Ten years ago, I went to Greenville Yoga for the first time on Main Street. As in the past, I was watching the clock. But one day, I noticed something different. I couldn't tell if it was the music they were playing or what!? Then I realized, that it was the people in the class collectively breathing deeply. In all my years of "practicing" yoga, I'd never heard anything like it! Most yoga studios talk about breath (and unfortunately some don't at all), but I'd never experienced people ALL audibly breathing together. So, about eight years ago I decided to try it, and that's when my perspective on yoga shifted completely.

“Doing anything continuously has some magic to it.” Those were the words a friend of mine used when I told him about my 21 days of yoga adventure.

On Saturday June 22, at 2pm I walked into Matt’s Summer Solstice two-hour Yin Class at Greenville Yoga and something inside of me woke up. Hard to explain, but it felt like I had been sleep walking prior to that class. I went back the next day, chasing that feeling. Again, Matt’s Sunday afternoon yin yoga class. At the end of that class I made a decision. I was going to do 21 straight days of yoga. I decided to write about my lessons learned doing yoga for 21 days straight.

I first started practicing yoga in high school on the advice of my therapist to help with my anxiety (20+ years ago!). When I moved to Greenville in 2008, I was thrilled to find Greenville Yoga 4 blocks from my rental house and immediately started attending classes with Caroline on Monday and Wednesday nights. As my career and schedule changed, I was thrilled to find a more intimate Tuesday and Thursday class with Liz D. While I continue my yoga practice as self-care, I was pleasantly surprised when week after week, friendships grew among my classmates. That had never happened at my other studios - we talk about the studio being our "third place" and it's so true for me!

I knew that something was missing in my physical life. I was beginning to have aches and pains, and even getting up and down from the floor was difficult and I could barely touch my toes. Yoga seemed like the logical answer. I had heard so much about Liz, and Greenville Yoga was convenient. I walked in originally around 5 or 6 years ago. Little did I know at the time that the holes in myself were much more than physical!

I have been practicing yoga since 2000, but never got beyond 1-2 times per week. When we moved to Greenville I wanted to practice more often, so one of the first things I did was look for a yoga studio. Greenville Yoga was the nearest one, so I thought I’d start there. The first time I walked into the studio, I knew I had found my yoga home. The non-competitive atmosphere, the caring instructors, and the heartfelt and authentic “You Belong Here” message all create a calm and welcoming energy that I had been looking for in a yoga studio.

Yoga has changed my life.  Not only do I see it, but my wife and friends see it too.  Before I discovered yoga I had some semi-serious health problems, but now I have no symptoms whatsoever.  Here are a few of the changes that have occured in my life thanks to a daily practice…

Before Yoga:  I was very stressed.  I couldn't organize my thoughts.  I had no physical ailments, so I really didn't do any physical activities.  I have a full time job and go to college.  I really have no complaints about my life before yoga except something was missing.  My life felt like a dumped out puzzle... all of the pieces were out there and none of them connected.

Before yoga, I was an engineer for forty years. I recently went into retirement. I became sedentary and was beginning to develop both depression and anxiety. I had high blood pressure and had to start taking medication. Even after leaving my job, I still suffered from chronic tension, sciatica and joint pain. I had no direction for anything. My time was spent on my computer or with friends at a beer joint.

I have been coming to yoga since July 25, 2012. December fourth [2012] marked my 103rd class. Each day I drive from Clemson to either location in Greenville. This place just seems unique so it is worth it.

I am in the health care profession and have always been a hard working perfectionist. Before yoga I was stressed out regardless of the situation. I was in fight or flight all the time- at work and at home. I started yoga for purely physical reasons to help my running and biking. A year ago I injured my back and am not sure if it was from work or my athletic endeavors. I noticed from my first class at Greenville Yoga that this was going to help.

Six months before yoga found me, my life had shifted so completely on its axis that it hurled me behind it, battered, broken, and lost. I remember so little about 6 months of my life...I know I never laughed, never smiled, got out of bed only when I had to. On the recommendation of everyone I knew, I began working out. Adrenaline was a great thing, I could move and do what I had to do to get through the day, but by dinnertime, I was done, and snapping at the kids (who I had ignored most of the day) and my husband, and anyone else I could think of, for what ever I could come up with to snap at them for, which was usually no more than being in the same room.  Then I decided to try yoga.

Before yoga, there was no choice but to be hectic.  My self-worth came from being busy and working at a hectic pace.  My mantra was ‘stay busy’ and I always felt stressed, tensed and uncomfortable.  I felt like I had no other choice.  After practicing yoga for five years, I see that I have options and I realize when I am getting overwhelmed.

I came to Greenville Yoga because I took yoga at the gym and knew there had to be something more. I wanted to know what that other piece was. Before I came to yoga I was a bit reactive. I would lay in bed at night and have trouble falling asleep. I just couldn’t settle my mind down.

I am probably one of your older students being 59. I have always been pretty fit and enjoy most forms of exercise except running. I am flat footed. This condition and 30 years of serious hiking had taken its toll on my feet so in my late forties I had surgery to repair the joint between the big toe and foot. This surgery was performed on both feet. So how did yoga help out?