Marina
Advanced Luna Teacher Training grad 2019
Teaches Yoga in the Park Fridays 6-7pm
When I first started practicing yoga, I just thought it would be a good activity to pair with my weight training, in order to help me increase flexibility. I honestly had little other expectations of it. What I soon noticed, was that I felt much more balanced mentally after taking a yoga class. And that sense of balance happened every time. The more I practiced, the more it became evident, that yoga was not only good for my body, but was in fact having the largest impact on my mental health. I didn’t understand it, but I knew it to be true.
Taking teacher trainings allowed me to dive deeper and explore that sense of wellbeing. I discovered breathing and being in a way I never had before. I learned how to sit with things - with feelings and situations. How to observe these things from a more detached perspective. It allowed me to move from being a highly emotional person whose actions were often governed by emotions, to someone who could sit with those emotions, notice them, explore them, and navigate why those emotions were there to begin with. Soon enough, the emotions shifted. I started to feel more in control of how I feel. I started to feel healthier. And I continue to practice this every day. Bad days or moments are of course still a reality, but not in the same way they used to be. Now bad days are ok. They aren’t moments to spiral downward into this endless abyss of negativity. They are just passing moments. In fact, they are opportunities for insight, growth and change. Sometimes it’s not as obvious, and sometimes it takes a little longer to get there, but in the end, I can always look back and see that I learn something from every experience - especially the hard ones.
It seems so grand to say that my yoga practice gave me all this, but it truly did. It completely changed me as a person. I am still that same person I always was, but I am so much more. I am well. I simply AM.
In all honesty, and it’s a little embarrassing to admit, but I used to have a very pessimistic outlook on life - and I would avidly claim that I wasn’t a pessimist, I was just a realist (yes I said this cliché sentence over and over again whenever anyone pointed out my negative way of thinking). In actuality, I just had never learned that I am not my emotions nor my thoughts. Learning that and practicing that, made me feel like an entirely new person. I found purpose in life. I found beauty. I found connection. I found balance.
I truly feel like Yoga gave me life. It gave me more than I can ever express. And teaching is just a small way I can give back. Offering others even a little fraction of what my yoga teachers and yoga journey have given me gives me joy. I want to offer space, movement, balance, connection. I want to help others connect with what is already within them. And it doesn’t have to look complicated… it can just be arriving at your mat, breathing, and moving, in whatever way you can. It’s just about showing up. And then doing it again, and again, and again. Without expectations, without judgement. Just being open to the possibilities. (Oh, and the best bonus, we learn how to do really cool things with our bodies!!)
Namaste 💛