Society’s Norms vs. Our Authentic Truth + Voice
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Most of my life I considered mySelf an athlete so when I hit 20 and twisted my ankle I didn’t know what to do with mySelf. I had been labelled an athlete for as long as I could remember but now what was I? Sitting still for me isn’t easy so through recovery my mom suggested that I come to yoga with her. I rolled my eyes at her and in my head thought, NO WAY. After a couple more weeks of not moving and feeling like crap, yoga got the best of me. You see, going from moving all of the time, multiple times a day, to not at all was quite shocking to my body and my mind and for the first time ever, I began to notice how much I needed movement. So I thought I dropped my ego at the door, put on some yoga pants and decided to hit the studio so that I could show those yogi’s how an athlete does it.
This was my second or third yoga class I had ever experienced and still I had no real idea what this whole yoga thing was all about. This was about the time instagram and juice cleanses became really big so I had this idea I had to be a green juice drinking, able to do the splits person which I was neither. What I knew at that time to be true was that I needed to be super flexible to be called a yogi and I needed to eat green things. I told mySelf all the reasons why I was not a yogi and also all the reasons why I am better than a yogi. I thought I was better than a yogi because I could run fast and far, because I could score goals and that’s really all I cared about. But when I look back, I couldn’t even do that at this time so I should have just checked my ego at the door. What I was actually doing is covering up my fear of trying something new by telling mySelf why I was better than the new thing. Not a great approach but at that time it got me through the door. This particular studio was a bit more granola than than some of the ones you see today and it made me feel really out of place. BUT for some reason I went back, and then again, and then again. As I became a ‘yogi’ so they say, I noticed life got a little smoother again, my body felt a little better again, my appetite went back up, my sleep was better. So, I kept going.
That was the start of a journey alright. After about 5 yoga classes, I just knew I had to teach this stuff. I’ve now been very active in the yoga world since that day so almost TEN years. Being in different yoga environments, taught by different teachers and seeked out different ways in the yogi world, I’ve learned a yogi is actually two things. One, a yogi is a box that society puts around someone who enjoys to move their body in traditional yogi shapes and two yogi is someone who makes intentional choices in all areas of their life. When I began to understand what the deep roots of yoga were I began to pride mySelf in being a yogi. I began to put mySelf in the yoga box like I did an athlete. I began to live, breathe and push yoga in everything I did. From the day I started teaching I began to be a yoga teacher. I dropped the title of athlete and moved along to my new identity. As I integrated the roots of yoga more and more into my life in tangible, accessible ways I learned that yogi is a mindset. And a mindset that more of us need. But here’s what happens, because being a yogi is put in a box like I did a yogi, people are turned away from it. Simply put, being a yogi is deciding to be a good person. A good person that is true to yourSelf, a person who is kind to people, animals and the planet. Simple right, so why are we so turned off by the word yogi?
We’re turned off by the word yogi because of what society shows us it is. I actually fell into the same trap being an athlete did to me, being a yoga teacher. One day I realized I had shifted my value to my new title, yoga teacher. So what did I do to change this, I decided that I no longer taught yoga. Now, the shapes I teach have the same names as yoga shapes, the movements are similar but now I don’t have to fit in a box. By removing the title it allowed me more freedom to teach body movement that felt right to me and right to the room I am teaching. By removing the title yoga teacher it allowed me more space for expansion past the new box I had landed in. By deciding I was a teacher, ‘just’ a teacher it gave me the freedom to teach a yogi mindset as well as any style of movement I had picked up along the way. By removing the words, the words that create the box I got to become anyone I desired to be. And I bet you, if you’re like me, you are more than just one thing. With the title athlete I could only be that and move my body like a soccer player. With the title yoga teacher, I felt I could only teach yoga and nothing else. I am more than one thing and I bet you are too. So I ask you, what box do you pride yourSelf on that may be holding you back?
You decide to create your own box by choosing to not live in someone else’s. Start to notice if you hold yourSelf to a higher standard based on your title. Begin to notice if you label other boxes such as people who practice yoga or crossfit or are vegan as just that. What if we shifted to a mindset that encompassed being more than one thing? What if we decided to be a yogi mostly but sometimes listen to hard core gangster rap? I am a yogi and I wear mala beads one day and then I dress up in my little black dress the next. I am more than one thing and I fit in more than one box. What boxes is it time for you to push through to move on to something more individual to you. You get to create your dam box my love.
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