Yoga Love

Four years ago, my mind, body, and spirit were changed when I was introduced to yoga at a Bikram studio.  Feeling the effects of working in a high stress job and holding onto past hurts, I'd started losing my hair.  A friend invited me to a hot yoga class, and even though I hadn't worked out in more than four years, was heavier, and emotionally and physically exhausted, I went to that class on February 20, 2010 which changed me and my life forever. For that, I am grateful.  

The instructor that day, who is now a friend, told me "I believe in you" even though I couldn't reach my foot in a leg separating posture.  Those words were the catalyst for me to start believing in myself. 

In that first class, I kept thinking “WOW this is HOT!" and "Am I going to make it through the class?”  To my surprise, I did make it and came back for another class and another. By the third class in my first week, something magical happened.  I was feeling better than I'd ever felt in my entire life which prompted me to start practicing consistently. 

When I had practiced for more than a year, I felt a call from within, from God, to leave my corporate job as it no longer served me.  After working with a family owned business for 8 months, I opened my own business “Moore Time,” personal and virtual assistant services.  

After being on my own for only 2 months, I had a very serious car accident in which I broke and dislocated all 5 large bones in my right foot in addition to tearing ligaments.  My foot looked like a half moon, but I consider myself fortunate to come away with only that injury. I now have two plates, eight screws, and 4 bones fused together in that foot. I suffered broken blood vessels down both sides of my spine, but no injury to it. (I attribute this to yoga.)  

During the months of recovery, I had to rely on my upper body strength which was strong from yoga.  Returning to yoga in my cast as soon as I could , remarkably I didn't have one day of physical therapy.  I got my cast off and walked 3 weeks earlier than expected which I fully attribute to my yoga practice.  Do what your body can do in whatever state it is in until you can do more.  It's that simple.  Yoga healed me from the inside out.

My accident was January of 2013.  In October of 2013, I applied and was accepted to attend Yoga to the People (YTTP) hot yoga teacher training in New York City. While I am grateful to the Bikram yoga practice where I began my journey, I was happy to evolve to YTTP's Fire sequence and philosophy.  

I began taking fire classes in Charlotte and hated them at first.  Often, those are the classes our body needs the most.  Over time, I fell in love with the fire sequence and the philosophies of YTTP and knew this was the teacher training I wanted to attend. I graduated in March  2014.

After coming home, I was introduced to Revolution Hot Yoga from a fellow teacher trainee and fell in love with the studio and their philosophy which closely resembles the message I developed through my practice and training with YTTP.  Yoga is for everyBODY!  I am opening my own studio called yogaLove studios in Huntersville, NC built on this philosophy. 

YTTP is a unique yoga studio with the goal of recapturing what is considered to be the essence of yoga.  Simply put, yoga should be available to everyone.  In a time where yoga has become a trendy business getting a lot of attention, the fact that it is being priced out of many people’s reach financially is in direct conflict with  the spirit of yoga itself.  Can a yoga studio survive as a business while keeping its intention on providing yoga as a service first and foremost?  I think it can and am proving this true.   

Exactly what does “yoga for everyone” mean?  Yoga is an amazingly beneficial practice that strengthens, stretches, and de-stresses the body while focusing and decompressing the mind. I would like to see everyone have access to yoga regardless of economic conditions.  I've seen too much evidence everywhere that people simply can’t afford to do yoga on a regular basis. "Yoga is meant to help strengthen and stretch your arms and legs, not cost you one!" (from yttp.com)

There are always going to be  postures that you struggle with, but each class you do a little more.  (I have found and teach good modifications for the postures my body still isn’t ready to do in full expression.)  You find your way through the posture into the yoga.  Every class, I try to work on finding more and more stillness within my movements.  

We are all on a journey in this life, and yoga has been my passage way to myself.  Yoga continues to help me discover new things about myself and others.  Over the last four years of my yoga journey, my mind, body, and spirit have been through radical changes and the continue to evolve.   Finding my true inner self.  A place to make a choice to love myself where I am.  Acceptance of myself and others. Acceptance of the process.  Embracing the differences.  Embracing the journey.   

I will continue to remember where I have been, where I am, where I'm going and the people that have loved me, accepted me, and helped me right where I was along the way.  I want to share that love with others, my yogaLove which is the name of my studio: yogalovestudios.com

Note:  Lisa will be teaching four classes weekly this summer at RHY and is leading a Yoga For Larger Bodies workshop at RHY on June 14 from 12:00-5:00 which includes a class, demonstration of posture modifications, and discussion on loving yourself to improve yourself. Donations accepted. 

This is Lisa Moore's yoga story.

Go to the RHY website