I'd love to take a moment to introduce myself and write a bit about my journey into yoga.
My name is Jillian. I was born and raised in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. I went to the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 2004. It was during my university years that I started trying out yoga classes. My cousin was a yoga instructor and was always trying to get me into yoga. I tried the odd class here and there, but in all honesty, I was bored. If I was going to a class I wanted to feel like I had a workout. I tried Vinyasa Yoga when I was 20, but I was frustrated by my lack of balance and flexibility. So I basically gave up on the idea of yoga altogether, other than going to my cousin's class here or there, more as an act of support, rather than for self-care or enjoyment.
It was around 2007 when I first came to NZ on a working holiday and gave yoga a go again. One of my new friends invited me to a yoga class and I was desperate to make connections in a new country, so I went. Little did I know it what I was walking into. It was a Bikram Yoga class. I stepped into a heated room (approximately 40 degrees Celsius) where we performed 26 very challenging yoga poses. I left exhausted but exhilarated. I felt like I had a work out! This became my practice for the next year, going to these classes, usually twice a week. The same 26 poses practiced and improved upon each week.
While I've lost track of the exact timeline, I'd guess it was about a year later when I joined a friend for a Vinyasa class. I loved not knowing what pose came next and found a freedom in many of the poses that I was taking....a feeling I never really got in Bikram. One day, as if overnight, Vinyasa Yoga became my new practice.
It was my Vinyasa practice and the teachers and mentors that I met along the way that helped me deepen my physical asana practice, as well my mental and spiritual practice. In 2017, while pregnant with my second son, I did my teacher training with the amazing Adele at Rise Yoga- (riseinmovement.com).
The purpose of this blog today is not only introduce myself but to highlight how everyone's yoga journey is different. If I were to offer a take home point or two it would be 1) Don't give up! No, yoga is not for everyone, however I truly believe it takes a few classes and sometimes the exploration of different yoga practices and teachers to find what's right for you. 2) Take the time to read about and try out other styles of yoga if the class style did not suit you.