Asana – Issue 172 – April 2017

(Joyce) #1

6 asaNa Magazine | April 2017


1


How did you start yoga? What was your experience
of the first yoga class?
I took my first Bikram Yoga class in 2003 at the advice of a friend who
knew I would love it!! I was an athlete - a marathon runner, yet even then,
I knew that the body was a direct link to and learning device for the mind.
Physical challenge allowed me to access the level of intensity inherent in
my nature, to gain focus, clarity, and to connect to my breath. It showed
me that limits only exist in the mind that creates them. Little did I know at
that time that the cultivation of this practice would open my mind, heart,
spine, life, and spirit to infinite new depths. As I did the work on myself, it
became increasingly clear to me that this would become the way in which
I could help others find the same self-love, self-acceptance, personal
expansion, forgiveness, and freedom that I had found through practice.
This would become my life of service.
I approached my first class as any “athlete” would - that is to say, like many
others, I thought that this was just “a stretch class in a hot room.” My first
realization that yoga was more than “a stretch class” came within the first
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