More to ponder

In addition to cooking more, I also want to learn a language.  I have ample time to add another activity to my life and I want to.  Instead of streaming a new series, I want to decrease my time watching anything.  I got rid of cable four months ago since I was tired of paying almost $200 a month for cable and internet.  I scaled back but still utilize hulu, amazon and netflix.  Too much.  It is too easy.  I like the noise while I am decompressing and it is convenient.  However, it is a time suck.  I could be reading, learning or writing.

My favorite success this year was the addition of group classes.  I never thought I would enjoy teaching a big class.  It was terrifying to me.  I wasn't afraid of the sequence factor.  More about making it approachable to different people. Yet, I found when I was forced to do it, I truly enjoyed it.  I loved adding music to the mix and watching the energy grow and spread.  

I can trace this desire to teach back to being in Phoenix in 2011.  I was attending classes, regularly, til it became stagnant.  Some of the teachers were recycling sequences and I was uninspired.  There were a handful of teachers that always kept it fresh.  I tried to frequent their classes whenever possible.  I considered a certification but didn't make it happen until I relocated to Santa Fe in 2014.  Each city has a different style of yoga.  In Santa Fe, it was more spiritual than Phoenix.  Fewer teachers were into sequencing and I was forced to do more chanting which also was terrifying.  (Ironically, now I enjoy chanting and even have a client where we do chant).  

I digress.  I found myself in a situation where I wanted to do more with my life.  I thought about where I had enjoyed yoga the most and that was in Phoenix. And the majority of teachers that I respected and followed all had been certified at the same school. I reached out to the owners to inquire about their program.  Their studio offered a quarterly immersion program to bulk up on hours and complete the certification within a year.  I completed my certification in 2015 before moving back to Denver.  

I still felt the pull to the service industry and put this dream on the back burner.  I started teaching friends.  Classes were small and it was now and again.  Then the pandemic hit where I couldn't work for two months.  Suddenly, that was the spark that pushed me into full time teaching.  

That evolved into wanting to do more and thinking of ways to do it.  At one point, Maghan and I were discussing how to open our own spot (pre-pandemic) and he knew how important yoga was to me.  He wanted to ensure that I would be able to teach in our space.  I think the happy hours became what they were because of our collective backgrounds in the service industry.  

2022 presents many new opportunities for growth, travel and pushing boundaries.  I will continue on this path that started in 2011. Actually, it started in 2005 when I began practicing regularly.  Yoga changed my life.  It provided a way to do my own thing which has been beautiful.