Coming Home to Self: Yoga as Refuge

COVID-19 has been a reality in our world since March of this year. As a result a lot of our routines have been challenged and we have had to become much more intentional about how we spend our time.

For me, yoga has been my reality. You see, I was in the gym every morning at 5:00 am working out for 45 minutes. Once that option was no longer a reality, I began to forge a stronger yoga practice. Don't get me wrong, working out at the gym will always be my passion but now yoga has fulfilled me in many ways that I could not imagine.

I have been a yogi for a long time since 2003. I started practicing yoga because I was curious about it. Then I liked how it felt in my body. I have been in and out of practice since then.

Today I come to my yoga practice to integrate my spiritual beliefs with the poses. My yoga practice is evolving and have had an tremendous opportunity to study as a BIPOC Yoga Teacher Scholarship recipient this summer. Since the summer I have taken classes, studied, attended retreats and workshops hosted by Dianne Bondy, Maya Breuer, Michelle Johnson, and Octavia Raheem and Cyndi Lee to name a few.

There is a definite difference been refuge and being. My yoga poses or asanas allowed me to sit with what comes up. For once in my life I have found safety and nourishment because of it.

Yoga has allowed me to go to a place that I feel nourished to create ground for reconnection to my goodness. In 2020, I came home to myself - the emotions, the physical pain and anguish of what was. However, yoga took me away from my anxiety to focus on the positive.

As my Yoga Teaching Training is nearing the end, I plan to integrate my practice as a part of my interior environment coaching and other services. I am looking forward to sharing how yoga is integrated in relationship to home.

What 2020 has resulted for me is that yoga is my refuge. It is my sacred sanctuary of home.