Once upon a time, somewhere on Instagram I read the words "Surround yourself with people who you want to be like" and shortly after I found myself dragging my $12 yoga mat to my very first yoga class. I was afraid of everything; being happy, being alone, being wrong, being unsuccessful and worst of all: being myself. I didn’t know what that meant, but I was pretty certain I needed one. The more I learned about yoga, the more I knew I needed it in my life. I did my first 200 hour yoga teacher training after flipping a coin on my bathroom floor. Heads I take the training, tails I stay in school.
200 hours later and I had worked up just enough self love and bravery to leave my relationship, my job, my university and the country. I landed in Costa Rica with nothing but a suitcase, $300 and teaching certificate with my name on it. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew it was bound to better than where I had been. I lived in a tiny cabin by the beach, did yoga, journaled and cried. This was when I knew I had found a home, and it wasn’t in Costa Rica, it was on my Yoga Mat. The more creative and playful I got on my mat, the more I was able to get out of my head and into my heart. This continued to heal me, again and again and again. Yoga was the first thing that ever made me feel like myself. I have never stopped being brave, I have been sharing my story and my journey with anyone who would listen since that day I first read that quote on Instagram. I needed to surround myself with people I wanted to be like: Authentic, Passionate and Inspiring people. And now I get to be around that person every single day.
