International Yoga Day has come and gone–a wonderful time to reflect on the contributions yoga has made in our lives.

Even though International Yoga Day is a worldwide event, in all my decades of teaching, I seemed not to have gotten around to celebrating it. As I am semi-retired now, it occurred to me that this year I would put on an event at the Yoga Shed to draw our community together and to remind ourselves of the gift of yoga.

When I planned my event, I saw that this year’s theme was “Yoga for Healthy Ageing.” That’s certainly a worthy and timely theme. We all want to stay healthy as we age, and I think, for the most part, yogis do that.

I decided to skew that theme a little and make my celebratory gathering about gratitude for yoga, because that’s where I come from, enormous appreciation for yoga, and I know many others have that, too.

This is where my life-changing yoga journey began.

I was a new mother with one child, and I was probably suffering from postnatal depression. It wasn’t diagnosed, but I was really struggling.

A friend of mine at the time, Mary Lou, invited me to attend a ten-week yoga course at the YMCA with her.

Now picture this: it was 1971. Yoga was a very unknown quantity back then. Nevertheless, I thought, “What the heck?” So we went along one evening a week for ten weeks.

On the first night, we walked into what was basically a gymnasium. The yoga mats were those old plastic-covered gym mats—slightly grimy and a little bit pong-y.

We sat down in the of the instructor at the front of the room.

To me, she seemed ancient. She was about 60 years old.

I remember thinking, “Well, we’ll see how this goes.”

She introduced herself as Dorothy. You probably never forget the name of your first yoga teacher. 

She told us why she was there teaching yoga. Her story was that she had become a widow and had fallen into a deep depression while grieving. Her doctor was worried about her and suggested she try yoga.

Remember, this was the early 70’s, and, yet, there was a doctor recommending yoga.

It changed her life.

She benefited so much from the practice of yoga that she decided to dedicate herself to teaching, even at what I then considered the advanced age of 60.

Something happened in me when I heard her story. I don’t know whether you’ve ever had those experiences where a person touches you deeply and then something inside shifts forever.

I saw a glimmer of hope in Dorothy’s story—the faint possibility that happiness, health, and maybe even longevity could be mine.

My father had died in his forties, and my mother in her fifties. At the time, I couldn’t have articulated it, but somewhere inside me I felt that this yoga thing might somehow redeem the illnesses and early deaths of my parents.

I hadn’t expected that first class to be so much fun!

Part of it was because Dorothy did something I would never ask beginners to do today. She asked us to stand on our heads.

I did. And stayed there with perfect balance.

The teenage gymnast and acrobat in me came alive.

And, if the truth be told, the show-off, too. It took years to tame that one. I’m not even sure I’ve completely succeeded.

Even though I didn’t really know what yoga was, I intuitively sensed that it was something I might shine at.

What I never imagined was that, over the years, it might help make me whole.

That first class became my first lifeline. It sent me on a quest to keep seeking teachers and opportunities to practice and learn more about yoga.

It was likely that my friend Mary Lou would never attend another yoga class. I’ve lost track of whether she did or not.

But I never stopped.

I’ve always searched for ways to connect with teachers and continue learning. In those early years, though, I was mostly at home caring for a baby, so I bought a yoga book by Richard Hittleman.

On the cover is a woman with a very glamorous hairstyle in a lycra leotard. This is what the book blurb promised: “The short time of eight days is all it takes to master 38 simple poses.”

Well, we know that’s not true!

As a little sidebar about Dorothy. Daniel and I were camping somewhere in Australia’s central desert about six years ago. We happened to have good reception, and I received an email from a woman I’d never heard of.

She wrote: My grandmother is Dorothy. I know you’ve written about her online.

And I had—I had shared my origin story on the internet.

She went on to say: I just wanted you to know that I’m her granddaughter, and I’ve decided that I want to become a yoga teacher.

We didn’t keep in touch, but I’ve often wondered how that journey unfolded for her.

For our International Yoga Day celebration at the Yoga Shed, we spent a few minutes meditating/reflecting on the influence yoga has had in our lives, and considering some of the benefits received from practice.

Perhaps you could think about the benefits yoga has brought into your life. People you have befriended and vice versa. Sometimes these become lifelong friends. Consider your teachers, like Dorothy for me, that have inspired change in your life. And the many health benefits across all the levels that yoga works on: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.

I’d love to hear from you about any of the ways that yoga makes you feel grateful.

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