Meet me on the playground. You’ll laugh – I promise

Fifteen years ago I suffered from chronic neck and back pain due to scoliosis. This was an often low-grade, sometimes intense pain that sapped my energy and spirit. Perhaps equally bad – my adrenals were completely shot from stress, so much so that I could actually feel my adrenals aching.

The funny thing is that I had always considered myself to be “healthy”. Earlier in my life I trained extensively in ballet. In my 20’s and early 30’s, it was all-natural body building and running. And while those pursuits were healthy, I couldn’t find relief in my body, in my mind, in my spirit.

Today, I can’t say enough about how yoga has improved my life. The pain in my body has disappeared. Rating my stress on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest – I used to live constantly at the 7, 8, 9 range. Now, I live happily and easily at the 1 to 2 range. It’s not that problems don’t show up anymore. It’s that I’m not so reactive.

In addition, yoga has made me a much nicer person. Not nicer in the “push-over’ way – because yoga is not about being nice to avoid conflict or the truth or to appear to be a “nice” person. I have become more nice in the way that I have enough peace to be able to stop making everything about me.

Remarkably, every single one of my relationships have improved. I attribute that to yoga. I became a better boss, co-worker, friend, sister and significant other. I didn’t set an intention to do so, but when I became healthier, happier, more authentic, honest and accountable, then life naturally shifted to meet me where I was.

My intention is to offer some simple, elegant, effective tools to help others become healthier, happier and more productive. Meet me on the playground. You’ll laugh – I promise.