Why I Became a Yoga Teacher at 54.

I never, ever thought that I would become a yoga teacher.  Although I’ve worked out almost every day since college, I wasn’t very flexible. I was not a dancer or a gymnast when I was young.  I’m not super thin, my hair is not blonde and I’m 54, for god’s sake.  The yoga studio where I practice is owned by a 24 year old friend of my son’s who teaches most of the classes.  Over the past couple years, I had been doing more and more yoga.  I couldn’t run anymore, due to low back pain.  A fall on the tennis court last summer put me out of tennis for a year.  Yoga seemed to help me feel better.  Most of all, yoga didn’t make me feel like I needed to lose weight or change myself to advance in the poses.  When the opportunity for a 200 hour yoga teacher training class opened up five minutes from my house, it seemed like the universe was conspiring to give me more yoga in my life.  I had thought about training, but thoughts like “I can’t do the splits”,  “I’m old,”  and “I don’t look like Kino” kept me from taking action.  Until the training was practically dumped in my lap.  I signed up and then thought: What did I just do?  I’m going to make a fool of myself.  Sure enough, the other students in the class were mostly in their 20’s.  Thin.  Flexible.  Beautiful.  Because I’m an English teacher, teaching part time at a local community college, I purchased and read all the yoga textbooks before the class even started.  One of the first things I learned is that yoga is not just about the poses (asanas).  In fact, the asanas were originally designed to help the body be able to sit for hours in meditation.  I learned that everyone will look different in the same poses, because our bone structures are different.  I learned that stilling your mind and following your breath can take you to places in the pose, and in your life, that you never, ever thought you would go.  I did a backbend for the first time in my life.  At 54.  Last night, I taught my first official (read: paid) yoga class.  Two of my best 50-something friends were there.  And some 20 year olds.  And they all loved it.  Thank you for reading.

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