Transformations

I have about a half hour before yoga, so I decided to take the time and spill the beans. Have you ever spilled the beans? Sometimes they unintentionally tip out of a jar, or wiggle out of a hole in your pocket, squeezing, trying to find freedom.

Sometimes the beans sit there, waiting patiently in a bag on the kitchen counter. Kidney beans, white beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, all jumbled up, mixed in. After a while, after you watch those beans sitting silently, staring blackly, you reach out with a steady hand and in one swift motion, you yank the bag until it turns upside down and it all... showers down.

Now, granted, I don't have any big confessions, and it's nothing nearly so dramatic as cascading beans. But the changes in my life have been overflowing as of late. I truly believe that any event that causes us to stumble is only an opportunity and a nudge to let go of something that is no longer serving us.

Almost nine months ago, my relationship with my last boyfriend was ending. My back injury had flared up again, so I was in copious amounts of pain most of the time, and I was having a hard time getting excited about going to school every day. I was the heaviest I'd been in a couple years, which added to some of the physical pain. Around this same time, my mom discovered a yoga studio in Roseville. Her experience there was so powerful, she called me and said, "You've got to come to a class with me. I will pay for it, but you have to come." So I did; I'd been looking for a studio to join, but as a college student living off financial aid, my income was limited. After the first class, I knew I had to keep coming back. This was too important, it felt too right.

Fast forward to now. I've gone from almost 200lbs to 177 so far. My practice has blossomed, and by extention, my spirit journey and soul journey have found new momentum. I start Yoga Teacher Training today, and I'm the new studio manager for the studio I practice at. My mobility is high, my pain nonexistent, and I've found a home within myself, and within a community.

I'd say that's a pretty good first step.