Spring has arrived early in Indiana, with crocuses unfolding and daffodils ready to bud. It’s a glorious season of reawakening, and we’re celebrating in the Journal Garden with our March theme of Renewal. Our daily prompts this month will explore what we want to rediscover, reinvigorate, refresh, reconsider, and release.
Where in your life are you seeking renewal and reawakening? Do you have dormant interests or ideas that you would like to revive?
One beautiful reawakening for me has been teaching yoga with the Bloomington Yoga Collective. Although I’ve been a teacher since 2002, for the past few years I haven’t been associated with a studio. Coming back to a consistent, in-person, community-based offering has been an adventure: this is the first time since my early 20s that I have been introducing myself rather than enjoying an established reputation.
Pictured: Young Elisabeth in 2005 repping for Indiana University’s Mind Body programming.
At my first yoga debut, I was a 22-year-old personal trainer. Now I’m a 43-year-old mother who spends most days at a computer. I’ve been consistent in my practice, and I’m strong, but I’m creaky. My knees make noise. With age I’m more attuned to the risk of injury, and likewise more aware of my body’s limitations, than when I first bounced into The Club of Mountain View with my sticky mat and yoga ball.
In other words, I was feeling a bit self-conscious.
But from my first class at the collective, I knew it would be my community of practice. The space and people are so welcoming. The teachers are terrific.
And I love teaching yoga. I continued even with a full-time academic administrative job and a small child — until I collapsed in a heap of burnout. Now self-employed, with an increasingly independent middle-schooler and the pandemic endemic, I reasoned that if I had the time to come to class, I had the time to teach it.
So, after my first visit to the studio in December 2022, I enrolled in Jason Crandell’s Mastering the Art of Yoga Sequencing course, inquired with the studio ownership, and started planning classes. On January 10, I taught my first class on the schedule.
And you know what? It’s more fun than it used to be! Not only am I re-experiencing the joy of sharing a practice I love, but I’m amazed to discover that I no longer find it draining. My lack of boundaries throughout my 30s meant I felt emotionally responsible for all my students; I now understand that holding my emotional state in a healthy resonance is the best way I can show up for them.
With the help of the sequencing course, I’m bringing a new consistency and intentionality to my teaching. I’m also having a blast making playlists and choreographing vinyasa flows to the likes of Jai Paul and Kidkanevil. As to my comfort in my aging body, it actually feels wonderful to show up as I am and own it.
So that’s my renewal story this spring. I brought back something I had dearly missed, and despite my anxieties it’s been even better than I remembered.
What’s yours? What are you bringing back into your life and what’s it like this time around?