The journey of life has been an interesting one over my lifetime of 50+ years. It has taken many unexpected twists and turns that I could have never anticipated. The best and the most fulfilling part has been since I have been awake and on a conscious path. My life has had waves of ups and downs ( as we all do) with some being really big and forceful and some more gentle. The biggest and most difficult ones were certainly the most challenging to navigate but provided me with the greatest lessons and led me to the greatest realizations. Those that have been my greatest teachers and led me to learn and to utilize the skills I rely on a daily basis.
Being a survivor (not a victim) has taught me to take the lemons that life has handed me to make the sweetest lemonade I could imagine. For it is only when I struggle that I can really appreciate the beauty and the joy that life has to offer. In this blog, I will be focusing on sharing the wisdom and the gifts of the difficulties I have survived in 2 near death experiences along with the other gifts of blessings I have received in life. I have learned how to live happily and joyfully while sharing the gifts I have been blessed with and use the techniques I have learned on a daily basis to overcome the challenges from the traumas that I experienced that still reside in my body and mind.
For the past 37 years I have used a variety of tools to heal all the aspects of my being: physical, emotional, spiritual and mental. Working with and healing these parts of myself, came gradually and at different times along the journey, through the help and teachings of many along the way.
Physical Self:
When I was a younger person, I felt that “perfecting” the physical body, through exercise classes ( participating and then teaching), weightlifting & competing in bodybuilding, training for and competing a triathalon, was very important. Along the way, I received a degree in Kinesiology from the University of Maryland College Park, which gave me useful information about how the body works. For about 5 years, I worked with others to become more fit and healthy as I worked in many fitness centers in Washington DC and Maryland, teaching exercise classes and doing Personal Fitness Training. During that time, I realized I needed to have a better working understanding of the body and decided to pursue the path of getting an education in Physical Therapy.
Little did I know that would take longer than anticipated due to an unknown obstacle that would prevent me from starting school right away but would make me a much better and more empathetic therapist and human being ( more on this later). I became involved with Yoga while I was the director of an exercise program at a fitness center on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, around 1987. I studied Iyengar Yoga at Unity Woods Yoga Studio (one of the top studios in MD ) and learned the physical form of the practice of Yoga for a decade. In the early 2000’s while I was teaching other type of exercise classes, I took a short Yoga Teacher Training, so that I could also teach Yoga. I was mostly interested in the physical side of life and taught Yoga classes for many years in a variety of settings: mostly fitness centers and community centers. Yoga had not yet become the IT thing yet that it is today, but was starting to become more mainstream than it had been since the 1960’s! It was not the business enterprise it is today where there is a class or studio around every corner!
Spiritual Self
Fast forward to 2003 and I started to become curious about my spiritual nature and delved deeply into “finding out about who I am” and what that actually means! The first time I remember doing this as an adult is when my father had a serious illness and a very close brush with death. At that time, I had a conversation ( or prayer) with God or someone I didn’t really know much about. I grew up as a Jewish child, and I had interest in my religion, but young adulthood and a broken family diverted my attention from all things spiritual and religious. I had dabbled in reading about religion over the years after my Hebrew school training as a child, but had no formal experience with going to Synagogue, Church or belief in one method of accessing God or divinity after about the age of 15. I decided to have this conversation with the unknown ( as many people do when they feel unable to handle things on their own), and make a deal that if my father survives his emergency surgery that I will accept him as he is and try to be the best daughter that I can. Now at that time remember I don’t even know what I am asking or who I am asking this to, I just know I should pray or ask. That is a long story, but will come back to this too eventually, I just realize I am starting to get beyond the Physical self and start to recognize myself as a Spiritual being. At the time when we are trying to get my dad situated in his life and establish a new normal, I realized I want to study Yoga in a more thorough way so I found out about Yogi Amrit Desai and inquired into the teacher training program at Amrit Yoga Institute. I knew nothing about him or his teachings but for some reason, I felt compelled to look into the training with him. I spoke to a few people on the phone and after going with my gut reaction I realized that I should study with him. This was my first time really connecting with my intuition in a positive way after many years of shutting this down. So I signed up for what would be a life changing experience with Yogi Amrit Desai, founder of the Amrit Yoga Institute in 2003. I went through the 500 hours of training to become a Yoga teacher and eventually studied Yoga Nidra with him and his daughter Kamini Desai. This began a lifelong connection with them and my sangha ( spiritual family) which helped me to deepen my connection to my own spirituality. This is a process that continues today and each and every day as I understand that I am a spirit having a human experience, rather than a human having a spiritual experience
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