Why I started my yoga practice

This is an interesting question. Why did I start my yoga practice? Let's begin from the beginning.

My very first yoga class took place at the Racquetball Club in Mendham, NJ. It's funny that my first taste of yoga would take place in such a setting. My teacher was the (in)famous Pranati. I actually don't remember much about the class itself. All I can recall is proclaiming for a week afterwards to everyone who would listen that yoga was awesome. I can remember feeling like I was floating all week. I had no idea that my body could feel that good. For most of my young life, I remember being disatissfied with my body as a whole--the way it looked, the way it felt, the way it performed just wasn't what I felt it should be.

I have not been able to acheive that feeling since then. Pranati's class was a very intense Iyengar practice that was suitable for the members of the health club. They wanted something that would keep them in shape. I'm in no way questioning their motives, but I know that mine and theirs did not match. I remember feeling uncomfortable in the poses but struggling to maintain the perfection that Pranati required from each of us. I started to dread the physical exertion required in that class and eventually stopped going altogether. That cemented the idea in my head (at least for awhile) that yoga was just like everything else my life--unpleasant, tedious, and not something that I was capable of comfortably doing. That idea extended through college and pretty much until I moved here to Washington.

Nowadays, my views toward yoga are completely different. Of course, I am enjoying the physical progress I am making on my path; but yoga is no longer about forcing myself into uncomfortable poses to acheive some lofty end. I have realized the connection between myself and yoga: it helps to fill in those blanks that I could not previously fill with my own experiences. I am now working on amending that samskara that I have which tells me that I am not good enough because in the past I haven't been. Now I know that I am--it's just a matter of taking that first step, then the step after that, and then the following one to uncover the layers I have constructed over my true self.

I practice yoga to remind myself that I am completely full.