Yoga in All the Right Places

Recently, my friend and mala bead maven Diana Charabin of Tiny Devotions joined me at the gym for one of my yoga classes. Afterward she blogged about it and Diana was right, the environment was noisy... at first.  As she also mentioned, the noise eventually faded away and all that was left was us practicing our asanas together.

I'm not going to lie –a fitness gym is not the "ideal" environment to be practicing yoga in. Personally, I prefer to practice in one of the beautiful studios at the Downtown Holistic Yoga Centre with my favourite teacher, Ajith –whenever I get the chance, that is.

So why do I teach yoga at the gym? Well, as Diana wrote, the gym is where my love of yoga began. Ten years ago, I happened to watch Late Show with David Letterman and Madonna was being interviewed. I listened to her talk about her new passion for yoga and then watched as she twisted herself into scorpion pose. That was enough for me to walk into my first yoga class at the gym I belonged to at the time. I was far from a believer. I just wanted to be ripped like Madonna, not sitting in lotus pose chanting "OM". But my beautiful teacher, Kiran, introduced me to the artful practice of yoga and it changed my life in more ways than I could ever anticipate. What made it even more a of a pleasant surprise was I didn't see it coming. I just thought I was attending another group exercise class. After all, yoga was just stretching, right?

My yoga practice has been such a gift in my life that I vowed I would share it with others who would be as least suspecting as I was, which is why I teach yoga at the gym. As far as I can tell, people who take their practice seriously enough to go to a studio are already familiar with the depths of what yoga can offer. I find no joy in preaching to the choir; I'd rather open the door that leads to a studio experience. Teaching at the gym gives me a front row seat where I can have the pleasure of watching men and women transform into yogis. It also allows me the privilege of putting my practice to the test as I apply this pearl of wisdom: find inner peace amidst chaos and you'll be able to find peace anywhere.

Namaste.