"One evening in November 2007, I found myself lying on the floor of my apartment sobbing. I wasn’t sure how I’d gotten there" . . "I was having what I labelled, “a nervous breakdown.” What I know now is that I was experiencing acute post-traumatic stress disorder & immense grief . From an early age, I was a quiet, sensitive, & intuitive child. In middle school, I developed both scoliosis & clinical depression . By college, I couldn’t ignore the pain & intensity anymore. I began meditating & practicing yoga at my university’s gym. I hated every moment of my first class. But I began a practice nonetheless . I also discovered activism, which gave my heartbreak an outlet. After I graduated college, I put all of my belongings into a storage unit & headed to the logging blockade at Grassy Narrows First Nation in Ontario . A group of us spent the summer supporting the blockade & getting to know the community as we witnessed their frontline fight for environmental justice & Indigenous sovereignty . After getting arrested for blocking a logging road, I was devastated to leave . Over the next year, things began to unravel, physically & emotionally, while my activism only escalated. Weeks after another intense arrest, I found myself on the floor weeping, convinced that I was going crazy . Shortly after, I started doing yoga regularly. I began taking diligent care of myself, diving deep into meditation & spiritual practice. I met my teachers & began navigating my grief . Yoga taught me that there is no destination to healing. It is forever a practice and a process. But in the midst of struggle & suffering, we can develop compassion & wisdom and a felt sense of well-being . Ultimately, I began mentoring healers & activists in self-care, knitting together the spiritual and political realms of my life that had felt estranged for so long . For me, the poses are a bonus. What yoga gives me is the perspective & framework to be in the world with compassionate presence . It’s obvious that yoga saved my life, & I’m proud that I’m able to share what it’s taught me so that it can change others’ lives too
