Yoga Is My Secret Defense

In high school, I was introduced to yoga when my mom's friend opened her own yoga studio which, I think, was basic Hatha yoga. . Being a brand new studio, business wasn't exactly booming.  Often, I would be the only one in a class which meant that I received a private lesson essentially.   

I first tried hot yoga a few years ago and although there was a year and a half gap in between my first and second class, I haven't stopped once I really got into it.

Both forms of yoga (hot and not) have a calming effect on me which I really like.  In hot yoga, I feel like I get the added benefit of ridding my body of unnecessary stuff it doesn't need in all of the sweat, and I prefer it. 

I find it rather incredible what a little breath and movement can do for me in yoga.  Sometimes after savasana, I leave my mat with the sense that I've resolved something, even though I can't consciously say exactly what. Yoga allows me to address issues that otherwise I don't think about all the way or don't really understand.  

Hot yoga also puts things into perspective for me.  Often, my thoughts can carry me away, and the yoga grounds me. What's wonderful is that it's not the yoga, in a literal sense, that does this.  It's accomplished by me practicing the yoga which is really just me breathing and moving.  I can carry this grounded feeling with me everywhere I go. Yoga is like my secret defense against the more unpleasant things I encounter in the world. 

For example when I started practicing yoga regularly in high school, I was that typical rebellious teenager with zero patience for her parents. My mother and I were in a what seemed like one long, continual brawl, and after fighting one evening, I went to yoga class. Coming out of the class, I bought her some tea that I thought she would like from the yoga studio's little store, even though I was angry with her and could hardly tolerate being in the same room.  The purchase only struck me as strange days later.  In the moment, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world, getting my mom some tea that I knew she would like just because.

When I started yoga, I liked the flexibility that resulted and again, the sense of calm that was so evident even after just one class. When I began practicing Bikram yoga in college, the sweat factor was great and the series healed my knees from chondromalacia patella, a fancy term for runner's knee. 

Physically, Bikram yoga made my body feel great, until I needed to take a break from it.  I probably just over did it by going to class almost every day for a few years which took a toll on my body.  Around that same time, Revolution Hot Yoga opened its doors. I found that the shorter classes were kinder to my body and was able to slowly get back into a regular yoga practice.

This is Ron Baron's yoga story.

Go to RHY website