A Journey Through Yoga Spaces Toward Holistic & Mindful Living

After contributing to this blog over the last few months, I realize now that my view of the holistic living community is mainly shaped by my yoga journey and the collection of spaces I have been a part of because of that journey. My own yoga path has been influenced by an eagerness to self-heal and grow spiritually, mentally, and physically (key markers in the culture of living holistically). I didn’t know it at the time, but this journey provided a path to holistic living. I will share my journey to introduce you to the variety of affinity spaces within the holistic and mindful living community. Affinity spaces are "loosely organized social and cultural settings in which the work of teaching tends to be shared by many people, in many locations, who are connected by a shared interest or passion" (Gee, 2007).

Gym Yoga Classes

As we mature into adulthood, we all find ourselves in some type of workforce. I found myself in the military as an enlisted service member in my early to mid-20s. My primary goals during this time (2016) were to stay fit and reduce stress. While working out at a 24-hour Fitness location, I was running on a treadmill only to realize that my nervous system and mind were in overdrive, leading to intense stress and a realization that my body couldn't keep up with my demands. I decided to start attending the yoga classes at the gym before my workouts. I thought I might achieve better results if I could calm my mind before working out. So, out of the desire to destress and improve my workout results, I unknowingly embarked on my first lesson in holistic living.

I noticed a uniformity as I gently tip-toed into a crowded room of people sitting on yoga mats spread out in even rows across the studio floor, but I also noticed diversity. There were old & young people, fit & less fit people, people of all backgrounds and ethnicities, but they all had a similar reason for sitting so curiously on their mats facing the front of the room, waiting for the teacher to arrive. From the beginning of the class, it was clear that the teaching wasn’t just designed for gym goers, but it also successfully introduced its students to concepts that were new to anyone who had never joined a yoga class before. It turns out that a gym is a great place to begin learning yoga due to the fact that the cost is low and catered to the general community rather than those who look like the stereotypical Western “yogi.” I left the class feeling a general sense of positivity and new knowledge of foundational yoga postures like mountain pose, tree pose, down-dog, and warrior. I learned to focus on myself and not my neighbor that day by incorporating the movements of my entire body with my breath, then went on to live my daily life with the aftereffects of those teachings. I started noticing an energetic shift in how I was experiencing life around me.

Studio Yoga Classes

After learning the benefits of yoga at the gym, I became very curious about the lifestyle as a yogi and was determined to find teachers who exhibited that relaxed, healthy, whole energy that I was trying to embody myself. I started looking up studios in my area online and learned that I could try out different studios for unlimited classes for a week at a time. The first studio I tried was in a cute, small San Diego building with plenty of natural light and something resembling a farmhouse ceiling. I remember this from 2016 because as I lay in svanasana (on my back) looking up at the ceiling, It started to feel easier to appreciate the things around me, even something as simple as an old wooden ceiling. This class seemed to share the teachings of yoga at a depth that I hadn’t experienced at the gym. The teacher’s soft voice and the general ambiance gently guided me into my mind-body connection. I felt as though I was home in a random building in San Diego that I hadn’t ever seen until that day, even though I was thousands of miles from the place I was born. It’s hard to say exactly what I learned that day, but I know that each person next to me learned something entirely different and the same. The main point is that we learned to be guided into feeling like a whole version of ourselves again, a key objective and purpose for seeking a holistic life.

Yoga Teacher Training

In 2018, I was getting ready to switch careers but was filled with uncertainty. The one thing I knew for sure was that I needed yoga, and those who had not discovered yoga yet, needed me. Between 2018 and 2020, I attended two very different trainings, but in 2018, I enrolled in courses at San Diego Community College. To my surprise, this school also offered a 200-hour yoga teacher training program. There was no question about enrolling, so I immediately enrolled without asking a single question during the process. It turned out to be the best decision of my life. This was when I learned about the 8 paths to yoga and how there are a multitude of ways to achieve unity with oneself. I learned that no two paths are the same, and I felt free to embark on my unique journey to become and express myself as a whole healing person. I learned that one way to purify the body was to practice yoga postures and hold them for 10 breaths or to repeat the sun salutations daily. The most influential thing I learned from this program was my purpose for committing to attending the training every day. I wanted to go on a spiritual journey and connect to my inner self while also learning healthier ways to move my body after experiencing high stress and physical pain for so long. My interest in moving forward with yoga became yoga philosophy and alignment-based practices from a foremost yoga teacher named BKS Iyengar. I was able to make an educated decision on what to study in yoga based on the teachings from this training and prior study of my own body, mind, and spirit.

I found direction in my second training (2019-2020), which I attended at a retreat in Bali, Indonesia. Over the course of 1 month, I woke up at 6 am each morning and followed the same routine each day for a period of 30 days. The mornings started with waking up in a room in the jungle that I shared with a roommate. We walked along a grassy path together to a big open shala, where our class was guided through breathwork and meditation. This was when I truly learned what mediation was. I had been meditating all along before this, but I gained the skill and confidence to believe that what I was doing was correct. After meditation and breathwork came a strenuous vinyasa yoga practice of 90 minutes. Although it was intimidating, I wasn’t the only student in the room who was feeling this way. Our teacher knew what she was doing! We learned quickly not to be intimidated and that our teacher protected us with every instruction. After each class, we felt better in our bodies and minds. Next was breakfast, where we ate a vegetarian diet, then a lesson on asana (posture) alignment, lunch, yoga philosophy, and a yin yoga class. At the end of the day, by 7 pm, we all had dinner together and talked about our discoveries of the day while overlooking the sunset. It was hard not to appreciate the world around me, given the environments the yoga journey had represented to me.

Studio Workshops

One important part of a yoga teacher’s life is attending workshops and continuing education courses after their training. Outside of self-studying ancient texts and a variety of other resources, I also attended workshops at a studio in Anchorage, Alaska. Some workshops were open to the community as a whole, like a workshop called Inner Goddess. At this gathering, we were taught more specified information. We learned about different Hindu Goddesses and how to use essential oils in our daily practices. Although yoga isn’t considered a religion, it is a spiritual discipline firmly rooted in the world’s oldest religion, Hinduism. Some workshops are specifically for continuing the education of yoga teachers, like a workshop I attended to become certified in restorative yoga. Restorative yoga teaches the student to rest and how to calm the nervous system by supporting our bodies fully through props like bolsters, blocks, blankets, straps, etc. I attended this workshop because It was a part of yoga that resonated with my needs, and I felt that it healed me on a deeper level than vinyasa or hot yoga classes. I later used these teachings as a massage therapist in my holistic health practice.

Resource:

Kappan, James Paul Gee (2018). "Affinity Spaces: How Young People Live and Learn Online and Outside of School."