Photos in the grass done by @jjtomter
My Yoga story, how I got my Yogapowers!
My yoga story started in Tempe, Arizona, USA in the Fall of 2006. I was in the last year of my Bachlor degree in Psychology and Sociology, and I had a lot of heavy subjects, and needed something lighter with all that theory. I had never tried yoga before, but i had always been very active. Sports like gymnastics, aikido, fotball, badminton, basketball, verndari( self defense) softball, baseball, running, dancing and cheerleading. I was always active and loved using my body. So when the yogateacher who showed us different kinds of yogastyles, gave us an assigment to go to a "real" yogaclass, to a studio. I had now clue of to which kind of yoga. Luckily my friend Caroline, told me to try Bikram yoga. I do not remember so much from my first class, except that it was hot, sweaty and I loved it and wanted more!!! The last year at the University I was a karma at my local Bikram studio and did as much yoga as I could before I moved back to Oslo, Norway. There was no Bikram yoga studio in Oslo at that time, so I heated up a room as much as I could and did yoga at home. It was not the same, but it was better then nothing. At this point the yoga for me was mostly physical.
When my husband cheated on me and had an affair for a month before I was told after 9 years together, my world fell apart! I felt like the groundfoundation literally opened up and I fell right into it. It was the beginning of yoga becoming synonymous with therapy for me. I remember so well sitting at the kitchen table with my mom in the house I grew up in and was completely broken. We sat and talked about what I could do. I knew I had to do something, something drastic had to happen, but what? I was thinking about studying abroad again, or maybe just go on a vacation, but mom felt it would not help me in the long run. Then I rememberd seeing that Bikram had a yoga teacher training coming up, but right away I dissmissed it, because it was too expensive and I could not afford it. My mom said that this was exactly what I needed and that she would help me.
She sent me to Acapulco, Mexico on Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in spring 2008. And after 9 intense weeks, with Bikram Yoga 2 times a day, Monday to Friday, 1 on Saturdays, with Sunday off and long lectures day in and day out. I returned both physically and mentally so much stronger. My mom said it was like medicine for me and I was so grateful to her and said I would not have done it without her. Thank you, thank you, thank you Mamma <3 She and the yoga literally saved my life. I felt strong, like I had gotten my life back! Yoga had become my therapy, the place I went to, to just be and feel and strengthen myself inside and out. I continued to do Bikram yoga at home and in a small studio before the official Bikram studio opened, Bikram Yoga Oslo where I would later on become a teacher.
Then suddenly out of the blue one day my mom dies. My amazing Mamma., The one who showered me with unconditional love, who was always there. She was my rock, my stability, my life. It was a Wednesday, early afternoon 5th of January 2011 and my world fell apart once again. Only this time I was so far down that I didnt know how I would ever get back up. Everything was just dark for hours, days, months, years. The only thing I was able to do or wanted to do, was to get onto that yogamat and just do yoga. Even though it meant crying the whole class. I met myself on that mat, because it was the only thing that I could manage to do. The yoga continued to be therapy for me, but this time I needed it more than ever. All of me, my body, my mind, and my soul were very weak, but I continued, knowing that this was the only thing that somehow would save me.
Why do I tell you all of this, well this is my story, my yogastory. This is how I got my Yogapowers.
To me, yoga has always been synonymous with raw sadness, emptiness and pain, but it has also been the place where I eventually have found hope, happiness and love. I do love to push my body physically, especially when it hurts inside. Thats what works for me. Thats when i feel alive. Because I need to feel and feel it in all my joints and muscles that I am alive, since the grief literally was eating me up inside, and making me sick.
It will soon be 9 years ago since my mom died, and I'm still on the quest,in search for answers. The raw feeling of missing her is always presence, but I have over the years, somehow manged to breathe more lighter as a mechanisme to survive. As well as the feeling of needing to expand myself in order to find myself living in this life without her.
So my yoga story continues when Bikram yoga Oslo started offering Hot Vinyasa classes in 2013. I loved those classes too and felt that they opened my body in a different way physically, but also emotionally. I liked how Ashtanga Yoga and the Bikram Yoga complemented each other. When I discovered that Puro Yoga has a teacher training in Ashtanga yoga with Alexander Medin. I felt right away that this was something I had to do for me. The yoga means so much to me and has a huge connection with my mom. She saved me when I was down and I have been trying to save myself the same way she did, with a new teacher training. With more yoga, with more going in depth in myself. Yoga has been synonumos with my mom, and I feel her presence, especially in the Bikram Yoga room at byo.
So the reason why I practice yoga is because thats when I feel most alive. Period.
My Yoga story has been a story of pain, heartache and sorrow, but it has trancendent to also become joyful, fun and creative, because I know that life can change with the blink of an eye. So right after Bikram yoga teacher training i started to use the word yogapowers, because thats what i felt i was creating. The yoga gave me powers to survive, to live and to thrive. Also through the years after my mom, I created my own new motto, which is Live Love Laugh Now! Dont wait, dont hesitate, just do.
This is how you will gain your own YogaPowers!
Thank you for listening. Namaste <3
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