My Yoga Journey – Start with Taking One Foot and Placing it in Front of the Other

Growing up in the midwest, even in the psychic community, we didn’t have much exposure to yoga. It wasn’t till I went to college that I was exposed to the practice. It first started with my roommate finding youtube videos of yoga sequences for us to practice in the dorm. I got my official taste of yoga as part of a spirituality course my sophomore year. Afterward I did a video here and there but it was mostly set aside and forgotten.
It wasn’t till years later, when filled with stress and anger from work, that I found yoga again. I knew some of the poses from before but it was quickly clear I was not up to snuff compared to everyone else in the room. This didn’t prevent me from showing up though and every time I showed up I learned something new.
I could not tell you how many times in one of my classes the teacher would come around and step on my back foot in warrior 1. I didn’t understand it then but now I know she was trying to get me to press into the outside edge. 4 years later: every warrior 1 I do I envision her coming by and stepping on my back foot and I say to myself, press into the outside edge, engage the back leg. This is how my yoga practice continued, by taking one piece of information at a time and observing it into my body.
We are unable to change everything at once, although modern society makes us think we should. I remember reading in Yoga for Emotional Balance that the human brain and body patterns are like grooves in a record. The grooves of how your brain thinks and how your body moves have already been engraved into the disc over the years of your life. If we want to create new grooves we cannot do it with just one class, one lecture, or one retreat. We create them by constantly coming up against the old groove and choosing to adjust. It’s constant reminders to press into the outside edge of the back foot. Eventually the reminder becomes second nature. Till then we show up and we practice; even if we’re the stiffest, most uncoordinated person in the room.