Yoga Girl

I started studying and reading every book about yoga I could get my
hands on, and during this period my practice grew from spiritual to very
physical. My meditation practice had always been there; normally people
find their way to the physical aspect of yoga first and meditation and
spirituality second, but I started the other way around. I was very
comfortable meditating and working with different breathing techniques,
but because of the back pain I had suffered from since my early teens I had
never dared to move into a very physical practice. I was born with scoliosis
and an elevated hip, and a car accident and a white-water rafting accident
had left my spine a mess. I’d been fearful to try advanced asanas (poses) or
to move too quickly, but after my first few years of very gentle practice I
felt I was ready to move forward.
I started practicing yoga at our house every single day but with another
goal in addition to centering my thoughts: to sweat. I’d come to the mat
and move in every way my body wanted to move, and instead of shying
away from the poses that caused my back to act up, I tried to stay in them
a little longer. I learned how to walk the fine line between embracing the
intensity of a pose and overdoing it. I started building some serious core
strength. One of the reasons I’d had such a bad back my whole life was
that I had very little core strength to support it! I had always avoided
strong, dynamic exercises, thinking they would aggravate my pain, when
in fact they were what I needed the most. e key is to be very patient
with your body and take it one step at a time. If I had thrown myself
immediately into a dynamic practice, I probably would have ended up with
more pain than ever before. But I listened to what my body was telling me
every step of the way, and I also let my breath guide my body instead of
the other way around. This principle is key in my teaching to this day.
I summoned up the courage to begin teaching a yoga class of my own,
on the beach in front of a hotel. We were in the sand on beach towels,
under a small grape tree, and if I had three or four people in my class I
would call Dennis afterward, giddy with excitement. “Four people came to
my class!!!!” I would scream into the phone. “Four people! To my class!”