When I first tried yoga at a gym in the 90's, the instructor recommended we get Rodney Yee's AM Yoga and practice daily. I bought the VHS tape and used to skip the meditation part because it creeped me out.
Fast forward to a few years ago, when walking through Half Price Books I picked up Fr. Thomas Keating's Open Heart, Open Mind which introduced me to contemplative prayer. Suddenly, meditation was no longer creepy. It was beautiful. Not only that, but I learned it was a deeply Christian discipline. I began to appreciate the power of yoga--which I had engaged with again at my new local gym--to bring me to a place where my mind was quiet enough to pray without words.
When a yoga studio opened in my neighborhood, Jenny-the-Rescue-Yogi and Heather-the-Hippie-Chick opened the doors to a whole new world to explore. Restorative yoga taught always-in-go-mode-me learn what it felt like to genuinely relax. And the Vinyasa classes helped the girl who was never able to catch a ball or run a marathon, get stronger.
The theme for 2011 was 'live the adventure' which inspired me to do something I never dreamed I would...sign up for advanced yoga studies with Shanon Buffington starting in January 2012.Yes, I know I'm an unlikely yogini...but somehow that seems to be the best part of yoga. It is accessible to everyone.
