“I was an ICU nurse for many years, so I developed a strong personality from it. You become a tough babe in the ICU. There’s really no time to monkey around. You get what you need when you need it, and you get the job done. You call Dr.’s. on points, you’re stern and you really see how fragile life is.
When I first started at the ICU they called me ‘Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm’ because I was sweet; I had that sweet part to me. And then, my “ICU way” of being kinda took over. And, one of the things I noticed was the yearning for me to get back going to yoga. I didn’t pursue it for a long time because I’d get side swiped by something else.
I had done zumba for so long, and the one thing I recognized from zumba was that even though I loved it and it’s high stress, moving, and action that was exciting, it really didn’t do anything to sooth, and calm me down. I was so strung up much of the time, that I needed something to counterbalance that – but did I listen? No. And I started getting hurt with repeat achilles injuries."
So, I finally went to a yoga class with my step daughter and thought, “Oh my gosh, YES. I am coming back here.” And that was it. It took off. It was at New Hampshire Power Yoga and I’ve been coming here consistently for four years. I started off with a couple days a week and then began participating in the 40 Days to Personal Revolution programs where I was really opened up to our community at yoga.
Once I started meeting people at the studio, I realized that I had found my breaking point. I thought to myself, ‘Oh yeah, THIS is it’. I think that’s what it’s about – not just about what it does for my body and myself, I think the community is a whole different addition. It makes you see that we’re all in the same place and it’s really reaffirming. There is just so much love to go around. It’s a great place to be.
I’ve done Baron Baptiste’s 40 Days to Personal Revolution four times and each time it gets a little bit more to my core to what, and where I want to be, but the one thing for me that I know, is that yoga is my happy place. It’s where I’m the happiest. I have my connections, I have my tribe, and I have my peace on the mat. If something is upsetting me, yoga is where I go.
So I’m a little bit more mature, which means ‘older person’ (as Julianne laughs at herself), so for me, and with my years and because I was a runner for a long time, my body has some arthritis in it. Especially in my feet. Before yoga, I could NOT walk without shoes on. It would hurt really badly- especially in my toe joints. When I started doing hot yoga, they stopped hurting, and now I walk around barefoot ALL the time, and my feet don’t hurt me! The HEAT and working on the balancing poses; working on those little muscles- it’s made a huge difference. HUGE, huge difference. I tell my people (and I see a lot of older people at the office), ‘We’ve got one body- and we don’t think about our bodies as we get older, we just think we’re indispensable’. So, sometimes when my feet bother me, I just go to a yoga class and I’m set. And I get the relief because #1: I’m exercising those muscles and joints, and then #2: the heat just helps open them up like nothing else.”
I’m a Nurse Practitioner, so I see patients four times a week all day long. I also manage the practice with my husband, so I’m here a lot because, well, I have to. I’ve got a great husband because he says, ‘whatever you need to do for you- do it. Go to yoga if it makes you feel better.’
Yoga is how I manage my stress and my angst. It makes me feel good. It’s the combination of stretching really deeply, and just being at the beginning of practice in child’s pose and breathing. Like, when I’m just closing my eyes and breathing. This is where where IT is for me. I concentrate and pay attention to my breath, and by the time class is done, whatever was bothering me, it’s just not there anymore; it goes away.”