The following blogpost is the Passionate Why for Laura Heizer, Clayton Yoga Teacher from Montana! Laura found out about Clayton Yoga training program online and contacted her husband’s military program, MyCAA. The military went on to sponsor Laura’s training and Laura is very eager to return back to Montana and share all her new found yoga skills when she returns Montana. Let’s listen to what Laura Herzog says about her own Passionate Why for practicing and sharing yoga with others!
I have been a military spouse for three years this May. My husband is in the Air Force and we are stationed in Great Falls, Montana. Five years ago, I took my first yoga class while teaching English in South Korea. I love the excitement of moving around, meeting new people, and experiencing new cultures. However, when I was growing up, I was very attached to my home—here in St. Louis—and attached to family traditions and the way things were supposed to be done.
This attachment made Thanksgiving in Korea very depressing for me. I was the first Thanksgiving I had ever spent away from family and I was 26 years old. I wanted orange, gooey, crispy sweet potato casserole. Sweet potatoes are yellow in Korea, not orange. I found marshmallows, but had no oven to toast them on top. And forget about finding turkey. But that isn’t really what the holiday is about. Gratitude. Working together. Friendship. Bounty. Harvest.
Many military spouses aren’t very happy. We are far from our families and our “real friends” and as soon as we have worked to build a “military family” and a place starts to feel like home, we leave it.
What is “home” anyway? Where the heart is? My heart is in Korea with Dr. K (my yoga teacher) and Jihyun (my best friend). My heart is here in St. Louis where I grew up and went to college. My heart is in Alabama where my dad is working and in Texas with my niece and nephew. My heart is in Montana with my new friends. We make so many homes that none of them feel whole anymore. And so—with yoga—a peace is found within. I meet so many women who are insecure—beautiful young mothers—who will benefit greatly from looking inside themselves for beauty, peace and worth. Yoga teaches me to look inside myself for these things.
I see yoga as a practice, not a final goal. I need to re-commit myself to the daily practice, and that is why I am coming to Clayton Yoga. I want to bring yoga to people who
need it who wouldn’t otherwise find it. I want overweight military mothers to practice yoga with me in the park with their kids. I want service members with PTSD to come to my classes for peace and healing. I want to give more than I’ve been given.
To get the military moms I’ve met excited about the spiritual aspects of yoga, I’ll need to find a Christian entrance point. I want everyone to know the Hindu teachings of Sri Krishna about a Self (let’s call it a HOME) that resides within us all. A Christian doorway to this concept might be found in Isaiah: “I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.” It brings comfort to know that even when we feel lost, we are being guided. Even when home feels like a distant memory, we are where we are supposed to be. “I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing, says the Lord.” (Jerimiah 23:4)
You’ve heard the pastor say: Jesus lives in you. You’ve heard the priest say: Receive the Holy Spirit. You’ve heard the rabbi say: Your body is a temple.
In yoga, Lord=self, and the Self is unchanged by any hardship or blessing. The self is the same in every person regardless of rank, beauty, wealth, intelligence or happiness. The self is the same in every creature.
Nothing around us changes. It is our outlook that changes. All of it is a construct of our unhappiness, insecurity and anger. We have created prisons for ourselves with our thoughts and words: “There is no place to shop.” “I wish there was just one decent restaurant.” “I just can’t live in a place without trees.” Each statement is a bar on the cell holding us captive, keeping us from happiness. We ARE happiness! All we have to do is break free. When we are free, we find our self-worth, and we can let go of these constructs. When we let it all go (as in pranayama), we find our true selves.
Find a home that never changes. Security lies within.
I found this Passion why extremely insightful. After meeting Laura in person in June, I feel as if I understood her practice on a deeper level. Laura is living proof that yoga can serve as a home away from home, no matter the physical location. Yoga brings you together with the community, igniting a sense of unity. This unity is what makes practice home to us as yogis. Feeling connected to others around you makes you feel at peace, and comforted at where you’re at in life. This is why we are so blessed to have yoga in our life. No matter where we travel, there still will be that welcoming yoga community inviting you in to a peaceful unity in the practice of your favorite art.