What could have gone so wrong? I began to take a good look at my life. I realized that I no longer practiced yoga. I taught yoga, but I never had time to do it myself. I never said no to a client who needed me. Even if it meant sacrificing my own practice and ultimately my own health.

• Does your job come before your own needs?
• Do your kids or spouse come first?
• Does everyone in your life ask you for favors because they know they can count on you?
• Do you think you will find time for yourself later, but later never comes?
• Do you fall into bed exhausted, thinking you’ll find time for yourself “tomorrow”?

I was just like you! In pain, exhausted with no zest for life and no hope of how I was going to come out of it. And I was as a yoga teacher. Ouch!

So I decided to begin my own practice again. The first day I spread out my mat and did a downward dog. I felt that amazing stretch in my spine and my legs — and almost immediately collapsed on my mat! My arms were too weak to hold me up.

WHAT A WAKE-UP CALL!

The next time I tried my own practice I went back to the most basic of all things — my breath. So I breathed. Three deep, glorious breaths! Every morning I would wake up, sit at the foot of my bed and take three deep breaths. Until I could take five breaths. And eventually more breaths. My conscious deep breathing began to nourish my tired body, and I gained strength.

Then I visualized practicing yoga. With each breath, I would “see” myself on my mat. Eventually, I was strong enough to seek out a teacher and begin to do the physical practice. I got my strength, and my excitement for life, back.

I also got my excitement for yoga back! I had to hit rock bottom and re-learn the power of yoga to really appreciate it. Along the way, I realized how important it is to do a daily practice, no matter how small it might be.

If you only have time for three conscious breaths it can be enough to change your life. It can begin to quench your thirst for “me time.”

After more than a decade of teaching yoga and dealing with my own struggles to manage life and a yoga practice, I have discovered a number of ways to help you add more yoga into your life. It doesn’t always have to be an hour and a half on your mat to be a yoga practice!

YOU CAN:

• Reclaim your life by sprinkling a few minutes of “me time” throughout your day.
• Do yoga at work — even if you’re “strapped” to a desk all day.
• Feel good about your body again.
• Wake up feeling excited to be awake.
• Improve your yoga practice as you go through your daily life.

I DID IT AND YOU CAN TOO!

I turned my life and my health around. Now I wake up excited and full of energy each day. I teach my classes with so much enthusiasm that I find myself being uplifted as I teach. I can’t wait to share with you the simple ways you can experience the same shift in your life, your energy and your yoga practice!

Namaste!

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