How Yoga Saved My Life
My Story
My anxiety became much worse after dropping out of college. It was taking over my life, I felt like I had little control over my own body and mind. It wasn’t until I found my passion for yoga, that I started to feel like I was healing myself.
I've struggled with anxiety since I was just 7 years old. The year or two after dropping out was really hard. I was really battling my anxiety at this point... It caused me to have severe panic attacks, sometimes I'd even black out and not even remember the adult tantrum I just threw. I was embarrassed, ashamed, and scared.
My anxiety caused the racing heart, tight chest, spinning thoughts, and the overwhelming, absolute fear inside me. I was almost afraid of myself. Afraid of how little control I had over my own mind... I couldn't handle it anymore. I couldn't feel like that.
I downloaded the MindBody App and I started trying out all different yoga classes. After a few weeks of really sticking to my yoga practice, I had already noticed a difference. My anxiety wasn't in control anymore... I was in control.
Less than a year later, I decided to join a local teacher training program. In April 2019, I graduated as a certified yoga instructor. Two years later, I’m running my own small business, teaching yoga, and living a happier and healthier lifestyle.
The best part about yoga? The best part is that it's MY practice. I can take it with me anywhere - it's my daily lifesaver for those moments of intense emotion. It allows me to release, breathe, slow my mind and body and live a healthier happier life. From a full fledged anxiety ridden college drop-out, to a confident small business owner, I am in control because yoga saved my life.
What works for me
It’s not like my anxiety just magically went away forever. There was a group therapy webinar that I attended virtually once and the counselor said “Your mental health issues may never go away, they can subside, but they don’t disappear, so we figure out how to cope with them.”
So how do I cope with my anxiety? Sometimes I just let it swallow me whole when I know I need to work through the feelings. Most times, I rely on my backpack of tools…
Essential Oils - natural aromatherapy can help soothe and relax anxiety, stress, and depression. I love using oils like lavender, bergamot, ylang ylang, chamomile, vetiver, and other relaxing oils.
Yoga - movement is medicine! Aside from the physical aspect of yoga proving benefit to the body, yoga introduced me to the practice of mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork.
Meditation - this practice gives me a space to just be. I used to think meditation had to be clearing your mind and having this out of body experience, but I was wrong. Meditation is a space to dive into those thoughts and feelings, a space to relax, a space to just be with yourself.
Breathwork - the power of breath is truly remarkable. I was always told, take a deep breath and calm down, when I was younger. Now, I realize the power of that statement. Breathwork really helps me control my anxiety in moments of panic.
Cannabis - I’ve tried many pharmaceutical medications and approaches for helping gin control over my anxiety, but after many many years of trial and error, I made the decision to go pharmaceutical free in June 2018 and have since been experimenting with cannabis. Cannabis is a plant based healing method that works for me. With a combination of CBD and THC, I’ve found a regimen and routine that helps me keep calm, grounded, and more able to go about my daily routine.
If it wasn’t for yoga, I wouldn’t have found many of these tools. Yoga gave me meditation, mindfulness, breathwork, an introduction to essential oils, and a community of like-minded souls to learn and grow with.
Even now, as I sit here writing this, I had all the plans to tell my story and create this beautiful blog post, but my anxiety and depression creeped in this morning, making this post much more difficult than I had planned. I’m having a bad day. That’s the reality of life; we have bad days.
So I took my time, and this post is most definitely not my best, nor is it my favorite, but I did it. So I hope you got a little insight to how yoga saved my life. I hope one day, I get to share this practice with you.
