This is my story of how I started yoga, became a teacher, and got exposed to (and hooked on) the benefits that yoga has to offer. In Part 1, I’ll describe my experiences with hatha yoga, which is the branch of yoga that many people practice in the US. Hatha yoga can be described in many ways, but for the sake of simplicity in this article, I’ll use the term to refer to the physical practices of yoga, such as postures, breathing, gestures, and purification practices.
I came to yoga ignorant of its history, breadth, depth, and purpose. I grew up in Greer, South Carolina, in the 70s. Today Greer has several places to practice yoga, but back then, there wasn’t even whole wheat bread at the grocery store. My mom did yoga with Lilias Folan on TV, but I don’t recall any personal awareness of yoga or interest in it. I do remember my first yoga experience though, about a year after I moved to California.
My first yoga class and landing with the famous yogis
Like many others, perhaps like you, I came to yoga for stretching and stress relief. I had a job that didn’t suit me, for which I wore uncomfortable shoes and sat in a windowless cubicle all day. I was 24, living in Oakland, California, and working in “The City.” That’s what people who live in the Bay Area call San Francisco, in case you don’t know. (They never call it “Frisco.”)
I had a pretty hip life! It was the Big City Life I had always imagined for myself when I was a teenager living in a small town. When I wasn’t working, I did every single fun thing that crossed my path — dancing, parties, festivals, concerts, restaurants, bars, travel, and exploration of the cultural melting pot of San Francisco. I was on the go all the time, fueled by youth, curiosity, and coffee. I felt good about myself and my life. The job didn’t even bother me, because I was having so much fun elsewhere.
Then one evening I walked into a yoga class at the Oakland Athletic Club. The Oakland Athletic Club no longer exists, but was near the 12th Street BART station in downtown Oakland. It was a bare bones gyml. No spa, no pool, no lavender-scented towels or complimentary coffee, just some cardio and weight machines and a spartan group exercise room with a ballet bar. I don’t remember more about the decor or ambiance, because I think they were non-existent.
My teacher was Jill Woolums. She wore a black ballet leotard and white tights, her black hair in a tight bun. I remember standing ramrod straight with my ankle up on the ballet bar, breathing. I had never thought about breathing before. Jill was giving us a series of instructions, methodically telling us precisely what to do with every muscle in our bodies:
“Spread your toes.”
“Press the big toe mound forward, and turn the outer shin out.”
“Hug your outer hip muscles toward the hip socket.”
I remember concentrating, feeling focused and present. It felt good. I kept going back, week after week.
At the time, I didn’t know or care that almost all of my energy was going outward, to the exciting things happening in San Francisco and my life. Consciously, I didn’t go to yoga class because I felt I was missing something. Although I had always been attracted to an active lifestyle and overall health, I wasn’t looking for quiet, focus, peace, or personal growth. Somehow, my inner compass got me to those yoga classes anyway.
I followed Jill to Piedmont Yoga Studio, which happened to be walking distance from my house in Oakland. Without a clue, I had landed at a studio of “famous yogis,” whom I later learned taught all over the world, starred in yoga videos, and wrote for Yoga Journal. I settled in Richard Rosen’s Saturday class for a couple of years, and appreciated his quiet, grounded way of leading me to physical and mental peace. I also didn’t know that I had landed with teachers who had been trained by BKS Iyengar, a yoga legend who pioneered an adaptive style of yoga using props to aid students in aligning their joints. They taught with a slow, mindful attention to detail that appealed to me before I knew there were other approaches to yoga.
Peace Corps Honduras and Two Minutes a Day
While living my Big City Life, I had another long-term goal in mind, also born from the desire for more adventure than I thought I could find in Greer. I had wanted to be a Peace Corps volunteer ever since the impressionable age of 13 or 14. An extremely attractive, hunky college guy from my church – on whom I had harbored a crush since birth – went to Mali with the Peace Corps, and I decided the Peace Corps was for me too. Later there was some corroborating evidence that it was a good choice for me, such as my first international journey to Guatemala at age 18, which further lit my passion for international service work, language, and travel. I applied to the Peace Corps and was invited to move to Honduras, Central America, for 27 months as a water and sanitation volunteer. Something inspired me to commit to myself that I would do two sun salutations every day. I followed through on my commitment, and it changed my life.
Those two or three minutes every morning became an anchor in my days and my life. I did those sun salutations during training, when my brain hurt from hearing and speaking Spanish all day. I did them working in the field, where we learned to do topographical studies and build water captation boxes. I did them when my original location assignment changed at the end of training, and I was in limbo for several weeks with no idea where I would live and work for two years. Finally settled in Corquín, Copan, I practiced yoga with a soundtrack of roosters, on my cold concrete floor and outside in the yard with my cashew tree.
Friends in the US sent me yoga stuff…Yoga Journal magazines. Books. A yoga strap (I still have it today). A Yogis’ Companion audio CD (It’s still on my iphone). Little kids and moms joined me from time to time to do yoga in my house. I taught myself what I could.
A group of Peace Corps volunteers got together to put on a yoga retreat at an organic farm. A few were “real teachers” (certified yoga instructors). The rest of us were making things up in our homes. I led a practice as best I could. We ate organic vegetarian food. I felt at home with those yogis.
On an eight-hour bus ride from Corquín to the capital Tegucigalpa, I read Erich Shiffman’s book Yoga: The Spirit and Practice of Moving into Stillness. There was a breathing exercise that I think was called “Countdown from 50.”
Inhale 50, exhale 49, inhale 48, exhale 47… until you get to 20.
Then inhale/exhale 20, inhale/exhale 19…. until 0.
I followed the instructions. Cramped on that hot bus, with no clean restroom for six more hours….I did the breathing exercise, and I felt what I now know to be oneness consciousness. By the time I got to 0, I loved all those people on the bus and everything I saw outside too. I wanted more of that feeling.
Side note: Countdown from 50 is a great way to fall asleep too. It almost always works for me. In this video interview, around the 18 minute mark, I talk about the countdown, my first yoga class, and my oneness consciousness moment on the bus.
Yoga Teacher Training in the "San Francisco of the Appalachians"
By the time I finished my Peace Corps service, I knew I could not go back to the cubicle. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, but I knew I wanted more yoga. I came back to South Carolina for a supposedly brief visit with my parents. While there I learned a yoga studio had opened in Greenville, S.C.. It was called The Yoga Haus, and also does not exist anymore. I became a regular, volunteered to work at the desk, and quickly found my home with the two Iyengar-trained teachers, Janice Batson and Caroline Perlman. Their classes felt like what I had known before – slow, methodical, precise, and calming. Caroline had just graduated from teacher training with Lillah Schwartz, so I knew she was the teacher I needed to meet.
My mother and I traveled to Asheville, NC, for a trial class with Lillah. I was at home again with the detailed instructions, precision, clarity and quiet. Iyengar yogis typically don’t play music in class. I felt a sense of absolute presence and peace doing the class. Lillah’s teacher training had started for the year, and I had missed one weekend, but she encouraged me to complete the application, and she would consider admitting me.
I had already booked a trip back to San Francisco, planning to find my yoga teacher there. I did make that trip and interviewed several teachers. They weren’t right for me. Somehow I knew that while I would always love the Bay Area and my friends there, it wasn’t the place I was supposed to live at that time. I came home to the South, instead of the hip West Coast, to study yoga in Asheville for the next year.
Lillah required us to practice yoga a minimum of five hours per week, or 45 minutes per day. This could be a combination of asana (postures), pranayama (breathwork), and dhyana (meditation). On top of that, we were to study anatomy, philosophy, and teaching methods. I spent the majority of my practice time on asana. My favorite guidebook was Yoga: The Iyengar Way by the Mehtas. We went to class one weekend per month, fitting in 23 hours of training into each weekend. When we weren’t studying and practicing, we ate and slept. I loved every minute. During that year, I had several more a-ha moments like the one on the bus, when I felt alive, present, enthralled, and connected to something bigger than myself.
Going Deeper Into the Body
Over the next 17 years, I went deeper into yoga as a physical practice, completing certifications as a back care specialist, yoga therapist, and yoga for scoliosis trainer. I continued to study with Lillah, Gabriel Halpern, and Elise Browning Miller. I got a job at a wellness center, where I could try out new ideas on my students and build a mini yoga community. Besides yoga, I pursued training and certifications in personal training, water aerobics, spinning, Zumba, golf fitness, functional movement, balance, wellness coaching, nutrition, and more. I went back to community college for anatomy classes. I was fascinated with how the body works and how to help it work at its best.
What I didn’t know when I started was that these physical practices and disciplines are just a small part of yoga. I went deep into the study of asana and deep into what yogis call the annamayakosha, the outermost sheath of our being, which shows up in this life as the physical body. Asana is just one of the eight limbs of yoga described by sage Patanjali in The Yoga Sutras, and the annamayakosha is just one of the five sheaths.
In teacher training and my subsequent studies, I touched on yoga’s broader and deeper roots: ethical lifestyle guidelines, personal principles, control of the senses, concentration, meditation, and the end goal – complete liberation of consciousness (freedom from the restraints of the human condition). I made efforts to practice them, but I didn’t go deep, and I didn’t LIVE them the way I practiced and embodied the physical poses.
I’m not judging that as bad, and I can be pretty hard on myself when I’m not perfect. : ) I see my path as a natural evolution, and a common one. When I dipped my toe into yoga, I got what I was looking for…stretching and stress relief. Then as I got deeper in, I learned about the vast personal and spiritual growth opportunities yoga offers.
In another blog post, I’ll share the next phase of my yoga journey, meeting a yoga master who helped me begin a meditation practice and opened my eyes to how yoga could help me navigate life with more peace and clarity. And then, I’ll invite you to join me as I start over on the eight limbs of yoga and other holistic yoga practices, with a beginner’s mind. Stay tuned.
ADDENDUM
I did not consult my mother before publishing this, although that would have been a good idea! After she read it, she emailed me these nuggets:
- “Joan, When I was doing a headstand, & my daughters were 7yrs & 3yrs, they wanted to do it. So I helped them get their legs & feet up, & they enjoyed it. So we had lots of Headstand fun. I still like the rush of blood to my head, and the brain boost. I also like to hang from my yoga belts in the doorway & do hip stretches, & legs up the wall.”
I was the three-year-old she mentioned. When I read mom’s comment, I did remember the headstands.
More from mom:
- “I started yoga with my physical education teacher in H. S. during gymnastics. She showed us poses & let us try them. I liked my headstand. Later my Aunt Marge & I would do Lion pose on all fours, roaring from our mouths. First teacher was on ETV yoga. Beyond postures, I like the breathing deeply and the quiet centering of yoga.”
For me, writing is a way to clarify my own thoughts and beliefs. In this case, it also brought up memories. A few weeks after publishing this, I remembered a trip to Greece, while I was a 21-year-old study-abroad student in England. A classmate and I did sun salutations on the beach. The seeds were planted earlier than I had remembered.
Your Turn...
For now, I’d like to hear from you….
- How did you get started in yoga?
- Who was your first teacher?
- What kept you coming back?
- What do you know about the aspects of yoga beyond postures?
Oh Joan,
What a wonderful, heartfelt essay. Thank you. I felt I have traveled a good deal of the way with you as my intimate mentor.
Thank you. Thank you.
Yes Dear Leslie, We have traveled together, literally in close proximity. I still have a photo of you upside down in handstand. : ) Thank you for reading and responding. You and my other students have been my teachers as well!
Interesting to know your back story. Now that I am in my early 80s I need some physical activities to keep me stronger and flexible. Let me know if you plan to teach any classes in the Greer area or know of a good class for me. Thanksin
Dear Ann, Thank you for reading and responding. I am going to send you a referral via email. I’m so glad you are seeking opportunities to stay strong and flexible.
Thank you Joan! Great to see your life story on yoga. First yoga teacher was Clive DeLaporte, a Unity minister in training. Saturday morning hour class at Unity of Byron, GA in 2011. The easy class was hard for me and I loved it. I practiced daily in my small greenhouse. When he left, Unity asked me to teach the class. Then in 2014, I was introduced to deeper levels of yoga at The Center for Spiritual Awareness by Beth Spencer. I loved her teaching. The inner calm from it lead me to take teacher training for 6 months (weekends) class with Cooper Seay at The Garden For Wellness in Clarkesville, GA. I am still practicing and believe I am a beginner. I was so glad to do yoga poses with you, because my back needs special care. I’m older and must learn to be careful. The best aspect of yoga is the lifelong application of the inner work. The yamas and niyamas. The meditations. The understanding that I am a spiritual being living in a body. I’ve had many challenges in three years to throw me off my daily ritual. I am coming back to it with TLC this time. Cheers to your service and your blog. Thank you for inspiring me to keep on keeping on! lisa c
Dear Lisa, Thank you for reading and sharing your yoga story with us as well. I agree with you that the best aspect is the lifelong application of the inner work. The outer reflects the inner, so whatever is going on in our bodies, minds, and environments is a reminder to go within and get quiet. I have also been on and off the wagon. I like that you are coming back with kindness. Me too. Peace.
This is such a fun read! I hope you keep on writing about your journey into yoga.