A friend recently got into yoga. She has started going to The Yoga Lab, my old yoga studio. I can see her excitement at starting yoga. I remember that feeling well. Today, I joined her and stepped back into a yoga studio for the first time in years.

I first started yoga in 2018 after a friend suggested trying a class. I showed up with a mat that was probably not even meant for yoga: thick, slippery, impossible to balance on. But none of that mattered. What mattered was that I unexpectedly fell in love with yoga.

I met a teacher who made yoga feel joyful, active, and alive. Somewhere along the way, I decided I really wanted to get good at it.

Then the pandemic came in 2020, and I stopped going to the studio. Ironically, that was when yoga became even more important to me. I practiced at home after work, subscribed to online classes, and built a quiet personal routine around it.

Over time, yoga stopped being a place I went to and became something I carried with me.

When I moved to Auburn, I continued practicing on my own. I tried a few studios there in 2023, but it never quite felt the same. Eventually, I decided I was happier practicing independently.

Today was the first day I stepped back into a studio class again. It was a 60-minute all-levels class taught by an energetic instructor.

It was at this studio that I touched my heels to the floor in downward dog for the very first time. It was also here that I fell against the wall trying to get upside down.

And somehow, being back reminded me how much yoga has given me over the years: flexibility and strength, peace and ease, and at times, community and conection.

But more than that, yoga has met me differently in every season of life.

At first, it humbled me.

Then it challenged me.

During the pandemic, it grounded me.

When I moved to Auburn, it stabilized me.

It was through yoga that I first noticed the joint swelling that eventually led to my rheumatoid arthritis diagnosis.

And somehow, even after that diagnosis, yoga reminded me that I was still myself.

Yoga was with me during pregnancy, and it stayed with me afterward too.

Yoga has been a quiet, faithful friend.

During practice today, the teacher said, “Yoga meets you where you are.”
It really does.