Find Your Ease

I think (I hope!) I’ve just gotten through a pretty stressful patch. It began over the summer. My husband traveled out of the country for a week and a half, then we went on vacation, then we had houseguests, then my husband traveled out of the country again for another week and a half, then we had houseguests again, then my younger son started kindergarten, then he transferred schools, then he had a fever followed by an ear infection that made him stay home from school for a week, and then he got an ear infection in the other ear. And of course at the same time I was doing all my usual mom stuff, plus family stuff, plus trying to teach yoga and run the studio at the same time.

Does this sound like your life too? Sometimes it’s so difficult being an adult.

What I learned from this prolonged ordeal is that during times of stress, we either break down or we toughen up. Toughening up is positive in the sense that it helps you get things done. But in this case I realized that toughening up over and over and over is not necessarily healthy.

If we look at it from a science perspective, during times of stress our bodies produce adrenaline. Adrenaline is the hormone that triggers the fight or flight response, which is meant to help us in a true emergency situation, not for day to day functioning.

If we look at it from a practical perspective, well, if we look at it from my own experience over the past few months, what I realized is that as I toughened up over and over, I stopped feeling my body and my feelings. Without realizing it, I became hardened.

I was overly focused and determined to get everything done, on being everything to everybody, to the point where I was not aware of my own body and my own needs. This is a pretty big deal, and actually kind of embarrassing, for a yoga teacher, who should know better, to lose sense of her own body.

I realized all of this one day in early September when I finally made time for a yoga class. At the beginning of class the teacher asked how I was feeling, and I said I was fine. I really believed I was fine.

Then the practice started and I began to breathe and move, and that’s when I realized I wasn’t fine. Every movement hurt. Every pose was difficult. At one point, in child’s pose, tears rolled down my face and onto my mat. It was just all the built up stress coming out, it was my tough self realizing I needed to soften.

It was a sign that I needed to make a change, which I’ve since been trying to do. I’m trying to figure out how to do less. I might be an expert at finding ease in my practice, but apparently I need to work on finding some ease in my life.

And of course, it’s hard work. It’s hard to find ease when you’re a working mom, or when you’re a caretaker, or when you’re a single parent, or when you’re focused on doing a good job at whatever you’ve got going on in your life. No matter the circumstance, we all sometimes have trouble slowing down and taking care of ourselves.

But geez, it’s important. We only get one body in this life and we have to take care of it. We have to get good sleep, we have to eat well, we have to drink water, and brush our teeth, and get checkups, and manage our stress. Because we just have the one body to help us carry out our life’s work, and the body needs to last. And of course it’s a bonus if the body lasts a long time and doesn’t give you too much trouble along the way, right?

Do you see yourself in my story of busy-ness? Are you in a pattern of toughening up over and over? Are you taking good enough care of you?

Take some time to pay attention to how you’re feeling and make a conscious decision about what to do next. It doesn’t have to be a grand and complicated change (that will only end up causing you stress). Just a little bit of something to put you on a healthier path. Baby steps. One step at a time.

I’d love to hear from you on this. What’s the one little thing you’re going to do to find some ease in your life?

XO, Zelinda

P.S. I joined the 40 Day Challenge to help hold myself accountable to my self-care. It’s not too late to join! Here’s a link to the details. Let me know if you want in.

It's Our 5th Birthday!

October marks the 5th Anniversary of The Yoga Room! When I opened the studio 5 years ago, my vision was to create a place for all kinds of people to feel welcome and comfortable practicing yoga.

At first I was the only teacher, teaching 2 classes per week in a 840 square foot, single room space. I was still working in Marketing at Dell, I had a two year old and a 4 month old, and it was all I could do to take one itty bitty step at a time.

I still remember what a scramble it was to prepare the space for the first class. The walls were a dingy beige and were covered in bits of adhesive leftover from the previous tenant. My only priority was to get the floor installed in time for the first class and I figured I could do the rest later. And that's exactly what I did.

Over the following weeks I cleaned up the walls and had them and the bathroom painted. I eventually got a desk, then added a few shelves over time. It was a simple space, but it was exactly what I needed and could afford as a brand new small business owner.

In December I hired the first teacher, Emily, followed by Stacy in February, Angela in April, and Beth in May. There were another couple of wonderful teachers who helped us ramp up that no longer teach at the studio because they either had a really long commute or they moved away.

Around 6 months after opening we were up to 14 classes per week and I hired my first office assistant, Christin. At that time we were still tracking class passes by hand in a notebook and on a spreadsheet. Before long we couldn't keep up with that method any more so we began to use business management software.

That summer I started to realize I could no longer balance my job at Dell, the studio, and my family. I decided to leave Dell in August to focus on the studio and my family full time. I'm still trying to figure out that balance!

By the end of the studio's first year we were up to 21 classes per week. Now that I look back on it, that was pretty significant growth!

We stayed in our original location for 3 years, and during all of that time, the teachers were responsible for sweeping up and checking in their own students before each class. At some point I realized we were beginning to outgrow our space and there was also talk of a road construction project that would have required the demolition of our building. Instead of waiting it out, I decided it was time to move.

It took a really long time to find a suitable space for us to move to. My excellent realtor, Danielle, and I even explored beyond Round Rock, in Cedar Park and Pflugerville.

Finally we found the place that was to become our current location. When I first saw it, it was one huge space that encompassed the entire second floor of the building. It had no internal walls - only a concrete floor, studs, insulation, and really dirty windows. It took a lot of creativity (and measuring and remeasuring) to envision what it could become.

I designed the floorplan myself, and with the help of a great contractor, it was built in about 10 weeks. One of my biggest challenges was the cosmetics - it took quite a while to pick out all the paint colors, flooring, and fixtures.

We've been in our new home for two years now, and our team has continued to grow.

Continued from our Newsletter...

Now we have a super desk staff who comes in early and stays late to make sure the studios are ready and presentable at all times. They greet newcomers, check in students, answer the phone, and sell class passes and merchandise. We have a highly-trained group of top-notch yoga teachers, each with their own area of specialty and an eye toward our Yoga for Everybody philosophy. I have an outstanding business staff that helps me run all aspects of the business side of the studio.

We've finally reached a place where I don't feel like I have to be checking in on the studio every hour or even every day. I trust and depend on my staff and, after 5 years of everybody's very hard work, I'm able to completely mentally check out of the goings-on at studio and take a family vacation or spend extra time with my now 7 and 5 year old boys.

I'm so, so grateful to everyone who has helped make this little yoga studio in Round Rock possible. Of course, my excellent team, but also our sweet and ever-growing yoga community. Without the support of our students, we all would not be where we are today. And I'm so grateful for my behind the scenes support team, my husband and sons, who have spent countless daddy-sons hours while mommy tends to the studio.

In celebration of our 5th Birthday, we're hosting a series of weekly giveaways throughout the month of October!

Starting Monday, September 28th, every time you visit the studio, you'll receive an entry slip to be entered in the weekly drawing. Every Friday we'll pick a winner, then transfer that week's entries into a bigger hat for a grand prize drawing whose winner will be selected on the final Friday in October.

Here's a list of the weekly prizes: Oct 2 - 10 Class Pass or 1 Month Unlimited Pass + Jade Yoga Travel Mat Oct 9 - 60 minute Private Lesson + Foam Roller Oct 16 - 10 Class Pass or 1 Month Unlimited Pass + Jade Yoga Travel Mat Oct 23 - 60 minute Private Lesson + Large Bolster Oct 30 - 10 Class Pass or 1 Month Unlimited Pass + Effie Yoga Mat Bag

And the Grand Prize winner, who will be selected from amongst all the entries from the entire month, will win a Private Group Lesson for up to 10 of your friends!

Thank you for all your friendship and support over these past 5 years! Namaste.

XO, Zelinda

P.S. We're hosting our first ever Fall 40 Day Challenge starting October 4th! Join us to gear up for the (sometimes chaotic!) holiday season by developing a consistent yoga practice.