Don't Give Up

11 years ago, I started my yoga practice. I was pregnant with my first son and was looking for something to make me feel “normal” in my body when everything inside was shifting physically to make room for the baby. I felt the benefits of yoga almost immediately after I began. It was about six months into my pregnancy when I moved from California to Baltimore to be closer to my family. I could not find a pregnancy yoga class in my area so I bought a yoga DVD for pregnant women and began a home practice.   This is what launched my inspiration to become a yoga teacher.

It wasn’t until three years ago that I went through a teacher training program to receive my professional certification.  And everything that happened before this time has led me to where I am today.  My father died, I had another baby, I separated and eventually divorced from my now ex-husband, I moved four times, worked a full time bartending gig, and the list goes on. After I began teaching yoga, I took on a handful of studio classes and started building my business…

…which leads me to the present day and a story about how hard work and what we put out into the universe comes back full circle.  I was in line at a coffee shop in the airport earlier this year when a woman in front of me randomly started talking with me. She was telling me about what she did for a living and I was telling her the same when she stopped me and said, “You teach yoga? I am looking for someone to lead the pregnancy yoga program at my hospital!” So we exchanged information and went on our respective ways. After returning from my trip, I contacted her and after several emails and a few months, we finally met.  And take a wild guess who is now running her hospital’s pregnancy yoga program?

It took 11 years for all of this to happen. 11 years of ups and downs – the good, the bad, and the ugly – for this to take place. Some people call experiences like these coincidences, the law of attraction, or even karma: but I call it not giving up.

As 96-year old French-Indian yogi Tao Porchon-Lynch says, “nothing is impossible and there is nothing you cannot do.” I will never give up. I will continue to work hard at what I believe in and have faith that it will always work out the way it is supposed to, good or bad. And it is my deepest hope that if you’re reading this, you trust and believe in yourself too.

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