Why I Became a Yoga Teacher in My 40s
This is me, Karin Wilson Edmonds from KARIN YOGA LIFE
My mother is a two-time cancer survivor.
And I know so many people right now struggling with chronic diseases.
I wanted to share with you today why I decided to become a yoga teacher after being in the corporate world for 20 plus years.
I have three main reasons.
As I mentioned, my mom is a two-time cancer survivor and I know so many other people struggling with various types of cancers right now as well as and other chronic diseases.
We know that cancer and other chronic diseases have a lifestyle component. It could be stress, it could be obesity, it could be lack of movement or some other lifestyle issue.
All of these lifestyle issues can contribute to us getting chronic diseases.
And we know that as we get older we are more at risk for getting these illnesses.
When I was thinking about what I wanted to do with the rest of my working life, I decided I wanted to do something that would help people to live healthy, happy and pain free!
I know as a yoga teacher, that yoga definitely helps with many of these lifestyle issues.
Yoga helps with stress, weight management, sleep issues, keeps us strong and flexible and so much more! There are so many benefits of yoga.
Yoga also allows us to exercise/move our bodies in a gentle way which is really important as we get older.
The second reason was that I was a fairly serious modern dancer for about 30 years.
I did other activities that also really pounded my knees like running and wearing high heels for far too long!
In my 40s while still dancing pretty seriously my knees started to really hurt.
I think I developed some type of arthritis in my knees and perhaps in my hips too after so many years of pounding my joints.
So I started looking for a gentle form of movement that was similar to dance.
I took up yoga because I was in pain.
I studied to be a yoga teacher while living in New York City, not ever intending to teach but just wanting to learn more about yoga.
That is almost 20 years ago now.
I actually did not start teaching at all for at least 10 years after I completed my teacher training.
After studying yoga and understanding more about the depths of the practice, I decided that I wanted to teach.
My very first students were my parents who were both in their 70s and 80s at the time.
They were my yoga guinea pigs.
I started doing yoga with them as I knew how great yoga is for older people.
After seeing a picture of me teaching them on Facebook, I was offered a job by Sonita Abrahams teaching yoga at Afya yoga studio here in Kingston.
Needless to say I was really scared about teaching other people but I did it thanks to Sonita’s encouragement!
I discovered that I loved teaching yoga and that I was actually pretty good at it.
I especially enjoy teaching older people, beginners, or people who have joint pain who need to be doing a gentle style of yoga.
My style is gentle yoga as I teach a lot of older people with arthritis or some other type of joint pain.
I think I’m good at teaching this type of yoga as I’m a yoga teacher in my 50s and have joint aches and pains myself!
I also teach a chair yoga class which is great for people who are challenged to get up and down off the floor.
The third reason I am a yoga teacher is that yoga just works on so many levels.
I tell people all the time, you can get out of yoga whatever you want.
Yoga may can make you stronger, it can make you more flexible, it can make you fitter.
It is a great way to keep the body mobile and strong especially as we get older.
You can also use yoga to manage anxiety and stress.
Some people use yoga as a type of spiritual practice to help them to connect with whatever their concept of the divine is.
The physical practice of yoga which was created thousands of years ago was actually created to prepare the body for meditation, to help us to connect with whatever our perception of the divine is.
So that is why I have jumped into the world of wellness and yoga!
If you want to do yoga with me, here’s my weekly schedule of classes.
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