Future Me?
A few weeks ago, I was talking with my aunt—mi madrina—who several years ago made a massive transformation.
After a couple of decades overseeing laboratory operations and prior to that running an asbestos removal company, she hung up her hard hat and left the site safety field.
She then took up anatomy and physiology textbooks, Reiki manuals, and crystals to prepare for a new chapter as a massage therapist.
“I knew I was going to change careers years before I actually did,” she said. “It was a long process and an awakening to get to where I am now.”
I shared with her that after almost twenty years in my current field of pharmaceuticals, I am considering a massive shift to something different myself.
Just how and when I do it is up for debate.
“The only place I feel like a whole person,” I told her, “is on the yoga mat.”
For the better part of 2021 I’ve gone deeper into my yoga practice, waking early in the morning to find that quiet space I so desperately need. Even a fifteen minute session changes my whole outlook for the day. Yoga practice has minimized some of my ongoing health challenges, hacked away at the mental health obstacles, and I’ve even lost a good bit of weight in the process.
“You need to pay attention to that,” my aunt said. “Focusing on what makes you feel strong and healthy will help everyone around you.”
“But how might I make a career out of it?” I asked.
“It’s like starting out with anything new,” she said. “You build as you go.”
Right now it’s early days in my practice, and though the idea of one day being a yoga trainer is blurry, it’s there, and it’s inspiring me to look beyond the tough moments of today.
This is the beauty of thinking of the future: it’s both liberating and tangible. Even the imagined reality of something has the ability to transport us to that moment we desire.
In breath and movement, yoga transports me to a more open space in both my body and mind. The deeper I go, the closer to get to something more like what I am supposed to be. That future me that maintains the practice off the mat.
◊♦◊
Photo by Indian Yogi (Yogi Madhav) on Unsplash