How I Discovered Yoga and Why I Do It Everyday

For me, yoga started as a fitness activity. Every week, I had a two different workout routines I would do which I would break up with one or two yoga classes in between. A couple of events over the course of 2018 is what led me deeper into the practice, ritual, and attitude of yoga.

When the year began I was halfway through Leadership Austin’s Emerge program. The training was focused on understanding and exemplifying your values. Identifying my personal values was further cemented by the book I was reading, “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F***”, by Mark Manson (Great read btw, highly recommend to anyone and everyone). I clearly identified my values into the three categories that are the theme of this site:

• Self – what am I doing to make myself better
• Service – what am I doing to serve others and the world around me
• Social – deepening relationships and spending quality time with others (I’m an extrovert)

On March 19^th I turned thirty years old and anyone who tells you that things don’t change at milestone birthdays has either already changed or might never change. When there is a new number in front of your age, you think differently. The high of my birthday was quickly numbed when I was faced with a tough decision and left one of my main areas of service, my job of the last one a half years.

This brought my values to the forefront. To ensure that they stayed there, I began keeping a daily catalogue of activities in each category. This exercise self-awareness led me to eating a better diet, riding my bike more often and attending more yoga classes. Through the extreme kindness of a friend and possibly some divine intervention, I was gifted a membership at a local studio where I quickly realized that yoga was not just a fitness activity that grouped into my “self” improvement bucket each night, it was a special thing that fit into every bucket.

Every day I would ride my bike to a class that my friend was teaching. This not only gave me a chance to see her but through the practice of dedication that comes with yoga, also felt as if I was supporting her. She soon began to introduce me to others in the studio and feel welcome in the community. Trusting in the positive feelings it provided me, I am now taking the next step doing teacher training with 20+ other yogi’s that are as interested in their practice as me. Is Yoga a social activity for me? Mmhmm.

While it was nice having a flexible schedule, there was a lot of stress and discomfort that came with looking for new opportunities. In the beginning, I was beaten down and began to surround myself with unnecessary negative talk. There was a significant improvement in my success pursuing my value of service tied the distinct time I started practicing every day. By September, I had three unique and promising opportunities and eventually decided to join one of the top technology companies in a sales role that I had always desired. It’s hard for me to deny that one didn’t influence the other, practicing every day provided me with stress relief and allowed me to realign my mindset.

While Yoga has always been a physical activity to improve my health, CorePower workouts embody everything that I want in a workout; cardio, strength training, and cool down/reflection, all while getting a really good sweat in. Yoga is also more than something you do, similar to snowboarding (one of my other all-time favorite activities), it is something that you can get better at. Contrary to other sports, my experience is that the better you get at yoga, the harder it gets. Every time I feel as though I am plateauing, I make a slight adjustment here or a breakthrough somewhere else and am humbled to feeling novice again. Participating in a class with others and an amazing teacher also motivates you to work harder. I am in the best shape of my life and feel more optimistic about my long-term health thanks to yoga.

For me Yoga is an activity that fuels the most important aspects of my life and has led me significant joy.