My Journey with Yoga and Meditation

My Journey with Yoga and Meditation

In the fall of 2015, I was going through a very difficult time in my life. I had just purchased a home due to a shift in my personal relationship, I was unsure if I was going to have a job as my current position is grant funded and we were waiting to hear if there would be a future grant to sustain our work, and I was working on obtaining my Master’s degree. UGH!

It was hard for me to focus and find anything positive. I felt completely broken and unfixable. This is when I started my journey with yoga. Yoga was exactly what I needed to keep me present and grounded. I did a lot of work with setting my intention on my root chakra. At the time, I really didn’t know what “root chakra” meant, but I have come to understand and truly appreciate all seven chakras. Little did I know that this was the seed that was planted and didn’t fully bloom until 2018!!

During this time of my life I needed to feel connected. I needed to feel connected to something or someone. There was so much uncertainty in my life and I had nothing but faith and trust that everything would work out the way it was intended to. However, trying to calm the worrying mind, trying to stop the racing thoughts and control the stress that was manifesting in me physically and mentally was NOT that simple.

I continued my yoga practice on and off for two years. I would catch a class from time to time or I would practice at home. In 2017, I had another life changing event. I decided to get certified as a health and life coach. This decision was a journey all in itself. During the deep soul searching, yoga participating, chakra discovery of 2015-2016, I did a lot of networking and was forced to find some clarity. Trying to figure ME out and my purpose was enough to exhaust anyone. I met some amazing people along the way and there were three, four, ok maybe five, VERY influential people. All these people asked me what are your skills, what are your interests, what could you see yourself doing in your career, what is it that you want to do and who are you??? WHOA…What?? I had no clue, but I was on a mission now. I had learn how to learn to talk about myself and do it with confidence. Once I came back with answers to these questions, they all responded, have you thought about coaching? WHOA…What?? No. Me coach? Coach what?

I found myself on another search. What is coaching? Health, Life, Executive, Basketball… Well, ok, I knew right away my purpose was NOT to be a basketball coach. Just ask my children, friends and family. My lay up may, or may not, be one a professional basketball player would want to emulate. Anyways, I started to become intrigued about the idea of life coaching. During my research of coaching, I discovered life coaching encompasses five big areas: health, career, money, relationships, and something in which is greater. I believed this idea and it just felt right. So, I committed to focusing on life coaching. I became certified as a health and life coach and haven’t looked back nor ever regretted my decision. It has been nothing but rewarding, every step of the way.

In January of 2018, I decided to investigate mediation. I still was searching for something more, something was still wanting to be nourished. The idea of meditating kept showing up for me, so I followed it. Meditation has become another major change in my life and has had impacts much more than I could have imagined. It was exactly what I needed. However, this too, was not an easy journey. It truly is a practice and I definitely was not very good at it in the beginning. A few months later, I am still in the process of learning about meditation; learning the discipline and the patience it requires.

I started meditating to the app Headspace and Calm. I really enjoyed Headspace because I could set the timer and set reminders to get some “Headspace”. Not to mention I could also adjust the voice, so I chose one with a beautiful accent! I thought I would start with 15 minutes but quickly came to recognize that I could barley sit for 1 minute alone, in silence, stillness, and nothing but wandering thoughts. But, I did not give up. I scaled back to 60-second meditations and continued to breathe through the restlessness and wandering thoughts. I did just what the voice from Headspace said, acknowledge the thoughts, distractions, and merely let them go. I slowly worked my way up to 5, 10, 15 minutes of meditation. I gave myself permission to take the time to gain focus and clarity. I allowed myself to receive the benefits of meditation.

I am now meditating twice a day; both morning and night. I meditate anywhere from 1-minute to 60-minutes, depending on my schedule. I have found a new app, Insight Timer, that I absolutely love! I recognize that even 1-minute of meditation has positive affects on me and how I view the events of the day. What I did not anticipate was the deeper affects mediation has had on me. In fact, there was a moment of freaking out and wondering what the heck was going on! Thankfully I have two people in my life who are experienced in meditation and quickly reassured me that it is perfectly normal to have deeper affects. You may be asking, what are you talking about? During my meditation, I started to “feel” the energy literally running through my body. The feeling was tingly, energizing, calming, medicinal. While working on my chakras, I could feel the energy hovering over my body; through my body. Meditating with intention over areas of physical pain, helped eliminate the physical pain. My body went through a detoxing period and I felt an all over amazing cleanse of my body. I began to gain clarity, deeper focus, less stress, less worry, less anxiety. I began to feel in control of my life, I feel aligned in my mind, body and soul. I feel energized and joy. I feel connected!! Connected both with myself and that of something greater than me.

Basically, I have experienced an awakening. My sleep has improved, I have more control of my moods, I am more aware of my environment, I had physical symptoms (through the detox), my intuition seems to be heightened, my relationships have improved, and I have increased energy (I feel like my energy is exuding from me at times). I continue my journey with yoga and meditation. For my 42nd birthday, I shared a private session of yoga and meditation with a small group of friends and family. For me, it was an amazing experience and the energy in the room was overwhelming. I plan to arrange more opportunities to share with people I know. I hope everyone reading this is inspired to try this for themselves. If you are, please remember to be patient and kind to yourself as it may be something new. Treating yourself as though you were a young child learning to do many things for the first time.

Much love,

heather