Today a licensed Ashaya Yoga ® instructor, committed yogi, and regular teacher of yoga and meditation classes, workshops, and retreats, my journey into yoga started a while ago with some openness of mind, but not without a great deal of resistance… Here is a short summary of my personal journey into “Yoga.”
How it all started
My relationship with yoga began about 15 years ago. As for many male yogis, it all started because my girlfriend, who had been suffering from mysterious back pain for years, tried yoga and dragged me to one class. The first couple of years I did not go regularly and was not very convinced about it. I’d rather spend time running outside or working out on machines at the gym.
In 2009-2010, I was unemployed for about 6 months and made more use of my gym membership. I took a leap and tried their yoga classes, and rapidly started to follow a couple of teachers I really liked. Quickly, something shifted in me and I was riding my bike across the whole Copenhagen to go to their classes. One common trait among my teachers was their playful approach to yoga and strong emphasis on good body alignment. Not only was I having fun, but I was also improving my posture and enlightening my mood and energy in that pretty dark period of my life. What was also fun is that yoga became something my girlfriend and I could share.
In 2012, we moved to San Francisco for six months and lived 2 blocks from a yoga studio. I rapidly found some other amazing teachers and started taking classes every second day.
In the same year, I began a yoga teacher training when I got back to Copenhagen, at Hamsa Yoga Studio. This was the starting point of a continuous, (almost) daily practice and began teaching classes at work, at events, and later in regular yoga studios.
Yoga today
And from there, it all unfolded pretty naturally. In the last couple of years, I started teaching more and more, and yoga teaching grew more and more significantly in my life from a hobby to my main source of income. I am so grateful for being able to serve my community in this way. Each time I teach, I the invaluable gift to do something I deeply love and witness my students’ personal evolution.
To me, yoga is both a practice of commitment and courage to get into our body and show up on our mat and of surrender into the bigger energy that ignites life force in each of us.
May yoga help you grow to embody your full potential and help you accomplish your mission in this world.
Namaste
Cédric
