"I have been practicing on & off since I was 6 year old, but never really felt like I could call myself a yoga practitioner because I didn't feel like there was space for me. I didn't look like the people on the yoga DVDs and on YouTube and my body didn't look like theirs when I went into asana. I thought it meant I wasn't doing it right"
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"I'd walk into a studio in an attempt to learn the "right way" and get the look, you know, the you-don't-belong-here look, and I'd turn around and walk right back out
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Once I met a fat yoga instructor and found a community of fat practitioners it was so incredibly freeing. I learned that I had the ability to make asana fit me. I found the deep beauty of a personal practice that went beyond asana
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I wanted to help others find that, and I went to YTT so I could offer representation for my fellow fat practitioners and my fellow non-binary practitioners. Now I work to help others learn to take up space both on and off the mat
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Yoga is my safe place. A space where I can reconnect with my body after years of fighting it and being told it is wrong. A space where I can deal with trauma of being formerly unhoused
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Yoga has helped me find moments of patience and calm as I learn to parent a cancer survivor. By no means has it been a magic cure-all, but it has taught me to sit with discomfort and even find moments of peace in it 🙏 Shannon"
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(And hands up if you've had one of 'those' days in tree-pose!)