When I started yoga I had no idea how 90 minutes of stretching everyday would change my life. I wasn’t even looking to change my life, because it was starting to happen. After eight years of battling mental illness and substance abuse, my life was already different than it used to be. I was diagnosed with narcolepsy and was in the process of transitioning off Methadone Maintenance Therapy. I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel, but it was hard to see through the tremors, chills, anxiety, and bursts of rage that came along with the MMT detox.
A friend of mine suggested I try “this hot yoga thing (she) does” because my narcolepsy medication made me feel freezing cold all of the time. At my first class I felt like I was laying on the beach in savasana. I finally felt warm. At my second class, I met a teacher who made me try really hard. He said if I kept coming back it would work. I didn’t know what that meant, but I kept coming back every day. I did crazy shit (that I laugh about now!) like walk through waist deep snow, and drive a car in the winter with bald tires, no reverse, no heat, and next to no brakes just to get my 90 minutes in. The sweat stayed in the hot room, the anger dropped off my mat, and possibilities I never dreamed of became abundant. Six months later, I became a teacher. Two years later, I feel like I am finally blooming into the beautiful person I have always had potential to be – independent, optimistic, happy, energetic, thoughtful, and hysterical.
