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.
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