International Day of Yoga

On this International Day of Yoga, I am grateful to be a part of the new and developing Battle Born Yoga Project. Though my activity within the project has been slow thus far, new developments are helping me to switch gears and pick up momentum. The project is and will allow our local military-connected community to have free access to yoga and meditation.

My yoga history began here in Nevada, in 2001, when I saw a high school friend and fellow musician doing some interesting stretching. I asked what that was and eventually saw a Yoga Journal magazine in our local library. It was attractive.

After purchasing Baron Baptiste’s Journey into Power and Donna Farhi’s Breathing Book, I was curious about experiencing a yoga class. While at the former Armed Forces School of Music in Norfolk, Virginia, the gym on base had a hatha yoga class available for a brief period of time. I remember that first class being the best I had felt in a very long time and I continued going until the classes were no longer available.

While deployed to Iraq in 2003, as an Army Musician, I was looking through a Jamey Aebersold catalog and again saw (first time was while looking through that Yoga Journal magazine) the Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda, published by Self-Realization Fellowship. I read Yogananda’s book over a period of two weeks and upon returning, attended one of SRF’s meditation services (and continue to participate in).

While stationed at Fort Hood near Austin, Texas, I regularly attended the former Yoga Yoga studios and enjoyed their Astanga and Hatha classes.

While stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, I attended an Astanga class in Bisbee and enjoyed a few Bisbee Yoga Expo events.

While stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado in 2011, I was starting to have an interest in attending college. I remembered that I saw an ad for Naropa (also in a Yoga Journal magazine) that said “Inward | Outward”. Some years before, I had inquired about their music and religious studies programs. When the time came for me to decide to re-enlist or not, I inquired about Naropa’s Yoga Studies program. Ended up majoring in Yoga, Taiji, and minoring in Psychology.

While in Boulder, Colorado, I was privileged to attend two Yoga Journal conferences in San Diego and Colorado where I was able to experience numerous workshops from Amy Ippoliti, Seane Corn, Linda Sparrowe, Beryl Bender Birch, Kino MacGregor, Robert Sturman, and more. I enjoyed the brief period of time teaching and attending a few classes at Shannon Paige Kenney’s Earth Yoga Colorado studio.

Now I enjoy the manuals I have of the Ghosh Yoga method and figuring out the yoga (yoga means union) of my practices and interests while attending Sierra Nevada University’s MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program.