My Journey To Yoga

Years ago, I would dabble in yoga, long before it became popular on the east coast. Robin opened up my eyes to this unique exercise.  Dreading your typical aerobic class and treadmill, yoga always seemed so much less demanding on the body. It left me feeling relaxed and with a positive uplifting, spiritual feeling. One day, I was watching a PBS special, and was very interested in this particular yoga instructor and her approach to teaching.  She was teaching the elderly yoga with the use of chairs for support. Her name was Peggy Cappy; the show was called “Yoga for the Rest of Us.”  I was intrigued with this concept and I thought what a wonderful way to teach seniors how to do yoga!  It was then that I realized that yoga wasn’t just for the young and physically fit who could twist their bodies like a pretzel , but it could be taught to seniors and have some wonderful effects on their body without pain and leave them with a feeling of accomplishment.  So I kept that show in the back of my mind, got busy with life and forgot about it until a few years later, when I was flipping through channels and there was Peggy Cappy again on another PBS special. With modern technology, it made it easy to track her down.  I went to her web-site and contacted her office, talked to her secretary, who told me that Peggy was having a “teacher’s training workshop” in Peterboro, New Hampshire, her hometown.  I said to her, “I’m not a teacher and never thought about it. Do you think this is something I could do?” She said, “Of course, I’m 60 years old and just started doing yoga with Peggy myself and I love it!” So with much anxiety, I sent my registration and check to New Hampshire and signed myself up for a week’s training with Peggy and eight other students. What a wonderful and inspiring week I spent with such an amazing group of students.   One of the most inspiring students was wheelchair bound.  She did what we did but from her wheelchair; if she couldn’t do something exactly as we did, she improvised and would move her body to get the benefit of the pose. The highlight was on the fourth day of class when Peggy had us observe one of her regular senior classes.  The students were anywhere in age from 60 on up (a few years ago, she had a 100 year old student) and were so amazing. As they did sun salutation they kept in sync with each other to the music of Pachelbel's canon in D, using a chair for support. There was not a dry eye in the room as I looked at my fellow students.  We had lunch after class with them and they told us how yoga affected their lives, how valuable and beneficial to their health taking classes was and how much more confident they felt using a chair for support. One 80 year old man who had severe back problems said he wouldn’t have been able to ride his bike to class if he didn’t do yoga.

Peggy’s classes and students inspired me so much that when I returned home to Pennsylvania, I decided to begin a search to get my certification to teach yoga. I went to a few yoga studios in the area until I found the one that felt right for me, which was YogaLife Institute  in Wayne, PA.  There I was encouraged and practiced under the direction of Robert Butera, E-RYT, M.Div., Ph.D., and the founder of The YogaLife Institute and publisher of Yoga Living magazine, and his wonderful staff of teachers.  While working my full-time job and doing a lot of research, reading and working hard at the age of almost 59, I enrolled and received my certification of 225 Yoga Alliance hours in 2009.  I wanted to find a yoga instructor closer to home who taught senior yoga. I met a yoga instructor named Patricia and I observed and participated in several of her classes at an assisted living facility. Gently , she would instruct those who were in wheel-chairs, as well as those who came to class using their walkers.  Even though they were moving and stretching their bodies ever so slightly, their minds were thinking and their limbs were moving and they were aware of their breathing.  They looked forward to Patricia’s classes and so did I. This experience with them made me realize that yoga is something I want to share with others.  

In accomplishing my 225 hours of yoga teacher training at YogaLife Institute in Wayne, PA, under the direction of Robert Butera, E-RYT, M.Div., Ph.D., and founder of The YogaLife Institute and publisher of Yoga Living magazine, I received my Yoga Alliance Certification as a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT).  I also practiced under yoga instructors Peggy Cappy from NH, and Patricia Lasseter from Media, PA. I am anxious to share what I have learned from these inspiring teachers. I am thankful for my yoga instructors Robin, Patricia, Peggy, Dr. Bob, and my husband Dan for his encouragement and support.

 I would also like to acknowledge my new acquaintances at Soul Source Center for Conscious Living in Aston.  I’m sure glad I wandered in on that sunny day in March!