How Yoga Can Change Your Life

Almost 8 years ago I signed up for yoga teacher training through Chattanooga Yoga School. At the time, I had been working 8 years as a hospice chaplain and I loved this work, but I was physically and emotionally drained. It was clear I needed greater self-care and because I always left yoga classes with a stronger sense of calm and connection to myself and life, I felt like yoga school might be my ticket to transformation and vitality.

When I started yoga school, I felt intimidated by my yogi cohorts. Many of the students had a strong background in dance or gymnastics, and others were very athletic. And while I had been taking yoga classes off and on for roughly 10 years, my practice had rarely been consistent, and I did not feel very strong or flexible. 

When Chattanooga Yoga School’s owner, Madia Swicord, invited our yoga school participants to establish a daily rhythm of yoga and meditation, I took this invitation to heart and committed to a practice of yoga daily. While I lost my daily discipline for a short period during the worst of COVID-19, overall, during the past 8 years I have been very committed to a daily yoga practice. In fact, I was practicing yoga every day the week leading up to my due date, and I even attended a class the day I went into labor! I was able to have a natural birth at age 41 and I believe yoga helped me achieve this feat. But more importantly the physical benefits of this practice changed me on the inside and invited me to be more open-hearted, mindful, emotionally attuned, disciplined, confident, calm, playful, focused, and self-compassionate.

Even though I love to practice yoga, I was not certain I would teach it. My perception I was not as athletic as my fellow students and the teachers I was observing was keeping me from imagining myself guiding a class full of yogis through their practice. But to my surprise, one day a yoga teacher did not show up to a full class at the Sportsbarn and I ended up teaching the class on the fly. I received unexpected compliments after the class and the very next week I was offered a position teaching yoga at the downtown Sportsbarn.

I have been fortunate to teach yoga classes at some great spaces in the Chattanooga area including the Sportsbarn, Balanced Studio on Signal, Balance Studio for kids, Yoga Landing, Echelon Fitness, The Hive on Lookout, and the YMCA. I don’t currently teach at all the spaces I just named, but they are all amazing gifts to this area, and I commend them to you to check out! The Chattanooga area has a very strong and vibrant yoga community and when I have taken yoga classes in bigger cities, I have sometimes left mildly disappointed because the classes have paled in comparison to the ones I have taken here!

I have just named a few of the yoga communities I have taught classes at over the years, but there are many other studios and opportunities to practice yoga all over Chattanooga. I also have had phenomenal experiences taking classes and/or workshops at Southern Soul Yoga, Madia’s Healing Arts, Movements Arts Collective, Jonathan Yoga, Toes Yoga, and free yoga at the Chattanooga River Market.

Additionally, there are many stellar classes at local churches and parks. One example of a local church class is an excellent class Margaret Green teaches at Good Shepherd Episcopal church on Lookout Mountain. I have also loved attending outdoor classes at many local parks. Being in down dog outside allows you to see the Tennessee River and Walnut Street Bridge from a whole new vantage point, so you can truly take in the beauty of this area. I have yet to try out a yoga class at Outshine Yoga, but I hear they offer many unique outdoor classes, including paddleboard yoga.

I regret I have not yet attended a yoga workshop at Rising Fawn Gardens. They have built an incredible 1,200 square foot yoga room with glass walls and doors that open to a spectacular view of Lookout Mountain. My friends who have both attended and led workshops there have said the space invites you to connect more readily to nature, yourself, and others.

Not long after I finished my 200-hour training program with Chattanooga Yoga School, I was hungry for further training and signed up to do an additional 300 hours of training with Yoga Landing. Speaking of Yoga Landing, there is a confirmed rumor they are opening another yoga studio on Signal Mountain, which is exciting for the Signal Mountain community. Yoga Landing’s owner, Jessica Jollie, brings in wise teachers from Chattanooga and across the nation for her teacher training programs. The Bhagavad Gita says, “Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.” While yoga school will teach you how to say the Sanskrit names of postures, show you the correct alignment for poses, and instruct you how to teach a class, yoga school is really inviting you to a life-time journey of compassionately noticing your mind, ego, body, heart-space, and spirit on and off the mat. 

While I completed yoga school with Chattanooga Yoga School and Yoga Landing, I also hear Southern Soul Yoga and Yogaaah offer wonderful teacher training programs locally. Even if you don’t plan to become a yoga teacher, yoga school can be an opportunity to take a deeper dive into knowing and loving yourself.

If you want to listen to a great local podcast about yoga, check out The Yoga Teacher CEO, hosted by Della Wheeler. I also invite you to listen to the podcast, Enneagram+Yoga, that I co-host with Kat Smith. Both podcasts interview yoga teachers and mindful people locally and across the country.

Since the legendary Chattanooga fitness instructor, Teresa Wade, gave me my very first opportunity to teach a yoga class, I want to highlight that her company, Personal Fitness Specialists, is contracting with One to One Health to provide fitness classes, yoga, barre and personal training classes. One to One Health is located downtown on Riverfront Parkway. It is the end of an era with the closing of the downtown Sportsbarn, but Teresa Wade’s company will offer many classes that were offered previously at the downtown Sportsbarn.

I hope this article has opened your mind to how many opportunities there are to practice yoga in this area. Please be mindful that just like it can take time to find the right therapist, church, or medical doctor, it can take time to find the yoga class, yoga teacher, or yoga studio that resonates with your needs. Sometimes it can help to call a yoga or fitness center before you visit so they can explain the types and speeds of the classes, so you can discern together what class might be right for you. 

If you feel resistant to taking a yoga class because you believe you aren’t strong or flexible enough, be mindful Rome was not built in a day, but when you commit to the discipline of yoga, you will enhance your posture, strength, balance, and flexibility. And more importantly than the physical benefits, the yoga sequences, breathe and yogic community will help you to release trauma and anxiety, experience solitude, practice mindfulness, open your heart to others, find balance between effort and ease, increase your awareness of your body, and lead you to a deeper relationship with yourself. If you are not already practicing yoga, why not take a leap and check out a local yoga class and take the journey of the self, through the self, to the self. Namaste.

A version of this article was originally published by www.mountainmirror.com