Alexa's Story
No two journeys are alike, but perhaps we share more than you think.
— Story time —
Alexa
30,000 feet in the air, on a flight home, I hit my rock bottom. Ravenously hungry, I returned a 50 calorie tomato juice because it was far too “indulgent”. Retreating to my comfort zone staple, Diet Coke. The plane may as well have crashed, because the truth of my issues with food crashed into every fiber of my being. I knew it in my tissues, my muscles, my heart, my head, all the way down into the marrow of my bones.
The next day, my sister took me to a yoga class at Yoga Tree in the Castro of San Francisco. The class was packed, sweaty, vigorous, but most importantly, it was meaningful. On the mat, I discovered moments of embodiment—something I hadn’t allowed for in a long time. I was equal parts enchanted and petrified, but I knew I was onto something.
Any obsession or addiction whether to food, to the phone, or to an unhelpful thought, is an act of self-betrayal and disembodiment. A way of disconnecting from one’s self. Yoga, meditation, breath work, embodiment, presence is an act of self care and a way to embody one’s body. This is the elixir, the antidote.
While I don’t teach yoga asana anymore, in one way or another, everything I teach is yoga. It’s about getting us back into our body. Healing happens in the body. We can’t think a feeling with our mind, we can only feel a feeling, in the body. And if we want to heal we’ve got to feel. You feel me?