so this is what alignment feels like
answering the call to become a yoga teacher
#WednesdayWisdom
“The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I create it.” ~ James Baldwin
Morning Musings
On Saturday, while guiding Black women from savasana into the fetal position, everything clicked. This is why I pursued my yoga teaching certification—to create a soft, sacred space for us to rest. To just be. To close our eyes and exhale. To be held by the earth. To feel loved.
It’s a feeling I’ve had the pleasure of experience at the direction of Octavia Raheem, Chelsea Jackson Roberts, Lauren Ash and Tracee Stanley. The gifted Black women yoga instructors who came before me and poured into me.
While I was beyond nervous for my first in-person class on Thursday for the yoga for fertility series I’m leading, Saturday felt different. With those first-class jitters out of the way (and a chill playlist to boot), I felt more confident. And, more than that, I felt alignment.
For so long (too long), I’ve been operating out of alignment. I’ve tried time and time again to force myself where I don’t belong—quintessential square peg, round hole. I felt it when I did nonprofit PR. I felt it in my staff role at a legacy newsroom last year. Perhaps you’re feeling it now?
Stifling yourself and your talent to make other people feel comfortable. Afraid to pivot and take a risk because this (whatever this is) is all you’ve ever known and all you ever thought you could be. There’s a reason the subtitle to my book is Step Out of Your Comfort Zone and Into Your Power.
I won’t say nothing good comes from staying in your comfort zone. They’re comfortable for a reason and sometimes, during certain seasons of life, comfort is what we need. But I can tell you this: there is magic waiting for you on the other side of your comfort zone. There is alignment. There is synergy. Whatever you want to call it, it’s waiting for you. Will you answer?
It took nearly four years from obtaining my first yoga teaching certification to actually teaching yoga. Why? Because I was afraid to step out of my comfort zone. All my life I’ve been a writer. Who was I to think bigger and expand my offerings, my gifts in this way?
Chelsea once said if you want to change how yoga looks, become a teacher. And that’s exactly what I intend on doing. On Saturday, there was a 51-year-old woman who’d never taken yoga before and during the workshop she said my class inspired her to take better care of her body. What a gift, an honor and a privilege.
ICYMI…Werking Mom is Live!
The first installment of my monthly column for paid subscribers went out Sunday night and it was all about what Black moms are up against as we navigate spaces for ourselves and our children. Have you read it? What did you think? What would you like to see me cover in future columns?
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I had no clue you were Chicago based! I’m…close enough to claim I am too 😂😂
Loved this post. Definitely resonated with the feeling of nothing fitting!!! Still there 🙄 but happy to hear alignment is on the other side. Happy to hear you’ve found your way☺️
I love this post and your reflections on what it takes to get to alignment. Last year there were a number of ways in which I was operating out of alignment and my word for this year is alignment because I want that to be my priority as I move through the year.