"Anxiety & panic attacks are disorders I’ve lived with for as long as I can remember. I had panic attacks as a child that started when my parents divorced. I lived a lot of my childhood feeling like the foundations were built on sand & coupled with asthma attacks it was a nightmare
Everyone in my family deals with anxiety. Most days now I have a handle on it. I can breathe, I can meditate I can sit with it.
That has taken years & years of dedication to get to & I got years and years to go!
It also took therapy & lots of self-reflection to realize & anxiety was the root of my eating disorder
.
I craved control in my life & when I couldn’t control anything-I could control what went into my mouth.
I could control the feelings by running myself to exhaustion
.
But I could never run far enough from the root of it & the ironic thing was I was actually OUT of control.
I wish I could tell you it’s gone forever in the past & now I feel “Zenned” out all the time, but that would be a disservice to myself & the many people living with it.
It’s ever present. It’s kind of always with me
.
I almost lost my dad last September and every week brings a new challenge. A friend asked me recently “how are you functioning so well through all of this?”
.
And I simply said “yoga.” Yoga & meditation have carried me through this. Restoring my faith, my hope & helping me process a lot of emotions, anger & fears
.
I have experienced times where I have felt worthless. I have felt like I was a mistake and unworthy of love. At the beginning of my eating disorder as a young teen: I wanted to just give up
.
We have this power this light that we can tap into inside ourselves at any moment.
So I’m working everyday to just take deep breaths, see the light and the beauty in every moment
.
My life changed when I began practicing yoga. I'm not going to tell you it's easy. I’m not pure & perfect and anyone who acts like they are is selling you something. I’m here to share this powerful practice that saved & continues to save my life everyday
.
Whitney 💚🙏"
