Mind + Body + Spirit
I started practicing yoga over 20 years ago. Initially, I was hopeful that if I practiced enough, I would look like the women on the cover of Yoga Journal who had beautifully toned arms, flat stomachs, and could do crazy poses. It didn’t take me long to realize that there was so much more to yoga than just the look of it. I started to find appreciation for how incredibly amazing my very normal body was. I felt powerful in poses. It was a wonderful way to help me manage my Rheumatoid Arthritis that I was diagnosed with at 18. I started staying for Savasana, instead of heading for the door when they all laid down. I found a sense of peace with my body. I also learned that yoga was a yoking of the mind, body and spirit.
The spiritual facet has always been important to me. I am a Christian and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I believe I am a literal daughter of Heavenly Parents and that they know me and love me. I found spiritual stability and peace in practicing living my religion, but I felt like I didn’t know how to connect to God in a personal way. A few years ago, I started to incorporate meditation into my personal prayer practice. I felt an increase in my ability to hear and recognize inspiration. I learned to quiet my mind and still my body through meditation. The more consistently I practiced the more peace and insights I recognized.
My mind was the final piece in this puzzle for me. I was “doing” the things that should make me happy, but I didn’t feel very happy. I was very reactive and felt on edge all the time. I didn’t know the HOW to manage my mind and emotions and it felt like something was wrong with me. And then I was introduced to life coaching and mindset work. I felt so empowered to change the way I was seeing my life. To realize that I was not my thoughts and just because I had a thought did not make it true or useful was a game-changer. I learned how to feel emotion and increase my capacity to feel the difficult emotions, but I also increased my ability to feel positive emotion. I started to see how I could love people from a more authentic place and they didn’t have to change a thing. I recognized limiting beliefs that were holding me back and by addressing them I began to feel more like my true self. Like I had a choice in who I was and how I showed up in the world.
I will forever be grateful for the beautiful practices of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness/coaching. There are lots of useful practices that help in the different areas of our life, but for me, this combination has helped me to find whole soul wellness.