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April 17, 2015

What It Feels Like to Return to Yoga After a Hiatus

During training, we ate, slept and breathed yoga. Asana was the word of the day, all day long as we strove to understand every posture. Six months after finishing yoga teacher training, I’m immersed in functional fitness classes as I teach Sweat and Core classes at my home studio. Last year, 80 percent of my physical practice was yoga-based with 20 percent going toward weight training. That breakdown is now flipped on its head, and when I’m not in the studio teaching weight class, I’m in the gym with my fiance doing his regimen. Before I knew it, I’d gone nearly a month without taking any kind of yoga, which is a crazy-long time for me.

Last night, it was me and the mat and my Yoga Studio app. As I stepped to the top of my mat to begin an hour of class, my body automatically went to what it knew: shoulders back and down, chest lifted, breathing in and out deeply. Turns out, my time away doing weight work improved my practice. Upper body and core work helped stabilize Chaturangas and those taxing leg presses and weighted walking lunges meant I could get my thigh closer to parallel in Warrior positions.

Best of all, when I went to practice inversions – handstands – after the class ended, I got some hang time! For reference, just six months ago, I was either kicking over into a backbend or flailing. One key piece of handstand prep I found was from Kino McGrego (Kino Yoga); I’ve embedded it below.

Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to change up your fitness. Engaging in a range of exercises means you won’t get bored, cross trains your muscles and improves your performance. What are your two to three must-do exercise programs? How do they intersect? For example, do you find your Pilates classes complement marathon training?

February 9, 2015February 10, 2015

It’s a Family Affair – Workout Challenge

They say if you want to succeed in life, you should surround yourself with like-minded people. In my life, I have two of them: my mom, who I nicknamed Benjamin Buttons because of her seeming agelessness, and my fiance, who I originally got in contact with to be my trainer. When they get together, it’s like a house on fire. They can spend hours on discussions about finance, investments, veganism and fitness, which leads to me learning new and interesting facts that I can apply to my life.

Recently, my mom decided to issue a family-wide challenge: let’s develop a four-week fitness program, eating a plant-based diet and measuring our results. The fiance developed the functional routine, with five days on and two days rest. My mom is an epic sharer of new recipes, so we’ve not been without inspiration for the challenge. Continue reading “It’s a Family Affair – Workout Challenge”

January 4, 2015

Starting 2015 on The Right Foot: Setting My Goals

Since I managed to make it into 2015 without doing a 2015 recap post – I’ve not completely dismissed the idea – I figured the first post of the new year can talk about how I’m setting myself up for greatness in 2015.

I gave myself a reality check toward the end of the year. In the span of one year, I graduated with an M.A., started a new job and had a knock-out first year AND completed 200-hour yoga teacher training. Suffice it to say, that’s quite a bit! Hours of studying, full weekends of practice and learning in the studio and sacrifice of time for the things that mattered most to me. So, I say “Clap, Clap!” for me. And….that’s enough. I do want you to remember to recognize your own accomplishments; even if you don’t tell anyone about them, acknowledge your awesomeness.

The year was transformative and I’m ready for the challenges to come!

Continue reading “Starting 2015 on The Right Foot: Setting My Goals”

November 9, 2014

Message for “Busy” Folks: Taking Time Off Doesn’t Make You a Bum

If this isn’t the truth. (photo via EvelynGiggles on Flickr)

Recently, someone made a statement that changed my perspective on what I’ve been doing (or more importantly, not doing) since finishing yoga teaching certification a month ago.

We are often so busy either doing things, or making plans to do things, that we often don’t take the time to enjoy the fact that we’ve done them. Take time to just be.”

Much has been made of our culture of busyness, in which everyone is constantly on the “go,” on their “grind” and in no-sleep mode (which never made sense to me because good lord I am cranky without rest). If your social media timeline isn’t filled with mentions of the flights you’re taking, the meetings you’re having with the folks just like you and the after-hours networking over dark liquor and Cuban cigars, then what are you even here for?

I say to those folks “Mannn, hush!” If you build your self-worth on the highly curated and specially-selected experiences of others, you’re setting yourself up for failure. I admit, I wanted to be in the studio, teaching others and being a boss at it, immediately after finishing the program. I feel the desire to become one of those extra-flexible yogis from Instagram on a regular basis, even though my hips and back clearly haven’t gotten the memo to let go of that stiffness (working on it).

And then it hit me: in the last year, I’ve completed a Master’s degree, started a new job and kicked butt at it AND completed a 200-hour certification for yoga. I deserve to take a moment, even a month or two, to just sit in the cut and enjoy. So what if I don’t wake up until 11 a.m. on Saturday. I earned it. So what if I decide that sweatpants on the sofa night trumps working out. A practice of wellness and fitness allows for a day off. Unlike the folks who just have to let you know every time they and their smart phone cross the threshold of the gym, I live low key. No selfies from the mat or while holding a dumbbell. My focus is me, gaining energy and strength and peace of mind or whatever it is that I need during that session or class.

The past month has been restful and rejuvenating in many ways. I missed the time with the BF and my family. I missed books. And I needed time to plan and determine what I truly wanted to do with the achievement of being a certified teacher and how I want to impact those around me. I think I’m in the groove now, which means ramping up my personal practice, getting out to new studios and connecting with more like-minded people.

Do you feel a similar pressure to always be in “beast mode”? How do you overcome the “Fear of Not Doing Enough” brought on by social media?

October 7, 2014October 6, 2014

Inspired Post – Planning for Success in October

Entrepreneur and fellow Dallasite Courtney over at Think & Grow Chick inspired this post outlining September’s results and October’s goal planning and challenges. I appreciate the simple way she outlined her post and we all know that accountability helps move the needle. Here I go!

LAST MONTH’S RESULTS

I didn’t set goals for September the way that Courtney did so this section will be lean. Speaking to accomplishments in September, I did manage to post about my yoga journey not once but twice. At my 9-to-5, I got plenty of face-time with department leadership by proposing new projects outside the scope of my role. Finally, I managed to learn quite a bit by falling on my face – I might write about that experience – and saying “No” to a volunteer opportunity that I knew wouldn’t be fulfilled to the level needed by the organization leader.

THIS MONTH’S BUSINESS GOALS

This quarter of the year is all about development, from professional learning to expanding knowledge of yoga philosophy.

Attend an industry learning and/or networking event – Like most people, the idea of networking fills me with a certain dread. Knowing that the benefit will be bringing back useful information that I can share with the department makes the idea (slightly) more palatable. I’ve pitched two organizations and will follow up to attend as many as my manager allows me.
Increase my knowledge of yoga philosophy – As I learn about the pedagogy of yoga and develop a greater understanding of the physiology of the practice, I must supplement my understanding with historical texts and the latest research.
Update my personal website, develop marketing materials – ROI is the name of the game. While I’ve enjoyed the yoga teacher training on a personal level, it was also a business decision to earn certification. Now I must press further to define who I am as a yoga teacher, my ideal clientele, pricing and availability, working with a studio or a gym and beyond.

CURRENT CHALLENGES

As much as I enjoy talking, I hate talking about myself, marketing myself, all of the above and beyond. Even the thought gives me heebie jeebies. I have to move beyond that.
Recognizing that it’s okay to not have the answers. Often we feel like the best path should be illuminated instantaneously. This sets us up to be disappointed when the path is more winding than straight-and-narrow. Reading “Mastery” by George Leonard puts these concerns in perspective: it’s about the long haul, not instant gratification. Patience, grasshopper.

CURRENT SUCCESSES/WHAT’S WORKING

Saying No from time to time – One of the more difficult things I’ve done this year with fantastic results. I wouldn’t call myself a people pleaser so that’s not the issue. I struggled with thinking that I wasn’t following up on what I signed up for. After evaluating my workload and how much I wanted to add, it was best for me to step away and I managed to do so without damaging the relationship.
Talking to my network – In the past my circle has been so small that everyone in it shared my DNA. I’ve begun to realize that I’m limiting opportunities for feedback and connections by staying so close to home in creating my network of advisers, entrepreneurs and associates. Setting up coffee time and shooting out catch-up emails has netted me useful feedback about upcoming plans.

Next week we graduate from the teacher training – I expect it to emotional and exciting – and the real adventure begins. Eight weeks has flown by quickly.

Check out Think & Grow Chick and join the B-Side Facebook group for inspirational discussions with female entrepreneurs!

September 18, 2014September 17, 2014

Why My Mental Health Days Always Include Yoga

The straw had been laid to the camel’s back, and that back was broken. The emails kept rolling in, alerts had my cell phone vibrating back-to-back and the to-do list was growing. Finally, I threw up my hands. The stressed feeling was familiar and there was no way to alleviate it while remaining in the situation causing it. Finally, I told myself: “I’m taking a mental health day.”

Since I was a teenager, mental health days have been essential to establishing a balance between the go-go mentality and just taking a day off to do nothing. All my sister and I had to do was simply ask and, if the wind was blowing the right way (and we’d been keeping up with other duties), my mom would nod and the PJs would stay on. Mental health days mostly consisted of watching junk daytime TV and eating three sandwiches in one sitting. Now, my mental health days are dedicated to yoga.

When I was at my most down, I was on the mat about five days a week. I’d come into the studio with my shoulders up to my ears, breathing shallowly. Each class left me exhilarated and exhausted, sweating through every pore in my body – I’d seen drops materialize on my shin in front of my eyes – and working muscles that hadn’t been used in hours. Yoga became a place where I could disconnect from all requests, notifications and expectations except my own. The same feeling from earlier iterations of mental health days mainfested itself as a reaction to my practice.

September is National Yoga Month, which means so much more to me as I go through teacher training. I write this post because yoga matters so much to me and as part of the #YogaMatters blogging contest put on by the Master of Public Health program at George Washington University. I couldn’t imagine going through life as a super-stressed, unhappy person, and yoga helped me find my center. This is not to say that I don’t still get stressed; I’m human. Yoga helps me find coping mechanisms so the stress doesn’t take over my life. Deep breathing, inversions, meditation, silence, creating intentions for my behavior – all of these form my practice. Practice is the right word because yoga is never perfected. Yoga is an ongoing journey that depends on my mental and physical well-being, and that changes from day to day.

Check out the #YogaMatters contest, and write about how yoga has affected your health.

Random Selection of Thoughts: Welcome to September!

So I haven’t forgotten about blogging about my yoga training. Suffice it to say: it’s intense. I’m in a group of 21 students, from all walks of life, different ages and professions and reasons for being there. The days are long and there is a lot to learn. But I’ll get into that in a different post.

Today’s post is about the random thoughts I have floating around that I want to share with the lovely people who happened to click on this link.

How is it September already? Though this year is flying by, I’m pleased about September for the following reasons: FOOTBALL and cooler temperatures (though not in Texas yet, sadly).
This has been the summer of reading. My recommendation for anyone looking to add to their Amazon Wish list: anything by Roxane Gay. Seriously, her book “An Untamed State” has been in my thoughts for over a week. I ignored social obligations, lunch time limits and loved ones to get through the book. And now I have to re-read it for the details I missed in my effort to reach the epic climax of the novel. Honorable “must-read” mentions:
- “Where the Line Bleeds” and “Salvage the Bones” by Jesmyn Ward. As a Southerner, especially being from Houston, the way that Ward describes her characters, families from the hardscrabble Gulf coast dealing with the choices of life (both legal and illegal) rang quite true. You’ll get caught up in the story line and start to identify with each character.
- “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the prison of belief” by Lawrence Wright. One of those books where you find yourself yelping “That didn’t really happen.” and “Are these people serious?” after nearly every page. I sometimes forget that in a pre-Internet day, folks got away with making claims that today could easily be disputed. And boy did the founder of Scientology tell some whoppers!
- “How to Be Black” by Baratunde Thurston. I’ve been picking up and putting down this book for a while. Unsure why I haven’t finished it, because it’s consistently hilarious and I find myself nodding along with the stories of Black childhood in America.
- “Redefining Realness: my path to womanhood, identity, love & so much more” by Janet Mock. Though I’ve always been pretty liberal, this book opened my eyes. Mock’s journey tells the challenges she faced as a mixed-race youth in Hawaii, navigating the space between presenting male, which was expected by society, and presenting female, which was in her spirit. I have a six-degrees-of-separation connection through a friend of a friend, and the visibility of these stories matter.
Yoga is such a blessing. September is National Yoga Month, so grab a 10-day or one week pass if you can. My mom shared this great infographic about how yoga affects your body. I could easily add about 10 more.
If you’re like me, and you struggle with content scheduling, here is an excellent list of 30 content creation tips. I already hit you with #17 (book reviews) above and this whole post is #13 (list posts). See, it works!

Alright, off to prepare for this excellent four-day work week. Oh, and plot for my world take over. As always, I love your comments so please leave one.

August 16, 2014August 15, 2014

Visibility Matters: On Practicing Yoga While Black

With one week until I begin the 200-hour teacher training, I’ve been reflecting on how I will use my practice to make a difference. Should I volunteer to teach? Will I join a smaller studio to lead classes on evenings and weekends? In all my thinking, I must have put something out in the universe. And the universe is telling me that I need to be visible, whatever I do.

Last month, The Atlantic posted a story that was sure to get my click: “Why Your Yoga Class Is So White.” Though the studio I attend can boast a slightly more culturally and age diverse group of practitioners, I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to state that when most people think of yoga, they picture a skinny, ponytailed white woman, able to bend and stretch into impossible positions. A 2012 Yoga Journal study cited in the article states that more than four-fifths of Americans yogis are white. The article goes on to talk about studios and instructors who are working to change this percentage by offering low-cost yoga in underserved communities. As a product of an underserved community (shout out to Southwest Houston), the reference to the role religiosity plays as the preferred method to improve health (greater than meditation or yoga) resounds with me. More often than not, we attended Bible study, worship services or another activity at the church as frequently as I now attend yoga classes. While I would not say that yoga practice has replaced my religious practice, I do find similarities between the two in the repetition of mantras and routines, charismatic leadership and group assembly.

Much has been made of Black American women and lack of prioritization of physical fitness. According to the Office on Women’s Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, 4 of 5 Black women are overweight or obese. As the daughter of a mother who struggled with her weight and imparted the need for wellness to me and my sister from an early age, I’ve managed to avoid any weight-related issues, in part due to my yoga practice. By being visible and discussing how yoga supplements my weight and aerobic training, I’m setting an example to my niece and other young women.

The second article to discuss the lack of diversity in yoga came from Forbes. I’d summarize this as the discussion of the “Columbising” of yoga by the West, first the British and then Americans. The separation of the physical practice from the mental practice of meditation is not a facet of yoga that I’d ever considered before. However, after recalling some of the obviously competitive people I’ve had the pleasure of being next to in class, this makes sense. The focus on a wholistic yoga practice, one which includes the exploration of the history and principles of the practice, understanding the body and exploring mediation, is part of the reason why I signed up for the teacher training.

I write all this to say that I recall the feeling of being the only person in my class, and how it required me to get outside of my comfort zone and where I thought I belonged. That sense of not belonging gave way to a more peaceful, less stressed version of myself as I deepened my practice. Becoming an instructor allows me to be part of breaking the mental and visual barrier, one that keeps men and women from discovering the healing properties of yoga. This will be on my mind as I take my first step on the mat as a student next week, and will guide me for the subsequent eight weeks.

For some inspiration, check out the following social accounts: Black Yoga Superstars and Hippie Heathen.

Photo courtesy of Dave Rosenblum via Flickr

July 21, 2014July 21, 2014

My Next Adventure: Yoga Certification

There is a saying that I’ve seen for years but only recently come to understand: “If your dreams doesn’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.” Once I made the decision, or the decision was made for me, to stop letting my work contribute only to the bottom line of other people, I truly got this phrase. Fear can be a big motivator; it can move you forward or it can keep you in one place. Once I got the swift kick in the tail that made me reevaluate my career trajectory and start looking at additional streams of income, I used any residual fear to move me forward.

With a bit of fear and a lot of excitement, I am super happy to tell you that I signed up for the 200-Hour Training Program with Sunstone Yoga Academy. The classes at Sunstone are what kept me sane and in phenomenal shape for the past 18 months, and the philosophy of their teaching resonates with me. I want to learn how to instill the feeling of peace and the ability to leave stress on the mat that I receive after every class with others. So, I’m taking my first step.

Clearly, I don’t mind being “different.” One goal in doing this, aside from learning more about my yoga practice, is to expand the visibility of African American yoga practitioners. While I know several women who integrate yoga into their exercise program, some view it as an Eastern practice at odds with Western Christian practices. I want to change those minds and help them discover a new way to keep the body and mind healthy.

I’ll be detailing my progress on here (because, of course I will) once the training begins next month. Until then, if you’re in the Dallas area, check out Sunstone (if you’re near the Skillman Live Oak location, holler at me so we can meet up). Are you a yogi (or aspiring to be a yogi)? What do you enjoy the most about your practice?

July 20, 2014July 20, 2014

Getting Past the Fear of Being “Different”

5651606095_1302297e0f_q — Photo via HA! Designs on Flickr

This morning, over some amazing Challah French toast from Method: Caffenation & Fare (seriously, go get some), I got into a conversation about the expectations placed on us from others with a Twitter connection turned real friend, CJ. As someone who has rubbed against the grain, if not fully gone against it, at some points in my life (cutting off all my hair at 23 and going natural, transitioning to vegetarian and trying veganism, working for myself for nine months), I know how uncomfortable it can make others when you forge your own path. I’ve had people express concern about my protein levels, as though I’m close to malnutrition from the lack of meat. And it never failed to amaze me that people can congratulate me on the “bravery” of being natural while saying they could never do that themselves. Why do we continue to hold ourselves back from trying something unexpected for fear of judgment from those who are unaffected by our decisions?

Don’t get me wrong. I get it. As someone who has a from-a-distance relationship with church after years of attendance, I sometimes feel the societal pressure, especially as an African-American in the South, to belong to a place of worship. The bonds of religion are strong, and to be someone who exists outside the community of fellowship marks me as different. People want to invite me to their churches, sure in their faith that I’ll be changed as soon as I cross the threshold. While I appreciate their invitation, I am secure enough in myself to know it would be an exercise in making someone else comfortable rather than a personal spiritual fulfillment, and that is not how I want to exercise my faith. My spirituality is personal, and I expect the same consideration for this stance that I give to those who wouldn’t be found anywhere else but church on Sunday between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.

The most freeing thing I’ve learned, what brought me the most peace and what sustained me in difficult decisions: the only person I have to make happy is me. That thought is freeing. It’s also dangerous to some. The thought that a woman is not tied to a god, a family, a man or society’s expectations means she can’t be constrained. You can’t guilt her, goad her, shame her or box her in. I aspire to be that woman every day, because what is one person’s “different” is my reality, and that is okay with me.