I was always a very energetic kid, doing any kind of upbeat activity, especially dancing! Never could I ever imagine I could "withstand" yoga, even for 5 minutes. It was just too boring for me. Little did I know..I started doing yoga long before I knew it was yoga when I was about 15. In dance class we did a series of yoga poses (or what we just called stretches) to warm up the body and prepare for choreography. It was routine. As many of you already know, I was a competitive dancer from a very young age, and went on to get my BA in dance from Marymount Manhattan College. I had no idea how yoga would sneak up on me and play such a large part in my training. I later realized that most of the warm up exercises done in my dance classes were yoga. Since yoga was already a part of my routine training, I dismissed it as that, and never pursued it any further for more than merely dance warm up purposes. I even tried a number of outside yoga classes when I was still in college, only to find that I was antsy, and that the poses didn't "do much" for me since I already had the flexibility of Gumby (remember him?). It wasn't until just a few years ago that I really started to discover more of yoga, and it's true aim.
I now use yoga to revitalize my tired body and mind, to strengthen, to relax, to focus, to energize, to inspire and more. There are countless benefits to yoga aside from the obvious from alleviation from common physical ailments to mental and emotional. It's not only about the practice of yoga, but about the lifestyle too.. Yoga promotes healthy eating and lifestyle habits, which really interested me when I was promoting my platform
Healthy Habits for Life as
Ms. United States 2008. Yoga is all about mind- body- spirit balance, and that is what I love the most. I guess I had to mature a bit to understand that yoga is way more than just stretching...and to gain the patience to learn that. ;)
