Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Have You Ever Been a Professional Derby Girl?

I have no idea how, but I got this idea to get my staff together to go roller skating. It's been a fun week hearing all their skating stories and looking forward to who is going to break their ankle on our night out. It's also taken me back to the trailer park days.

I had my very own pair of roller skates growing up. I remember they were too big for me for a really long time and that they had red wheels. I also dropped my hamster in one of them when he bite me for no reason. Anyway...

I am pretty sure they were a hand-me-down gift from someone. Again I have no idea who because I didn't have time for those details. But I do remember the days when the skates finally fit. 

Rollering skating came pretty naturally to me. (I've always had really good body awareness and control with sports but not with walking. I pretty much have zero depth perception when I'm just existing.) I would skate around the block for so long that my feet would go numb from all the rumbling from the crappy road. I would pretend I was a figure skater, a hockey player, and then a roller derby champion.

I don't know if you remember watching roller derby on TV but I sure do. I wanted to be a derby girl more than life itself. I would watch how gracefully the girls would glide across the floor and then laugh when someone got checked against the floor. I soon began to practice for my roller derby debut...in the trailer.

If you have never been in a trailer, they are not very big. I'm talking a regular trailer here. Not a double-wide. A trailer is a long rectangle broken up into cubes. Cube One: Kitchen. Cube Two: Living Room. Cube Three: My Room. Cube Four: The Smelly Mushroom Room. Cube Five: The Famous Raccoon Bathroom. Cube Six: Mom's Bedroom. The Kitchen/Living Room and Mom's Bedroom where the anchors and all of the rest of the rooms were off the hallway to the left. Linoleum kitchen and hallway with a brief interrupt of linoleum carpet. 

I would skate as fast as I could from the kitchen all the way to where the hallway ended at Mom's bedroom and back. Again, and again, and again. I would try to do tricks in the kitchen since it had the most open space. Then I would skate as fast as I could and slam into my Mom's bedroom door; CHECK!

I've always had good endurance as well. I would keep that up for hours. Mom would be yelling for me to stop but if you have ever known a redhead, we do what we want.

I loved those damn skates with the red wheels. I remember when I finally outgrew them. My mom wanted me to throw them away (trust me, they had a full life) but I couldn't. I horded them for as long as a could. When we finally moved out of our trailer my beloved skates "went missing." 

And that is the story of my roller derby career. It was awesome.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Mind Matters Most

Mind Matters Most. Yes, yes it does.

It is no secret that the past two years have not been terribly kind to me. Yes, I got a great new job, for a steep price. First a big move from Dayton to Columbus. House on the market for a year and a half; finally paying $14,000 just to get rid of the headache of dual bills. My mom, not working, constantly needing support. My dad, fighting cancer yet again. Death. Stress. Panic Attacks. Depression.

I’ve been dealing with some heavy shit. I’m not ashamed to say the past three or four months have been the worst. There comes a point in time when the mind has had enough. Especially when you are a highly sensitive person with a tremendous amount of empathy and caring (plus throw in a Type A personality) and sometimes you are going to get a shit storm.

Yes. Mind does Matter Most and I think it’s a tragedy that time for taking care of and healing the mind is basically non-existence and worse, a stigma.

I’m not afraid to admit that earlier this month I had a bit of a nervous breakdown. I was scared. Hell, my husband was scared. I just felt like the world was caving in on me and I was suffocated and really  felt like nobody gave two shits. I felt tremendous pressure to keep steaming ahead and was seriously hurt by comments from people in my world that I just needed to make a decision and get on with it.

It’s not that damn easy.

When I began this Yoga Teacher Training journey I will never forget as I emailed Jen panicked she said the greatest thing about this process is that you are going to learn you are perfect exactly the way you are. I’m beginning to believe she is right.

My mind has been through a lot. Thinking, processing, learning, introspecting; without rest. My mind never rests. How is that ok? Why is it that the state of our bodies get all the attention? Why is that that where we are in space in time, what we look like, where we go, and what we do matters most? My mind is tired. It wants a break, it wants to be understood, it wants to be loved, and it WANTS to matter most.

I know this and I am going this to make my mind matter the most to me. Meditation, yoga, accepting that I need to explore different medication; I’m on the right path. But still what is the best part of me or you does not matter. Trying to take care of yourself, especially with any type of mental illness, is just not acceptable. That is bullshit. Though all of this when I reached out to professionals and when I reach out for help and was put on the backburner or told it’s going to be a week. I thought, damn. Good thing I’m not about to off myself. Our mental state is not given enough attention and I believe that our mental state is the key to living a long, happy, healthy life.

When we are happy, relaxed, healthy and laughing all of sudden problems that arise do not seem like such a big deal. Taking things personally just stops. Kindness is a byproduct. Productivity rises. We act out of love instead of fear. All of these things come directly from the mind. If the mind is not rested or decompressed we let fear take over. Fear turns into anger, hate, depression, anxiety and so much more.


From now on not only does my mind matter most, but I matter most. I’m a person just like you with real thoughts and feelings and aspirations. I want to be accepted for who I am on the outside AND the inside. I want to find my way home. 

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Why I Want to Teach Yoga and What My Strengths Are as a Yoga Teacher

I took my first yoga class with a woman named Lori. It was 1999 and I was a freshman at Bowling Green State University. I remember I had to sign up and pay for the session. I wanted to take the class since I had been a cheerleader in high school and identified myself as a fairly flexible person; I also secretly wanted to be a ballerina.

It was held in what used to be called the Dance Room at the BGSU Student Rec Center. Little did I know how much impact that room would have on my life. It was a full class, probably 40-50 students. I am pretty sure I had zero concept of what has going to happen; then Lori walked into the room.

There are just some people in this world you immediately know you like. Lori was this shorter, curvy woman with wild curly hair. As someone who has always struggled with my weight, I cannot tell you how happy I was to see this absolutely normal-looking person. And then class began and I was hooked.

I still use her opening flow during some of my practices and I’ll never forget making the “mushroom” yoga shape with a partner in one of the classes. With each word she spoke in class, she touched my heart and gave me strength. I finally worked up the courage to talk with her after class and I told her I wanted to be a yoga teacher. “One day, you will be,” she told me with a smile. The thing I loved most about Lori? Her quiet confidence that filled a room.

I kept taking classes with Lori when I could, but I was also busy becoming a group fitness instructor. The Dance Room and I became very good friends between the hours of practicing and teaching low impact, my very first teaching job. Whenever I was in the Dance Room, Lori was with me.

Toward the end of my sophomore year at BGSU, we had a group fitness staff meeting, and during that meeting we were told that we would have the opportunity to begin in-house yoga training. I cannot tell you how excited I was! After the meeting, I went up to our director and told her I would do anything to be a part of that group. Then I asked if Lori would be teaching the class. No, she wouldn’t be teaching the class. She had passed away from cancer just six months earlier.

I had no idea Lori was sick. She was sick when I first met her. She never showed it. Not once. I just could not believe this beautiful person was gone. I was devastated. I cried. But I knew that Lori would always be in my heart and that yoga would always be in my life because of her. Lori was my first yoga mentor and she will always be in my heart.
I still completed the in-house yoga teacher training program, and during my junior year at BGSU I co-wrote our in-house manual for teaching yoga classes. I wonder if they still use any of that material.

After undergrad, away I went into the world of fitness. I collected fitness certifications like baseball cards: Pilates, Aquatic Exercise, Spinning, TurboKick, PiYo. For a time, my yoga practice drifted away. I was busy trying to climb the career ladder, but then grad school happened. My graduate assistantship was at the Student Recreation Center and I could use 5 hours (out of my 20) to take classes. Insert Brandi’s return to yoga.

The class I became infatuated with was Iyengar. Our teacher didn’t make us do the crazy mat alignment stuff, but this is where I learned my foundations of form and alignment. I loved the sense of accomplishment I received from yoga. The teacher knew I was the grad assistant, and began to let me sub his classes. I could feel Lori’s smile from above.

After graduate school, we moved to the Dayton area and I attended class at my first yoga studio. This studio practiced the style of Jivamukti. I really connected to the teacher and the smell of nag champa incense. I loved learning Sanskrit and deepening my practice. I even enrolled in Yoga Teacher Training but had to drop out due to my demanding full-time job. From that time on, I knew that one day I would complete a RYT-200 program.

I remember that one of the girls that I started the YTT program with eventually opened her own studio. I tried to teach there, but she wouldn’t accept me because I didn’t have my RYT-200. So what did I do? I went to class, of course.

At this time I was still subbing yoga classes as needed and I have always been very confident about my yoga knowledge. It was just something that I “got.” So to her class I went to see what this whole RYT-200 thing has you become. After that class, I wasn’t quite sure. It wasn’t the worst yoga class I had ever taken, but it wasn’t the best either. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t just be given a chance to teach. I felt a little push from Lori, gently edging me on my yoga journey. That is when I began to practice with Yogis Anonymous Online.

This studio is in California and I feel like part of their community all the way here in Ohio. I have learned so much from Ally Hamilton and Mary Beth La Rue. I feel connected to their souls.

Two years ago my husband and I relocated to Worthington for my career. I decided and put myself on the schedule for a yoga class. I looked forward to that class each week. I would incorporate things I had learned from Ally and Mary Beth and my roots of Iyengar and Lori would shine through. I even started to train a couple of instructors in house to teach yoga. I loved sharing my knowledge with them and watching them grow as their own type of yoga teacher. I wanted more. More yoga. More knowledge. I knew there would always be one thing holding me back from a growing yoga career: obtaining the 200-hour certification.
I searched online for a credible and affordable home-study program. No such thing exists. I researched going to India. My husband put the kibosh on that idea. It was so expensive, I really just gave up on the whole idea. After all, yoga and I had been in a long-term relationship that only kept getting better with time. I know Lori would make sure that I would be a life-long student.

I honestly can’t remember how the conversation came up with Kevin, about how his wife got to go to YTT at basically zero cost through a scholarship. So I found out what I could do to see if I could get a scholarship as well. I wanted this to be it so badly. What I’ve been waiting for…to finally complete my RYT-200. Sometimes, wishes do come true.

And now here I sit writing an essay about why I want to be a yoga teacher for Yoga Teacher Training. Really, I think yoga chose me a long time ago. So why all the back story? Because I think the day I met Lori my fate was sealed. Someday I want be that yoga teacher for someone as she was for me. I want to be a yoga teacher to keep Lori’s spirit alive forever.

It’s this journey that has lasted over 15 years that I feel will be one of my biggest strengths as a teacher. I have come to my mat time and time again to find myself. I’ve cried on my mat, I’ve laughed, I’ve danced, I’ve chanted, I’ve fallen, I’ve gotten back up, I’ve quit, and I always return. My strength as a yoga teacher will come from the years I have dedicated to this practice. I have so many memories from yoga classes that I will always carry with me into the classroom. I remember three breaths in Warrior II feeling like fire. I remember learning ujjayi breath and feeling like I was going to suffocate. I remember sticking my first headstand in the middle of the room. I remember completing my first 90-minute class. I remember a really horrible hot yoga experience. I remember those little cues that have changed poses for the better. I remember what horrible classes felt like. I will never forget amazing practices. I remember what it feels like to melt into savasana after a practice. I remember the smell of nag champa and chanting Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. I feel that yoga chant to my very core and I love it.

My strength will be Satya as I believe in feelings and acceptance. I will create a non-judgmental atmosphere in my classes so that I can help many of those that feel unworthy of love or acceptance find those things through yoga.

I will always be a student and yoga will always be my teacher. I don’t think you can have one without the other. I’ve never believed myself to be better than anyone at anything. Even in my current career, I tell my employees all the time that we are all on the same playing field as instructors. I’m not better than they are just because of a title. I don’t believe in titles. I believe in compassion and teamwork. I believe in raising others up. True leaders watch their flock fly away bigger and stronger and are not afraid of giving their knowledge to make it so.

Fact: As geese fly together, as each goose flaps its wings it creates uplift for the birds that follow. By flying in a V-formation the flock adds 72% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.

Lesson: People who share a common purpose and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of the others.

Fly the V.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Day Three & Four

This weekend we focused on cueing Sun Salutations A&B. I am very comfortable with doing and teaching both series...my way. Learning a new way to cue is a good thing. It's pushing my teaching abilities and allowing me to grow as instructor. The thing I struggle with the most is cueing drishti's with every pose. Sometimes it seems like there are so many words and not enough time.

Friday I contributed a lot to our discussion about the five obstacles and three doubts of yoga. I did feel like many of my issues I experience in obstacles and doubts I am not alone in our group. It's nice to know that all of us are making a huge commitment and several sacrifices to complete this training. I think it makes it easier to fathom that I will make it to graduation day.

I know there are several people in my life that do not understand why I am doing this...I'm pretty sure there are people at work that are concerned about me doing this training. Yoga is very special to me...it's almost like a part of my religion. It makes me whole. It makes be happy. As I sit here on our couch writing this I'm tired but I am so fulfilled. Speaking of tired....

Today was absolutely exhausting.

We did a slowburn class all together in the morning and we took turns leading Sun Sal A's for a 108 Equinox event for a second afternoon practice. I did 100 freaking Sun Sal As this afternoon and it felt like all my chataranga's were strong. I felt very accomplished at the end of the practice and proud of myself for overcoming obstacles and doubt to make it to the end of all 100. I only did 100 because I taught some of the Sun Sals and we do not model during teaching...which is another big change for me but one I really, really like.

I learned a lot this weekend and gained some confidence. I am so thankful for this opportunity. 

I will say...I'm not looking forward to waking up to how sore I will be...I know there will be quite a bit of soreness throughout my body.

This week I'm challenged with studying the standing postures and to become comfortable cueing the poses without notes. There are also some readings along with our daily meditation, yoga meal, practice, and act of kindness/gratefulness. I love the changes these things are bringing to my life. After two weekends I already feel a huge shift. I know after eleven more weekends I am going to be the best version of myself that I have been in a long, long time.


Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Lululemon

I seriously don't get it.

Whenever I see a yoga teacher in lululemon I cringe. To me that brand is so anti-yoga. Sure spend $120 on a pair of leggings. Why? I can get a similar product at Old Navy or Target for 1/4 of the price. More than that, then I do not feel that I would be selling out to the brand.

Only the "best" yogis wear lululemon. What?

I think the best yogis wear Goodwill.

Monday, September 14, 2015

Day Two

#1 lesson: Be careful of how much fun you have on Saturday!

Our first module is Ashtanga. I have never done a dedicated Ashtanga class. I am familiar with all the poses in the series. Many I practice regularly, others...not so much.

When we practiced together on Sunday, I was able to feel what all these years of yoga practice has given to me. Humility. When I struggled in our balancing postures, I let a smile come to my face. Not having perfection in the pose was welcoming. I accepted it and moved forward.

I have experienced this many, many times on my mat. Attempting a pose and it not happening. Struggling and having to back away. Allowing myself to rest when needed.

Trust me...those things in my practice did not come easily.

The thing I am most looking to gain out of teacher training is to more consciously put forth the lessons and energy I learn on my mat to my every day life. I'm not that great at resting when I need. I'm not that great at accepting struggles or not being a naturally good at something. I have a Type-A Monkey Mind. I'm looking forward to letting quite a few of those monkey's free.

I was surprised at how rested my body felt this morning. My morning meditation quieted my mind...letting go of thoughts of what I may have said or did wrong over the weekend. Today I feel clear and calm. I'm looking forward to my practice this evening. I'm looking forward to my daily yoga meal. I'm looking forward to my evening meditation.

It's true. This is exactly the place I needed to be at exactly the right time.




Saturday, September 12, 2015

Day One

One day down...24 sessions to go!

I feel very positive after the first session. At times during the discussion of homework, practice, meditation, and weekly readings I found myself becoming extremely anxious and worried. How am I going to do all this? How am I going to practice every day? How am I going to find the time? Most importantly...how am I going to find the energy.

Then I remembered...

If I was able to make it through grad school, fighting two of my worst undiagnosed years with Hashimoto's...three months of yoga school? I got this.

When I finished graduate school I bought myself a right hand ring. I wear it every day to remind myself of perseverance and strength.

I had a dream last night that I got a wrist tattoo for my yoga journey.

I like that idea...because it's something I can take everywhere with me...just like my grad school ring. I am not a huge jewelry person so right now I do not find myself wanting to do something like that again. I don't know. This thought just came to me as I sat down to write this reflection. I am sure whatever I should do with present itself to me when I'm ready.