I recently returned to aerial yoga, and my home at my yoga studio (Om Land Yoga), after an unintended medically-induced hiatus of over a month. It was the longest break from yoga I’ve ever taken since I started practicing in January 2015. It took that forced break and then coming back to my mat for me to realize how far I’d come. If you had told me a decade ago that I’d be working towards becoming a yoga instructor, I’d tell you that you were crazy.
“Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”
– Grateful Dead, Scarlet Begonias
Finding Aerial Yoga
It was a few days after New Year’s Day 2015, about six months deep into the throes of a persistent and painful roller derby injury which had sidelined a lot of my regular hobbies that required two working ankles, when I stumbled across a Facebook post about an aerial yoga basics workshop being held a few weeks later at a local studio. I had dabbled in yoga before (I owned a mat, after all), and had some interest in learning to become a bat, so I impulsively signed up. Three weeks later, I showed up, nervous and not sure what to expect, having no real yoga experience, no studio experience, and about six months of sitting on my ass to make up for.
What I found? My home. During the two hour workshop, our instructor walked us through the basics, and mostly, the mechanics of staying safe and not falling on our heads. Having already had one injury that had crippled my daily life, I paid special attention to that part. I found out that all of my worries were unfounded – the instructor was gracious and kind, the studio was warm and welcoming, and nobody looked at me like I didn’t belong. I signed up for another class, thinking it was fun to hang upside down and would be great ankle rehab for the Great Derby Injury of 2015, not knowing that a love affair was about to be born.
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
Finding My Practice
A few weeks later, I walked into my first aerial yoga class, which was also my first yoga class. Having never done yoga at a studio before, I expected a low-spoken, bendy, new-agey dude that would make me feel like my square, broken, not-bendy body was completely out of place. What I got was John: a heavily-tattooed, Brazilian jiu-jitsu practicing, hilarious Deadhead, who found a way to weave Grateful Dead lyrics into his teachings, and had a playlist that wandered from Portishead to Stevie Nicks to remixes of The Doors to Smashing Pumpkins, and always ended savasana with a Moby track.
Over the course of the next few months, my practice turned regular, with weekly classes. I was (thankfully) in a class with people who may have had a lot more yoga experience, but were all just at the beginning of their aerial practice like I was, so I was always learning, and never felt behind or completely lost. Instead of feeling out of place, or frustrated with what my body couldn’t do (both from being a brand-new yogi and recovering from an injury), I felt strong, powerful, and confident. I learned to love what my body could do, instead of being mad about what it couldn’t do, even if what I could do was holding downward dog about half as long as everyone else. John was always challenging us with new poses, different sequences, core and power work, and different ways to explore our own strength and challenge ourselves, while still having fun.
Besides the physical benefits, I could feel the mental and emotional benefits. On the rare occasions that there was no aerial yoga, or that I had to miss for some reason, some of the closest people in my life noticed. I started to crave that hour, knowing that it would settle and strengthen me. I found my place to just breathe.
Deepening My Practice
Today, just a few months away from my 3-year anniversary, my yoga journey has changed so much from that first workshop in January 2015, and so have I. I had my own yoga hammock installed in my house to get more practice in. After hundreds of hours of at home and studio practice, I am often one of the most experienced and advanced students in an aerial class. I have a monthly membership to Om Land and go whenever I can, venturing into what whatever classes I can find time for. I own more yoga mats than one normal person probably should. I practice regularly, and recently set a short-term goal to do yoga every day (even if it’s just a few minutes of savasana). I’ve started studying yoga sequencing and anatomy, and am working towards a long-term goal of becoming a yoga instructor.
Since then, yoga has been my friend and companion through heartbreak, loss, grief, joy, love, and lots of day-to-day frustrations and wins. It’s been with me through raises, new jobs, household changes, the addition of three new furry friends to our home (and the loss of two others), vehicle swaps, and hopefully soon, finally a return to roller derby from the Great Derby Injury of 2015. It gave me a healthy outlet and a way to work through my feelings from my Dad’s medical issues, and subsequent early Alzheimer’s diagnosis. I have had doors and possibilities opened up that just weren’t there in 2015 and I’ve made lifelong friends. Who knows where I’d be if I hadn’t taken the jump to go to that very first aerial yoga workshop? I would have never thought this short, barrel-chested, non-bendy, moderately unathletic gal could find a home in yoga, but it’s been one of the most welcoming homes and greatest gifts of my adult life. As ridiculous as it sounds, I’m grateful for the ankle injury from roller derby, because it brought me here.
Namaste.