Remembering an Anniversary
Yoga Path
Yoga Path began solely as a teacher training school and quickly grew into a school and a studio. While it provided a home base for a yoga community I deeply love, running a studio changed the relationship I had to my work as a teacher. During this same time, I was also learning how to be a wife to my awesome husband and a mom to my beautiful son. I wasn’t a business minded person. I was a yoga teacher who was now running a business and I constantly felt like I was in over my head. Owning the studio was not my calling, but I kept answering to it anyway for the next seven years. This was me insane. I didn’t realize how burnt out and unhappy I had become; that was, until an event occured that changed the course of my life, and by extension, that of Yoga Path.
Labor Day weekend of 2018 I was involved an ATV wreck. My husband and son found me in the woods, flat on my back, 100 feet from the overturned four-wheeler. My fly through space on this vehicle broke my neck at C2, my jaw all the way through, gave me a traumatic brain injury, and pretty much left me looking like, well, I had been through an ATV wreck. I spent the next four months home bound, in a neck brace 24/7. I had my jaw wired shut for a month. I should not have lived through the neck injury; most people don’t. I certainly shouldn’t be walking; rarely anyone does if they survive. Yet, here I am. I had no choice but to heal. It took a strong support system, two years of physical therapy, mental health therapy, and a lot of patience. The energy that was required in order for that healing to occur is what shaped the course of my life in a new and very healthy way.
Being away from the studio took its toll, and after a ton of hard work, fervent loyalty, and heartfelt dedication, the studio stayed viable during my recovery and we brought it back in good standing a year later. I had to do all the things required of a business owner that I had avoided like the plague in the past...standing up for myself and Yoga Path. I had the hard conversations, the rough consequences, loss of relationships, and a million jewels of wisdom that were gifted to me through my wreck. I found my voice, my truth, and I wasn’t going to sacrifice it again because I was too afraid to listen and follow. I was ready to get back to my calling as a teacher and decided to close the studio.
Now, I’m sitting here in 2023, maintaining a personal practice that saves my life by reminding me of my light and keeps me from falling into comfortable, familiar, self-doubt and fear. I’m surrounded by people who love me and who I grow and learn from everyday. Yoga Path thrives through my work with clients, teaching small classes, working in the community, and leading teacher trainings and workshops. This is how I give back to the world. Teaching is a gift and it feeds my soul. Teaching requires community and Yoga Path’s inclusive community is still a home base.
The journey back to my body after my wreck gave me a lesson in compassion I have woven into every lesson I lead. It has opened my heart and allowed me to hold a space of acceptance and safety for my students. It is not a journey that is at all over, and I still struggle. My struggles have changed but they are what comes with being human. My path of self-compassion is a life long lesson. My role in this life is to share what I learn.