My Yoga Journey
Little did I know 35 years ago that I would go from being without a path, and not knowing what Holistic meant to being Director of Twin Lotus Center… and being completely authentic to myself on the path of teaching Yoga. Every journey starts with a first step and mine was encouraged by a weekend workshop being offered for only $1.
My first exposure to yoga was in 1989 when I was 38. I attended a Women's Holistic Healing weekend class offered by Beth Beurkens at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, for one dollar. Yep! That’s right! One dollar! I probably would not have gone if it weren’t for this outstanding bargain. I had never been to anything similar up until that point, and it changed my life.
This is where I met my Sacred Sister and business partner at Twin Lotus Center, Antara Davis, and my Sacred Sister and equally dear friend, Michelle Hayward. The topics were dreams, yoga, polarity, acupressure and psycho-synthesis. Thus was born “My Path” to my Authentic Self.
There was a woman teaching part of the Cabrillo workshop who I recall was about twice my age. She was doing a demonstration of the yoga sequence called Sun Salutation. I was so impressed with her ability to flow through the postures (and equally upset that I was unable to do so!), that I vowed to find out more about this “yoga,” and make it part of my life.
Later that year, after an auto accident where I injured my back, I joined Spa Fitness in Santa Cruz and started attending the T-Th 6:30am yoga class before work as a paralegal. Leslie McKee was my first yoga teacher. I want to acknowledge and thank Leslie with all my heart because she gave me the love for yoga I have now.
Leslie got married, and became pregnant. Her husband Tom subbed for a while, but after the baby was born, they both quit teaching at Spa Fitness. They were replaced by this guy from Chicago. He taught Iyengar Yoga where the poses are held a seemingly endless amount of time. He knew nothing about moving meditation! In fact, he thought telling jokes while holding the poses was a good idea. I was appalled, and I almost quit yoga entirely during this phase.
Lucky for me though, before I gave up yoga entirely, he was replaced by a now dear friend of mine, Marianne Reagan, whose style was eclectic and incorporated both movement and stillness. She had great cues that made the class fun and educational. My practice improved a lot during this phase. She later moved to Grass Valley and earned her certificate at the San Francisco Iyengar Institute. She was replaced at Spa Fitness by yet another yogini with another style.
After 10 years of yoga, we didn’t have a dependable teacher for the 6:30am class. Many times she would not show up. The regular students started “substitute teaching” for each other so we could at least practice yoga together. It wasn’t that easy for us to get there at 6:30am! Even though I had no credentials, I was asked by the club director to take over the class.
Around that time, I got a repetitive stress injury at work. I got really mad at yoga for it happening. I felt yoga had let me down. I was told by one of my healing practitioners that I should quit doing yoga, and so I did, hoping to heal my hand. I didn't know at that time that yoga is not just exercise, but it is actually a healing modality and could have healed my hand if I had proper instruction from a Yoga Therapist.
After a year of being off work and away from my life passion, I was like a boat without a rudder. I was depressed and scared about my future. My body, mind and spirit were atrophying, and I knew I had to get back to yoga even though I was still in pain. I went to a yoga class at Spa Fitness in Watsonville. As before, the teacher didn’t show up!
I explained to the class that I hadn’t been doing yoga for the last year, but that I knew what to do and had been teaching before my injury. They wanted me to lead the class, and so I did. The students were very enthusiastic and passed the word on to the staff. When the teacher didn’t show up the second time I came to class, while I was still on disability, the club again offered me a job as permanent Yoga Instructor. Thus, I started my path teaching yoga. I taught at Spa Fitness Watsonville twice a week for a year and then started teaching at Yoga Within in Aptos. And my hand did, indeed, heal!
I went back to work in a law office in 2004 and gave up teaching yoga for a while. Five years later, when I was laid off due to the slow economy, I immediately began taking as many yoga classes as I could. I knew I wanted to teach again, and I wanted to investigate the different styles. I went to the Yoga Journal Convention in San Francisco and took classes from Rodney Yee, Tias Little, Judith Lasater, to name a few.
I also tried many yoga studios around town, learning from top level Ashtanga, Hatha, Iyengar, Vinyasa and other instructors. I discovered the TriYoga Center. Now, suddenly, I knew I was home! This was the style that Tom and Leslie had taught me many years ago at the health club!
So if you are pulled like a magnet to a class, don’t ignore that feeling – GO! It may take you on the journey of a lifetime!
~Lotus
Continue reading more articles by clicking the links below:
What is TriYoga?
Benefits of TriYoga
Yoga Education & Experience
Yoga Testimonials
Yoga Acknowledgements
My first exposure to yoga was in 1989 when I was 38. I attended a Women's Holistic Healing weekend class offered by Beth Beurkens at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, for one dollar. Yep! That’s right! One dollar! I probably would not have gone if it weren’t for this outstanding bargain. I had never been to anything similar up until that point, and it changed my life.
This is where I met my Sacred Sister and business partner at Twin Lotus Center, Antara Davis, and my Sacred Sister and equally dear friend, Michelle Hayward. The topics were dreams, yoga, polarity, acupressure and psycho-synthesis. Thus was born “My Path” to my Authentic Self.
There was a woman teaching part of the Cabrillo workshop who I recall was about twice my age. She was doing a demonstration of the yoga sequence called Sun Salutation. I was so impressed with her ability to flow through the postures (and equally upset that I was unable to do so!), that I vowed to find out more about this “yoga,” and make it part of my life.
Later that year, after an auto accident where I injured my back, I joined Spa Fitness in Santa Cruz and started attending the T-Th 6:30am yoga class before work as a paralegal. Leslie McKee was my first yoga teacher. I want to acknowledge and thank Leslie with all my heart because she gave me the love for yoga I have now.
Leslie got married, and became pregnant. Her husband Tom subbed for a while, but after the baby was born, they both quit teaching at Spa Fitness. They were replaced by this guy from Chicago. He taught Iyengar Yoga where the poses are held a seemingly endless amount of time. He knew nothing about moving meditation! In fact, he thought telling jokes while holding the poses was a good idea. I was appalled, and I almost quit yoga entirely during this phase.
Lucky for me though, before I gave up yoga entirely, he was replaced by a now dear friend of mine, Marianne Reagan, whose style was eclectic and incorporated both movement and stillness. She had great cues that made the class fun and educational. My practice improved a lot during this phase. She later moved to Grass Valley and earned her certificate at the San Francisco Iyengar Institute. She was replaced at Spa Fitness by yet another yogini with another style.
After 10 years of yoga, we didn’t have a dependable teacher for the 6:30am class. Many times she would not show up. The regular students started “substitute teaching” for each other so we could at least practice yoga together. It wasn’t that easy for us to get there at 6:30am! Even though I had no credentials, I was asked by the club director to take over the class.
Around that time, I got a repetitive stress injury at work. I got really mad at yoga for it happening. I felt yoga had let me down. I was told by one of my healing practitioners that I should quit doing yoga, and so I did, hoping to heal my hand. I didn't know at that time that yoga is not just exercise, but it is actually a healing modality and could have healed my hand if I had proper instruction from a Yoga Therapist.
After a year of being off work and away from my life passion, I was like a boat without a rudder. I was depressed and scared about my future. My body, mind and spirit were atrophying, and I knew I had to get back to yoga even though I was still in pain. I went to a yoga class at Spa Fitness in Watsonville. As before, the teacher didn’t show up!
I explained to the class that I hadn’t been doing yoga for the last year, but that I knew what to do and had been teaching before my injury. They wanted me to lead the class, and so I did. The students were very enthusiastic and passed the word on to the staff. When the teacher didn’t show up the second time I came to class, while I was still on disability, the club again offered me a job as permanent Yoga Instructor. Thus, I started my path teaching yoga. I taught at Spa Fitness Watsonville twice a week for a year and then started teaching at Yoga Within in Aptos. And my hand did, indeed, heal!
I went back to work in a law office in 2004 and gave up teaching yoga for a while. Five years later, when I was laid off due to the slow economy, I immediately began taking as many yoga classes as I could. I knew I wanted to teach again, and I wanted to investigate the different styles. I went to the Yoga Journal Convention in San Francisco and took classes from Rodney Yee, Tias Little, Judith Lasater, to name a few.
I also tried many yoga studios around town, learning from top level Ashtanga, Hatha, Iyengar, Vinyasa and other instructors. I discovered the TriYoga Center. Now, suddenly, I knew I was home! This was the style that Tom and Leslie had taught me many years ago at the health club!
So if you are pulled like a magnet to a class, don’t ignore that feeling – GO! It may take you on the journey of a lifetime!
~Lotus
Continue reading more articles by clicking the links below:
What is TriYoga?
Benefits of TriYoga
Yoga Education & Experience
Yoga Testimonials
Yoga Acknowledgements