Yoga came to me

My first yoga experience was a DVD called "MTV yoga" Yep, that's right, by the time I got into yoga, freakin' MTV had made a yoga video. Not very spiritual right?? But it challenged me, and I was really interested in this movement system that didn't include pointed toes and the other coveted movements that gymnastics had. I did that DVD probably 3x a week for a few years, and wanted more. It was a terrible fit spiritually, but I had a corporate job at the time, and someone there started a yoga at work program! I went to every class. My teacher, Edwin, did a mix of yoga and pilates. The feeling I got from these classes was so different than any other fitness I'd done. My mind was so clear and I drifted off to a deeply meditative place during shavasana. it was magical. We had 3 different teachers while I worked there. Edwin, Stephanie, and Marietta. Marietta owned the studio that the teachers were hired through. She was a former body builder, and a bad-ass motorcycle riding lady who'd gotten into Yoga to fix her severly damaged back. She teaches a strong slow practice that, even today, leaves me sore for days at a time. She's always boldly herself, and she talks and laughs a lot everywhere and always. I loved this misfit teacher on her motorcycle. I started going to the studio for classes, and to this day, when someone says: "go to your happy place," I am in shavasana at Yama Yoga in Studio A. I was so enamored of this shavasana feeling! And I was so curious about how differently I was asked to move in Yoga compared to gymnastics. And her class was so hard! I was determined to get strong enough to do it! I had been gymnast damnit, I shoudl be able to do this stuff! And I did! I healed my own bad back and kept going back for more, getting stronger and stronger, and eventually getting some real guidance and help from the philosophic side. I'd just absorb whatever any teacher was talking about with a smile in my heart. They didn't push it, they just left little breadcrumbs. It was gentle and loving enough for this angry and bitter "recovering catholic to keep nibbling. Eventually I started to think I wanted to get even further into this yoga thing and did a teacher training. The philosophy really grabbed me hard, and that was it, in it for life, all 8 limbs. bring it on.