Early lessons that keep lingering.

lIt’s only been a couple weeks since I started my YTT, and honestly, the transformation in my knowledge and practice is insane. My practice was never as intense as it is now, and I can finally understand when people say yoga changed their life. Not only have I been learning about anatomy, philosophy, and teaching practices, but I’ve also learned so much about myself. Being able to immerse myself in this experience fills me with so much gratitude.

I still have months until this program is over, and I’m giddy just thinking about what’s to come. I constantly crave being in the studio and feeding my brain.

In this journey, I want to share with you the seeds that have been planted in me, in hopes that they will plant in you too.

Here are the first few things that have really stuck with me and continue to linger in my mind:

Where emotion and trauma are stored in the body. I knew before going into this program that emotion and trauma were often stored in the hips and shoulders, but I was never able to explain why or what happens when it’s released.

In the yogic mindset, we understand that the body holds more than just muscles and bones. It also stores memory, emotion, and energy. The shoulders and hips are two of the body’s most emotionally charged areas, where the things we bury tend to accumulate.

The hips are considered a major emotional storage center, especially for deep (often unconscious) emotions like fear, grief, and sadness. These emotions affect our sense of safety, security, and survival. When we experience trauma or instability in life, that tension can physically manifest as tightness or pain in the hips.

Shoulders are often where we carry "the weight of the world." They are tied to responsibilities, burdens, and the suppression of self-expression. Tension here often signals withheld emotions, unspoken truths, or the stress of constantly holding it all together.

When we begin to move, breathe, and create space to understand these pains, we don’t just release physical tension. We release emotional residue too.

In class, we’ve been doing a lot of hip openers and shoulder work. I wasn’t expecting some dramatic emotional release, but I was wrong. It felt like a rush of adrenaline. I felt anxious, old feelings surfaced that once made me feel hollow, and outdated mindsets came back to the surface. I was extremely uncomfortable, but instead of suppressing what was trying to escape, I sat with it. Eventually, it began to fade.

The truth is, we constantly suppress emotions, whether we realize it or not. So this feeling will likely rise again. But what’s different now is that I know I’m stronger and more prepared to meet it.

The importance of your breath. Think of your breath as the quiet teacher. It’s our guide through everything, and it’s often the first thing we lose touch with when we’re stressed, afraid, or distracted.

On the mat, breath helps us move with intention. It steadies us in challenging poses, helps moments of stillness feel approachable, and continually brings us back to the present. When our breath is steady, yoga shifts from just a physical practice to a meditative and transformational one.

The beauty of breathwork is that it doesn’t end when we leave the mat. It’s an accessible tool we can use to regulate our nervous system. It reminds us we are safe, we are here, and we are enough. Once we learn to trust the breath and its power, it becomes a pathway to clarity, balance, and presence.

For me, I know I’m distracted in my practice when I forget to breathe. On the third day of YTT, I was overcome with emotion and thoughts. I remember flowing through sun salutations and realizing I had forgotten to breathe for half the sequence. I had to pause and remind myself I am okay. I restarted, re-centered, and guided myself out of that mental hole. Since then, I breathe with intention. Sometimes it helps, and sometimes it doesn’t. But that’s the beauty of this practice. It gives us continuous chances to get it right and come back to center.

If it wasn’t already clear, discomfort is where real healing begins. Yogis often say the pose truly begins when it becomes uncomfortable, not painful. As I mentioned with trauma and breathwork, the body reveals old tension. When we meet that discomfort with awareness, it sends a signal to the nervous system that it’s safe to let go. It gives the body permission to soften instead of brace.

It’s common to feel resistance in those moments, but that resistance is the body’s way of asking to be witnessed and freed. So don’t avoid discomfort. Meet it where it lives.

Move with intention and mindfulness. Every yoga asana, or pose, holds more than just a physical shape. Each one carries layers of benefits. Externally, it strengthens and opens the body. Internally, it supports the organs, breath, and circulation. Mentally, it helps quiet the mind. Spiritually, it invites us to reconnect.

That’s why we take these poses slowly, to experience them fully.

And this practice goes far beyond the mat. In your day-to-day life, notice how you move. Are you rushing through your routine? Are your actions guided by anxiety? Just like in yoga, the way we move reflects the state of our inner world.

We often rush through our days just to feel accomplished, but in doing so, we create energetic blockages that show up as physical tension, emotional buildup, or mental fog.

It takes time to unlearn the habit of rushing. But with patience, you can begin to move with the rhythm your body created, not the pace that society pushes. Let each movement be intentional. Let each breath be conscious.

Personally, this is something I’m still learning. I’ve lived most of my life in fight-or-flight mode, constantly feeling like what I was doing wasn’t enough. I needed to accomplish 62,537 things a day to feel worthy. I’m only now learning that this may be the very reason I’ve felt the way I do. It’s a constant battle, but an intentional one.

The yoga community is beyond what you may think. This experience has opened my eyes to how welcoming the yoga community really is. Everyone cheers each other on. People are in awe when you push yourself. We all want the same thing for each other: total bliss and well-being.

Not everyone is experiencing the same practice, but there is never space for judgment or competition.

I’m endlessly grateful for this path, for my peers, my teachers, and myself. These past few weeks have already shifted so much within me, and I can only imagine what the rest of this journey will bring.

Thank you for being here and holding space for my reflections. It means more than you know.

I’m so excited to continue learning, growing, and sharing what unfolds along the way. Every lesson, every breath, every posture plants a new seed, and my hope is that something I share might take root in you too.