga and blogging about it." or "tagline-just a girl trying to find her way in this crazy world in her wunder unders. Typical." and the ultimate--"just work on your resume and get a 9-5 already Nina."
ooouf. I've poisoned myself before I even began.
Stop. Take a breath in. Take a breath out.
What do I tell my students? Re-write the stories in your head from I can't to I know that I can. Your anxieties and stresses live in a world you and others have created-----pull yourself into the present moment.
So here I am. Blogging. and Roaring.
Practicing and teaching yoga has sparked a flame in my heart, mind and body. Yoga has gifted me a beautiful connection with others, the world around me and myself. It has pulled me down the path of gaining a greater understanding of what I can and cannot control.
Yoga has held my hand and my heart through deaths, sicknesses, love, heartbreak, loneliness, exhaustions, bliss, desperation, life.
Whether it was my personal practice, teaching, my sweet students, being with my ommies, or a hug right when I needed it, that's my yoga.
The more I practice and teach the more my heart burns to help other people find their practice, their voice, find their home.
So here I am. Roaring.
It would be impossible to write in any, let alone this blog post, the millions of reasons why I love yoga, and why I feel so pulled to teach it. There will be time for that. What I want to focus on in this, my first blog post is connection. Yoga literally translates to "yoke; or union." Yoga connects us to ourself, to those practitioners around us, and ultimately to the world around us. When we step into a classroom our day falls off us like armor from a battle, and in our vulnerable soft underbelly of a being we breathe again. We feel our bodies in space. We float somedays between all the good stuff and all the bad stuff that awareness brings.
We connect with the yogis around us. There is an unspoken bond with people you practice with. To be with them is like coming home after a long vacation. I connected with my ommies (yoga slang=other practitioners who are your yoga BFFS) practicing next to them just as much, if not more, than catching up over coffee. Breathing and moving in unison, meditating into another's eyes, words can't express how that has carried me and made my heart and soul sing.
Thirdly, yoga connects us to the space around us. After a good yoga session the sun shines a little brighter. You can hear all the different birds and all their chirps. The breeze feels like it's whispering love as you breathe in and out. Yoga hones our awareness, and our ability to actually feel what's happening around us while it's happening. All the good. All the bad.
So here I am. Roaring. Connecting with you. on the internet. Telling you your are loved. You are worthy of that love. You can't control what people do, what they say or how they act. What you can control is the script you write in your head. The words you put into action in the space around you. Hold onto that.
Take a big breath in. Then sigh that shit out. Stay tuned, there's more where this came from. Know you can roar with me anytime, anywhere, and my voice is only getting louder. I am the youngest of five children after all, I'm used to speakin up.
Love from the bottom of my heart, the top of my head and the tips of my toes,
Nina