I don’t have fancy yoga pants (I lie, I have one pair that I overstretched and now look weird), my feet are always dry and cracked (and usually brown on the bottom from May-September when I am almost always barefoot or in flip-flops, even at the barn), my nail polish is usually always chipping off. Sometimes my clothes smell like horse barn and I am covered in dog hair 100% of the time along with my yoga mat (and pretty much everything else I own). I seriously stammer and second guess my pronunciation of Sanskrit names of yoga poses. Sha-vasana, SAvasana…screw it, final relaxation pose of class. FYI-saying final pose, final relaxation pose or corpse pose to describe savasana doesn’t go over real well in a chair yoga class. Jus’ sayin’.

Sometimes I am so stiff and tight my forward fold looks like a bent back half lift. My body snaps, cracks and pops moving in and out of some poses. Sometimes I say hand when I mean foot and sometimes I even make up names of body parts, “palm of the foot”. ANNNDDDD sometimes when doing a guided relaxation I have to count on my fingers the numbers of toes people have, 4th toe, 5th toe? Isn’t that the baby toe? Should I call it pinkie toe? Or is that only for fingers? Oh wait, how long have I been thinking about this. Ugh. Okay, Left big toe…

Basically what I am trying to say is that I am a million miles from perfect and I am totally fine with that. My hOMies that come to my classes know I am a little different (or maybe a lot different), that I welcome all levels of physical abilities and shapes and sizes, I don’t judge (please see first sentence of this paragraph) and that I am definitely a work in progress. I am always learning and for better or worst I am constantly sharing what I’ve learned with them.

I have been to classes (several) where I didn’t feel like I belonged, even remotely. I’ve been ignored and been given the side eye. I know I have zumba clothes on during a yoga class and sometimes I will misunderstand and rock some other random pose b/c I’m totally confused. Ha!  Anyway, I don’t want ANYONE to feel uncomfortable in my classes or any yoga class for that matter. Yoga is as amazing as you are and you definitely owe it to yourself to attend a class or follow some yoga instructor on YouTube. Caution! Heads up! Yoga is NOT all pretzel poses for the hyper-bendy. Sometimes it can be, but it is sooooo much more. So much more for another post.