@quinneaker asks meaningful personal questions to spark thought & encourage valuable communication. He once asked me, "What influence has yoga had on your life?"

That's a GREAT question!!

I'd like to scratch the surface of the infinite depths here, #1 to remind myself that miracles are real, and #2 in hopes it might inspire someone else towards their greatest self.

To understand my journey, you have to know where I was:

I was severely depressed for a really long time after my sister died. On top of every aspect of life sucking sweaty balls without her, I developed debilitating, chronic hip pain. (It was much later before I recognized the link between emotional, mental, and spiritual pain and disorders in the physical body, but that's another story.) 

I made really poor choices back then because I hurt so bad, and my guilt and self judgment made me feel even worse - it was the downward spiral of absolute hell! I thought I was doomed to a lonely life of suffering. 

I wanted to die, because I was desperate for an escape from that overwhelming pain...but I was too scared to kill myself. 

I was caught in the pits of despair, with no way out. 

I was miserable, and nothing I grasped at made me happy - no job  satisfied me, no amount of money gratified me, no relationship fulfilled me, no food could satiate me. Thank God I never found drinking enjoyable and didn't really have access to drugs in those days. Music was the best thing I found, but that fleeting distraction faded when the last notes died out. 

Words are too weak to describe the desolation of hopelessness; it is a cold, dark, sad place.

Yoga is the miracle that helped me survive those darkest days.

Life wasn't working for me, but death wasn't an option - so I tried the impossible:

I went to a yoga class.

And I was terrified.

While I had seen plenty of impressive pictures of yogis in contorted positions, it was not the physical aspect of the practice that intimidated me.  I have always been relatively flexible, and years of playing competitive volleyball taught me the value of steady practice. 

I wanted - but doubted & feared - connection to Spirit.

On spirituality: I am from Oklahoma, where you either accept Jesus Christ as your lord & savior, "or you are a terrorist". This mentality is way too limited for me!

Religion NEVER did it for me, and I don't understand it. I'm totally amazed that millions if not BILLIONS of people are willing to ignore the rampant pedophilia within the Catholic Church. In fact, all Abrahamic matrices that call for the systemic mutilation of baby penises are pretty sick...that's not my definition of God, that's barbaric! Yet the sheeple just keep sheepling along...but, I digress.

Anyhoo, if I wanted Spirit, I had to find something beyond the chokehold of the "God" monopoly that exists where I grew up.  

Yoga was foreign, mystical, exotic, enticing. I knew exercise was known to help overcome depression, but I was drawn to yoga specifically because a) I thought it was gentle (ha!) and b) it was the only "exercise" I ever heard of that addresses deeper levels of Being. 

So I found a non-threatening yoga class in the gym of my university, put on my stretchy pants...and panicked.

I thought that "I" was broken - what if my Spirit was a demon that really DID want to torture me? What if I looked within and found only rotten pestilence, fire & brimstone? What if it didn't work??

Basically, I was incredulous that I could ever achieve that mystical thing they called "inner peace."

Looking back on it, it is unsurprising that I actually hated the first yoga class I took with that kind of attitude. 

Even though the teacher focused exclusively on physical movement and never touched on more ethereal topics like our everlasting Spirit, I still had no idea what he was talking about. The moves were strange, not to mention he peppered his instructions with Sanskrit, and I felt awkward AF while everyone else seemed graceful and connected. 

I left unsatisfied and didn't go back there.

Still, I wanted to believe that those thousands of years of yoga tradition were on to something...so I tried a different approach.

People who spoke highly of yoga also spoke highly of meditation. Eventually I learned they complementary flavors in the same dish, but at that time it too was a foreign concept. But I gave it a shot, because I had nothing to lose.

I sat down on a pillow in my bedroom and focused on my breath. I started with only 5 minutes a day, reasoning I could do anything for 5 minutes. My mind jumped around so much that I had to use a timer so I wouldn't jump off my cushion!!  

Five minutes felt good - I was proud of myself for achieving my goal. Small though it was, it was a great success for my tormented mind. I vowed to do it every day, and noted results with each session.

After only a week of daily meditation, I actually felt BETTER!!! I was calmer, happier, more focused, and could not deny those results. I even started looking forward to my daily meditation sessions! 

Feeling better was far superior to feeling shitty, so I did more. Very soon I was doing 10 minutes, then 15 or 20 every single day. Eventually I gave up the timer completely.

I felt so good from meditation alone that I wanted to give yoga another shot. I got a DVD and committed to a daily practice in my living room. That turned out to be one of the best things I've ever done!

I still felt awkward because the positions were so weird and I was really uncoordinated, but after a few days I recognized that it was like a moving meditation. 

My mind took a break from the hellish thoughts I was living with most of the time, because I had to focus on just not falling over. 

I quickly recognized that there was a pattern to the movements and a flow to the routine - one pose loosens and/or strengthens part of the body, which prepares you for whatever comes next in the series, which leads into something else as well.

A single practice built up to a really yummy physical release/expansion/shift that caused immediate, deep, and best of all lasting mental, emotional, and spiritual relief...I didn't have "proper" vocab for what was happening, and I was doing it alone in my living room so there was no one to ask. 

I called the experience a yogasm.

That was it - one good yogasm, and I was in love. 

There is no way to deny an experience like that. The effects reverberate well after the physical practice concludes. It is free, it is fast, and it is ALWAYS accessible!

I practiced every day to that DVD, and within a month my hip pain was gone!!

I started practicing with my roommate, and I loved how having another person in the room added a new dimension to my practice. 

I found the courage to try again, so I found a studio I liked and started going regularly.

The more I practiced, the more improvements I saw - and they seemed to increase at an exponential rate. 

Yoga had once been this foreign, inaccessible concept to me, and suddenly I could do it! 

And it made me feel great! I spent less and less time in depression and more and more time in love, gratitude & happiness. I started dreaming of all the other things I could do...and then I did them.

I moved to Peru and did lots of epic things, including taking yoga teacher training. So I got all certified & legit and started teaching in English and Spanish.

Then I was offered the opportunity to lead yoga tours in India, the yoga motherland, so I did that too. I did yoga in the Himalayas. I did yoga by the Ganges. I studied with masters and at a university for yoga & ayurveda. I did vipassana meditation and hung out with Tibetan Buddhist monks and taught them some yoga flows too. 

It was a pilgrimage for me, and I gave infinite thanks for my journey from darkness to light, from ignorance to empowerment, from pain to joy.

I've learned A LOT along my way, and it is my great pleasure to share everything I know. Yoga is relief for mind, body, and soul that can benefit anyone! 

Seriously, if I can do it, you can do it - which is why I focused on sharing my passion for yoga when I joined Steemit. It was a great honor to share yoga at Steemfest the First in Amsterdam last year and at SteemFest 2 this year in Lisboa.

Yoga brought me back from the dead. I know its superpowers first hand, and I want everyone to feel as great as they possibly can! 

It is my great wish that my experience gives YOU hope -
please let me know how I can be of service to you! 

Now I would like to know: What influence has yoga had on YOUR life?

💛 Sara!