 I had tried all forms of exercise and none of them were working for me. I was working a busy corporate job and needed a way to relieve stress. A friend of mine mentioned that she had taken a yoga class and enjoyed it. I decided to give it a try. I mapped out all the studios next to my house. It turned out by fate, that the closest studio was a bikram yoga studio. I took my first class in 1999 and I thought my head was going to explode! I survived and felt great after class. I did 2-3 classes a week for several weeks before I asked the teacher why I wasn't experiencing all the benefits he was describing. He told me that if I wanted all the benefits that I needed to get serious about my practice and stop playing around with the yoga and do the yoga! He said that I needed to do the 60 Day Challenge (60 classes in 60 days, one class per day). I had no idea how I was going to do this with a full time job. I decided to ask my boss if I could leave each day at 5pm if my work was complete. This took a lot of courage to ask because I was the manager of 5 data analysts at the time. She agreed and wished me the best of luck on my 60 day challenge. And yes I told her what I wanted to leave each day for.
I completed my 60 day challenge and felt like a new person. No longer did I have the stress that I had before I started the yoga. My mind was clear and I was able to get more work done in less time. I was able to focus my mind and quite the chatter. It was truly amazing! My body and mind felt like I was a teenager again. I was 33 at the time. I practice yoga 5-6 times a week for 3 years and continued to work my corporate job. I never really felt like I liked my job, I just did it to have the money. All the time I wished I could go to teacher training and become a teacher. My kept encouraging me to go to the training but it was never the right time. I couldn't figure out how to take 9 weeks off from work. Then everything changed! I was laid off from my corporate job. I was dazed and confused at what to do. Then I realized it was exactly what I needed to go to the training. Lucky for me I had a 6 month severance package. I was scared as hell but I knew that I needed to become a teacher.
I completed training in fall 2002 and taught for 2 years and did not go back to corporate america. It didn't seem to make me as happy as teaching yoga. I taught yoga as long as I could before my next life lesson dictated that I go back to a corporate job. Becoming a teacher and practicing yoga gave me the courage and belief that I could do whatever I focused my mind on. With this belief, I was able to find a job that fit me. I am now able to have two careers and straddle the yoga and corporate worlds. Being in both worlds allows me to achieve a balance. All this was made possible by doing yoga.
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