Findwhatfeelsgood.com
One of the many things I am grateful for in skirting spinsterhood is finding this gem of a yoga teacher. I don’t remember the exact date I chanced upon her yoga channel on Youtube. Truth be told, I had been quite averse to yoga. I thought that yoga practice was meant for the stretchy twisty lot. I thought it was only for people who have found their peace, their center. Those who can sit still and put their mind at ease. For a restless, buzzing mind like mine, I thought it was not my cup of tea.
It must have been a year and a half ago. I was searching on Youtube for a free online course on weight loss. I have probably tried every weight loss and exercise regimen imaginable – a gym membership, running, aerobics, swimming, poledancing, a personal trainer, South Beach, Atkins, the After-6 diet. Name it. My body was too stubborn to shape up. And everything on that list- JUST. BORED. ME. TO. DEATH.
Everybody knows the evil of sticking to a training program. You pay for membership, and then forget about it. Until it eats up all your money. As you belabor paying off your credit card debt, jacked up by membership dues, you get no consolation in return. The same result on the weighing scale stares you in the face, week after week after week.
Then, there it was, neatly tucked underneath a mindless search — a Youtube video that said “Weight Loss Yoga- Total Body Workout”
I tried the whole hour of it. Boy was I sweating, my muscles screaming, entire body shaking. Equipped with her doe eyes, and wide grin, she was asking me to smile and release tension in my jaw. HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DO THAT IN THIS POSE? But she got me to try.
I struggled to finish it. But I did.
The next day, I did it again.
And the day after.
And the next…
Before I knew it, I was mixing and matching her other yoga videos. She instilled the philosophy, “Find What Feels Good”, in a practice misconstrued by many as strict to form and technique. She emphasized to her legion of students around the world that it is important to make yoga practice your own. And the more you do that, the more benefits you will derive from it.
I guess I felt this strongest urge to keep her as the deepest darkest secret of my newly-found healthy lifestyle. But she is a star simply too unique to be ignored. There was no way for her to go but up!
She just recently announced that the channel has reached 150,000 subscribers. She continues to keep this valuable content, free for everybody to take. Her heart is just big, like that.
For those who choose a more detailed and tailor-crafted instruction, she and her team have launched this year, two online yoga bootcamps, Reboot and Empower. The world has become Adriene’s yoga studio, and it is growing by the minute.
I don’t consider myself a yogi. Very reluctant to even entertain the thought.
*Shudders*
I practice yoga in the four dark corners of my bedroom. I have taken a grand total of one public yoga class in my lifetime. But this is the practice that I have taken to heart. I pat myself in the back for each inch further I can reach out to touch my toes. When I am down, angry or upset, I roll out my mat to escape the harsh world outside. It gives me peace and calm for an hour, heck or even just a minute, and I am happy.
Adriene and the rest of our online yoga class have taken me to heights I never knew I would reach. I am late thirtysomething, single, at times lost in life. To others, I am an almost spinster. But despite that, I am proud to say I have never ever felt better as myself, the way I do now. A chunk of it, I lovingly attribute to this refuge that taught me “to let go of that which no longer serves me” and “to choose to find ease”. On top of it, when all else fails, a voice echoes in my head “to be with the breath”.
I have indeed found what feels good.
So should you.
Love,
TGSS
**Find Adriene Mishler at YogawithAdriene.com and Findwhatfeelsgood.com
Skirting Spinstertown 