The memory of receiving the call will forever be with me. I remember feeling oddly calm, I hung up the phone and said to my co-workers, “ my mom passed out at work, they think she had a stroke”.
The next days, weeks and months were a blur of packing all of her belongings culminating in the conversation regarding her prognosis.
When I would visit her, I remember my thoughts racing as I approached the hospital, and the closer I got to her room, the more anxious I got. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. One day my sister advised me to go downstairs to the ER. After I described to the doctor what was going on in my life, he told me I was experiencing panic attacks and promptly prescribed an inhaler and anxiety meds.
The anxiety symptoms became a regular, daily occurrence. If you have ever experienced shortness of breath, you know how alarming it can be.. I kept my inhaler with me at all times. Taking the medicine was not something I wanted to do, so I looked into alternatives.
Through my research I read about the benefits of yoga and fell in love with the principles of yoga and the beautiful practice. I read that it helps with breathing, my main anxiety symptom and would most likely help my breathing return to a more normal state.
My First Yoga Class
My Bestie and I found a class on Craigslist and made our way to a trendy loft space in downtown Columbus.
The space was cool, the teacher was this groovy white man and we flowed to the sounds of Keith Sweat. In that session, there was a focus on the breath, and connecting breath with each movement. It was in this class I realized that I was breathing backwards. A source of my anxiety. More about that in another post.
3 or 4 years later I started going to a studio to practice about once a month. I found that the breath practice and movement helped with my shortness of breath, and doing yoga for me is kinda like prayer in motion.
Little did I know, this was just the beginning of my yoga journey.
