Yoga For The Right Reasons

About 7 years ago, I was introduced to yoga when I started attending Vinyasa classes at the local Y with my sister. I remember being surprised at how hard it was, and wanting to get better. At 17-years old, I wasn't at all in tune with the meditative aspect of the practice. I really just wanted to look cool and be good at it :)

When I was in college at UNC Wilmington in 2011, I began going to hot yoga during a troubling time in my life where I was often performing to try to live up to what I thought others' impressions of me were. I was at the height of my addiction to drugs and alcohol and was obsessed with hot yoga in an unhealthy way to lose weight. 

After getting sober in 2013 and moving to Greensboro, I didn't practice yoga regularly for about a year. I'd gone through treatment and had a lot of issues about myself and my life to sort out. Luckily, I did figure some things out and intentionally decided more and more who I wanted to be and started changing my life accordingly. These adjustments have been meaningful and integral to improving my life and getting better. 

A few months ago I decided I wanted to get back into yoga as part of those changes. After visiting another hot yoga studio in town, I tried Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY). After practicing at RHY regularly for a couple of months, I've found hot yoga to be very beneficial both mentally and physically in a totally different and much healthier way than before. I think having had both perspectives has taught me the importance of taking care of myself for the right reasons. My practice has changed because I've grown up and figured out more about what works for me. 

After the initial feelings of wanting to keep up with the other people in the class went away, the yoga room has become a place where I can tune into my body and breath and tune out the world. I find that it's all too easy for me to expect more and more out of myself and to want be at a certain place in life or be something I'm not. Instead of practicing yoga to lose weight or be something, the yoga and meditation practice help me accept where I am and who I am that day. 

Hot yoga has added to my recovery in many ways that keep me coming back. Making my thoughts hush and connecting with my breath is harder on some days than others, but a yoga class always helps me tremendously by slowing down my brain. I've noticed that I also have more gratitude when I'm practicing regularly. When I make it to a class, my body feels better and my mind is more sound, and I leave feeling more serene and at peace.

I liked the feel of RHY - the atmosphere, the people, and the size of the studio - right from the start. Rebecca (Jordan-Turner) took me under her wing in a kind, supportive way. RHY is calm environment which provides an internal experience of peace for me.

This is Megan Carroll's yoga story.

Go to RHY website.

Magic Mirror On The Wall

Magic mirror on the wall, whose leg extensions are the most tall? Whose waist and thighs are the most small? Who has the highest fouette turn count of them all?

As a ballet dancer, my relationship with mirrors and my body during my teenage and early adulthood years were complicated - at best, destructive - at worst. I often felt perplexed that something in my life that could give me such joy could also cause such pain. I got to the point that I thought the best thing to do at the time was to turn around and walk away from my reflection. Through a series of typical “trying to find oneself” life choices, I learned what we all discover at some point: we are reflected back to ourselves off of many other surfaces than just mirrors. I couldn’t turn away from my reflection, and I couldn’t turn away from dance.

I began investigating other styles of dance and fell in love with contemporary. While I have made peace with and still enjoy ballet, contemporary is my home sweet home. It was through contemporary classes that I was first introduced to yoga. Elements of vinyasa flow and meditation were used as warm ups or cool downs. For years, that was the extent of my yoga practice and knowledge. I had no interest in pursuing yoga any further as I perceived it to be a practice that was too slow, too bohemian, and way too get-down-with-your-inner-feelings for me.

Thankfully a roommate of mine in graduate school got me to see my past uninformed judgments came from fear, and I took her up on going to a Bikram hot yoga class in 2012. As someone who danced a few hours five to six days a week I figured it would be a piece of cake. I walked (as best as I could with legs of jello) out of my first class looking and feeling like a drowned rat and wondering how I made it through that hour and half of sweat infused torture alive.  Incredibly, that feeling was swiftly replaced by the same alertness and aliveness that radiates through my body after a great dance class. I was hooked. I kept going to the Bikram studio as many times as my schedule would allow for the next two years. 

At first I loved the physical challenge of moving in a different way and exploring different muscles than my dance training. But I soon found past habits of unrealistic expectations, negative self-talk, and physical overexertion from my ballet past sneaking up on me every time I stepped in front of the mirror for my practice. So I did what I had done in the past - I walked away. 

Shortly after I stopped practicing yoga, I graduated with my MFA. Being out of the college bubble meant less class opportunities, and I found myself feeling increasingly fragmented, constantly trying to pull, push, and mold my mind, body and spirit together like a jigsaw puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit together. The same roommate who convinced me to try Bikram was teaching at a new studio called Revolution Hot Yoga (RHY).  From her description of the teachers, community, and vision of the studio, I knew I needed to take a class there. I had a hard time getting over the fear that no one could promise me this would be any different than my last experience, but I needed movement exploration back in my life.

I fell in love with RHY and the teachers immediately. I loved the flexibility, creativity, and personal attention that occurred in every class. At first, it was all about moving in a calm yet challenging environment, but the day Rebecca (Jordan-Turner) sensed I was ready to go further and shifted my hips forward in camel pose was the day my practice shifted into meaning so much more.

I am most at home in a primary curve. Back bends scare me physically and emotionally, so when I was shown how to open up even more into the posture that day, the vulnerability was excruciating. I came back to child’s pose and stayed there for several postures collecting myself. When I finished cursing Rebecca in my head and re-joined the class, I realized that being vulnerable allowed for more connection within myself both in a physical and emotional sense. It amazes me how this simple shift has created a ripple effect throughout my practice of yoga and dance as well as my work as a choreographer and teacher.

It's hard to explain how profoundly practicing at RHY has impacted me. My practice there has increased my flexibility and stamina for dancing and has given me a place to focus on myself. But there is something greater – a sense of wholeness - a wonderful feeling that it's okay to just be present, trying, being.

So, magic mirror on the wall, you don’t seem so intimidating anymore, nope, not really at all.

This is Michele Trumble's yoga story.

Go to RHY website

I Never Regret A Class

Back in college, I did a couple of Hatha yoga classes in a gym. I remember it because the instructor was fascinated by my long, lanky feet and called me "monkey feet" in class. While I've always been flexible, doing yoga in a cold gym really didn't appeal to me or do much for me.  So, I didn't stick with it.

When I was 20, I tried Bikram yoga and was scared during my first hot yoga class.  The heat was intense, and having to look into my own eyes was unnervingl. In the middle of the class, I tried to hobble out of the room when my hands cramped up from dehydration - pretty sure that my life was over, but the super nice instructor herded me back into class and convinced me everything was going to be ok. In my whole life, I've never been as sore as I was after that class.  I worked and stretched muscles I didn't even know I had! But, I kept going back and was hooked on hot yoga after those first couple of classes.  Strangely enough, I wouldn't change a thing or one drop of sweat!

When I first started yoga, I did it for the physical experience and in every class, I would beat myself up if I couldn't get into the full expression of a pose - just like in my life.  I was hard on myself, rigid, and always expecting perfection the first time I tried something. Over my years of practicing without even realizing it, yoga has turned into a much deeper, meditative practice for me. It's not about the physical aspect anymore. I've learned how to let things go, and how to laugh at myself, whether I'm falling out of a pose or busting my butt on the sidewalk. 

I have generalized anxiety disorder which means my brain is constantly going going going and always worrying about things that I know I have no control over. When I step onto my yoga mat, all of that melts away. Some days, it's harder for my brain to slow down than others, but I always leave class feeling lighter, like the worries and stresses have literally melted away with the heat. Yoga is a release for me. 

In the early days of my practice, there was a month that I would cry like a baby after every camel pose....and I mean sobbing hot mess, alligator tears. Now, I realize that I was probably doing this because I was going through a lot during that time in college. The experience taught me that if I need to cry, I might as well go ahead and let it out because I'll feel better afterwards. Better out than in! 

Yoga helps me live healthier overall. I eat healthier because I don't want to feel like I've got a belly full of crud when I'm in class. Because of yoga, I also stay better hydrated, which I find difficult during the winter. Yoga has helped me with my body image as well because I see that I am so much more capable and beautiful than my brain allows me to see on its own. 

When I took Bikram yoga in Charleston, SC, they gave out soaking wet, cold cloths after each class which literally felt like they had been dipped in an ice bath.  While I was laying in savasana, the instructor would come around the room and place it on my forehead. I would almost have a panic attack at the end of every class because it was shocking to be so hot, and have this FREEZING cold cloth thrown on me. When I came to Revolution Hot Yoga and found hat they gave out lavender cloths at the end of class, I was not thrilled. I was so grateful to have them place the clothe over my shoulder. It's the little things, right?

I love the community of hot yoga.  It's a very personal practice, but the fact that all the people in the hot room are going through the sweaty mess together is a fabulous feeling. I love experiencing the highs and the lows of the poses and classes as well. One easy, calm pose one day can turn into hell of a challenge the next day. 

You never know, and you learn to just breath through it. 

While I do love yoga, there are some days when all I want to do is go home, curl up on the couch with a glass of wine and a book, and be done with the day. On those days, I literally have to order myself to drive to the studio. And of course, I never regret that I went to yoga, and I always feel so much better afterwards.

This is Natasha D'Amours' yoga story.

Go to RHY website.