My Yoga Story Began in 2010

I can't Feel My feet!

In the spring of 2010, I was training for a local road race when my feet became numb after only running a half-mile.  Needless to say, this was alarming! Chalking it up to a fluke, I tried again a few days later with the same result about a half-mile in to my run. It felt like I had sat cross-legged for too long and my foot was asleep. Except I was running! After resting for a bit everything would be back to normal.   

Thus began a two year long process of doctors, physical therapists, more doctors, vein removal surgery, consultations and more. Ultimately we landed on a diagnosis of "exertional compartment syndrome" and had a fasciotomy performed on both my legs in the spring of 2012. The rehab process lasted most of the year.  

As I completed my physical therapy, the fates opened the doors to my yoga practice. My physical therapist had recommended it. My friend, working part time at a local studio, encouraged it. I met a studio manager in a marketing class. Finally - I recognized what the universe was trying to tell me: GO TRY YOGA!

My life was changed forever. 

I don't belong here. Do I? 

I had long been interested in yoga but was always intimidated.  In my mind's eye, yoga was for the magazine cover models who could turn themselves into pretzels, holding perfect poses, while basking in the glow of enlightenment.  Yoga was not for people like me - giant sasquatchian dudes with the flexibility and grace of a cinder block. I wasn't meant to be in a room with these people who would be judging me and my inability to do anything that resembled coordination. 

I could not have been more wrong. What I found was an amazing teacher who welcomed me with open arms and an open heart. This was a heated vinyasa class and I was the textbook definition of a hot mess. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know any pose names, sequences, the heat was intense, by the end of class I was lying in a pool of sweat feeling muscles I never knew I had. My heart was pounding. I was dizzy struggling to find my breath. I couldn't feel my arms. I wanted to cut my legs off to stop the hurt.

And yet, I also felt a lightness I had never experienced before. My mind and spirit were electrically charged. The duality of the moment was so profound - I knew then and there that yoga was going to be a large part of the rest of my life.  

Growth through radical acceptance

Over the years of exploring my practice, I have met amazing people who have helped me learn the art of radical acceptance through compassion, love and kindness of myself and others. Inspired by my teachers - Sagel Urlacher, Katie Beane, Erica Magro Cahill, and Jacqui Bonwell - as well as my fellow students, trainees and community members, I've been able to find strength, passion, confidence, drive and determination that I never knew I had.

Through yoga, I have found a community that supports each other for exactly who they are and where they are. There is no attachment nor labeling.  It doesn't matter what my path has been. It doesn't matter what I look like or what I do for work. It doesn't matter what my outlook is or what I hope to do in the future. The practice of yoga and the community has given me space to find myself, space to grow and space to workout whatever it is that I need to workout at that moment.

I have found improved mental, emotional, and physical health. I have become a better son, brother, husband, friend - I have become a better person. I am not perfect - not even close. But I am better as a result of this amazing practice. 

And because of the things that I have received these amazing practices, I am called to return it back to the community around me. It will be my honor to meet you on the mat - right where you are, right where you've been, and right where you want to go.