Guest Post: Kara Myer's Yoga Journey

Kara just joined our teaching staff when we opened the Sandusky Studio. Kara is very strong and gravitates towards challenging strength poses.  She excells at taking the challenges and breaking them down into manageable bits for students.  You will also end up laughing for sure with Kara, her irreverant humor is irrepressible!  She teaches Body Sculpt Yoga on Thrusdays from 4:30 - 5:45 PM. -Shannon

I started doing yoga after my daughter was born. At first my practice revolved around the physical aspect of yoga: the bending, the strengthening, and the bits of relaxation that came after. It didn't take long for my practice to begin shifting into something that at that time I didn't have the words for or understand. My insides were changing. I'd spent most of my life dealing with anxiety, dealing with an autoimmune disease, dealing with trauma, dealing with addiction. All I did was just "deal" with life. Yoga became my safe haven. For however long I moved on my mat, outside pressure didn't exist. I could breathe, and in those moments of breath, I was coping and accepting. I wasn't just "dealing" with my circumstances anymore. I picked challenging poses and spent time figuring out how to do them. I broke a pose down from top to bottom and figured out what I needed my body to do in order to accomplish that particular poses. Arm balances, in particular, were incredibly attractive to me. I felt so alive balancing, or attemtping ro balance, in those poses. My mind would shut off, and I would just let my body do the pose. The focus, the intensity...such a quiet peaceful place I could go to. Every step closer to my goal became a step towards healing. I can look back now and see that those poses and how much of myself I put into them really were about my challenges in life. I was conquering my past. The funny thing is I had no idea what I was doing, yogically and spiritually. Some days I'd spend my entire practice with tears just flowing. I think that after time those moments drove me to search for a much deeper understanding of what was happening inside me. In search for knowledge, I headed out into the world and started taking classes, which only fueled my desire to learn. The idea of a teacher training program with a curriculum, teachers, students, and a space to immerse myself in became more of a need. I found Open Way.

I took classes and fell in love with the community and the studio. I just knew that this is where I needed to be in my journey. I enrolled in Open Way's RYT-200 teacher training program. As a class, we delved right into all of it: pranayama, meditation, poses, styles, anatomy, chakras, concepts, sutras, history, business, and so much more. We read books, had discussions, practiced a few poses, asked questions. We spent time not only exploring our bodies through yoga, but (as cheesy as it sounds) our minds and our souls. We discussed openly and without judgement how to navigate our practice and our lives through yogic eyes. I got so much of what I wanted and needed plus so much more of what I didn't expect.

I found a safe space to learn to accept my flaws in every aspect of my life and how to use yoga to improve my overall quality of life. I found a home away from home full of love and acceptance. My teachers Brian and Shannon were open, honest, and knowledgeable. They have an amazing ability to present yoga through their own unique journies and ideas, which sometimes differ. Brian and Shannon have created a space that allows the students to explore different ideas open endedly with everyone being able to add their own dimension to the curriculum. I've met fifteen other beautiful students who provided so much support and genuine happiness for one another as we truly begin down our new paths as yogis. Open Way really proved to be a quality place to learn for all of us.

The best part: I found myself. I found out things about me, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I found my body. I found my soul. Nothing is perfect about me, yet in every way I am, and that is such a beautiful feeling.

Everyday is a new and beautiful challenge as I continue to learn more about myself through my practice: forever learning, forever exploring, forever growing as a yogi.