I
did 7 months of deep soul searching to find out who I was, and what I was both
good at and bad at; what I liked and disliked, and what my strengths and
weaknesses were. In learning about myself I can honestly say, I did not really
have too many spiritual experiences as a child; in fact I cannot think of any.
I grew up in what you could consider a traditionally European household thrown
in the middle of lower middle class America. I did my best to fit in with other
children, but never really could. I had a taste for trying new things and being
different and reckless. I started down a dark path that began with drinking and
many arrests and complete destruction of my life and all those that I came into
contact with. I was sent out to Arizona to finish high school in a reform
school where I discovered a few things. First I discovered that drinking wasn't
really my thing. Second I discovered that meditating was something I enjoyed,
and could change my life. The last thing I discovered was unfortunately the
thing that did change my life; which was heroin. I came back at least with this
newfound love that was destroying me, and spiraled downward into an inescapable
horror of addiction. I met a guy who I thought was going to save me, but little did I know that I was the only one who could really save me. I leaned on him as a savior, and although it was a deeply destructive, and abusive relationship, I still clung to him, for I was now only 18 and pregnant. He was 27 and in my mind meant he must have had things under control but he did not. He was as lost as I was in his addiction and in no position to help me out. I finally got a hold of myself when my daughter was about 7 months old, and got away from the situation, but I was just as lost and afraid as I had been before, and now I had a child to raise on my own. I took a job bar tending and slowly began to try to get my life together financially. After two years of isolation and hard work, I finally took the last step, and went to rehab.
As
I started with the fellowship and with my meditations, I slowly began to change
for the better. My roommates were the first to see the change. They used to say
I wasn’t being myself. My instinct to fight first and put up defenses were
slowly breaking down. I was no longer jumping the gun, or picking a fight
for no reason. I was calm and reserved and more of a thinker. As they pointed
these things out I started looking for these flaws in my personality and realized
that they had really become obsolete in my life. This realization that not only
was I becoming the real me, but that this person was a kind, loving, and
genuine person felt great. My yoga practice increased to being done everyday
for multiple hours a day, watching YouTube tutorials and DVD’s I had borrowed
from friends. I started a daily practice in July when I started doing some
social media “challenges” which allowed me to learn new poses and forced me to
practice everyday to get the pose of the day. I started working for a Crossfit gym in January of 2014 and learned about how both Crossfit and yoga can and should coincide as an excellent way to stay healthy and in shape. I worked here learning the ins and outs of the business world, and how to run a gym. In August I went through a way
over due keen surgery to fix my acl and meniscus, and I was no longer able to do Crossfit to the same extent I had before. Not only was my Crossfit routines altered, but I had to revert to lots
of simplistic poses and flows. I used yoga to coax my leg back into finding its
stability and ability to bend again.
Up
until last month I having been keeping up with at least an hour of yoga a day
and one hour of meditations, but I started realizing that my practice could use
some tweaking and additional coaching. So I started searching for yoga studios
that I enjoyed going to. I started working at a new studio and was able to take
classes everyday. As I continued my search I also began to realize, through my
meditations, that I really wanted to give the amazing experience I had gotten
through yoga to others. I want so desperately to be able to reach out to young
girls who have gone through some of the same experiences that I had and help
them find the beauty in life. I thought though that I could not do this since I
had a 12 step fellowships guidelines, and meditations, and decided that this
would not work for everyone. Some people never had a drug or alcohol problem,
and some may just be turned away as soon as they heard that I was using a 12-step
process. The solution I decided upon was to get my yoga teacher certification
and teach others how to meditate and do yoga in order to find the peace and
happiness I know is in all of us.
The
company I have started is called BeYou-T-Fit, and its purpose is to teach
people how to find the value in themselves. I am so grateful to those who helped me find myself and learn to love that person that I want to pay it back. It is not enough though for me to just help them though there are people everywhere who suffer from thoughts of inability and low self worth. I want to help show everyone that they are truly unique and special, and that these qualities are not only awesome and beautiful, but are highly valued by many. I am just starting with personal
training since that is the only certification that I have, however the entire
company is based on feeling good through mind, body, and spirit. For many
people it is easier to understand the physical; what they can see. So I try to
get people being active and exercising, as everyone starts feeling better about
how they look and their self esteem raises then I start getting them involved
in meditations and group discussions. At this point in the process I encourage
many people to seek outside help, since I do not have a degree in psychology. I
would like to help people tap into some deep rooted emotions and feelings, and
help them get through difficult times, and start to see themselves with all of
their worth, however I can only help to a certain degree. After I get the mind
and body right then we focus on the fact that your spirit has changed and that
individuals have more self worth and a higher self-esteem. I will be offering
personal training, yoga, yogance, group discussions, guided meditations, and
self esteem workshops. I also plan on doing some motivational speaking at local
high schools to help promote both good vibes and my company.
So this here is my back ground story, and I know I will probably get a lot of hate or judgements for this, but it is important to me that this story gets heard.
So this here is my back ground story, and I know I will probably get a lot of hate or judgements for this, but it is important to me that this story gets heard.
"Rock bottom became the solid foundation upon which I rebuilt my life." J. K. Rowling
ReplyDeleteCongrats on everything, good stuff