My yoga journey began in the 1990’s with a VHS tape my mother gave me. Yoga started as a stretch session following a day of snowboarding but soon evolved.
I loved how it not only relieved my fatigued muscles after a day on the mountain, but how it calmed my mind.
In 2006, fresh out of college I found my way to my first community class. There was a yoga studio a block from my apartment complex, and I loved the energy of practicing alongside others. Every class felt like a new experience, a new revelation in my body and my mind.
In 2008, my practice deepened while living abroad in Australia. The yoga studio in my neighborhood offered a deeper level of education into the philosophy of yoga, and I explored many different styles within a culturally diverse community of students and teachers.
I still remember my first yoga nidra vividly. It was a full moon, and the gong’s vibration was all consuming.
In 2010, I was back in my home state of Colorado and decided to sign up for a 200-hour teacher training through Shambhava Yoga. The training was immersive and I loved every minute of it.
A couple months into my training, I received devastating news. My mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
My teacher training practice and community helped me cope with the shock and anxieties that this news delivered. I began teaching and continued my trainings through Shambhava Yoga.
In 2014, life was calling…really the beach was calling. My (now) husband and I decided to move to Southern California.
I stopped teaching yoga after the move, but my practice continued to deepen. I found so many wonderful home studios with diverse and amazing teachers.
I took a SUP yoga training, and was feeling energized to get back up and lead classes again. We were setting up roots, my husband and I were married, then we were pregnant.
I was reading all the books and making the most intentional plan for the birth, then the news came. My mother, who had been in remission, was in the hospital – her cancer had spread.
Our roots started to weaken. I continued my yoga practice, still a very strong practice throughout my pregnancy – some of which I spent hiding tears that would fall in deep hip openers or savasana.
My backbends became shallow, I was hiding and protecting my heart. I spent a lot of my pregnancy traveling back home to Colorado caring for my mother.
She made a miraculous recovery and was with me during my daughter’s birth. One of the happiest days of my life.
Fast forward, as we were preparing for my daughter’s first birthday party, the phone rang. My mother’s cancer had spread again, this time in her liver.
We dug up our roots. We decided to move back to Colorado. Our first year back in Colorado was mostly joyous.
My mother’s condition was stable, maybe even improving. My daughter was growing and we were enjoying precious time with family.
I enjoyed my yoga practice during those days mostly in solitude, sometimes guided through pre-recorded online classes and with an occasional community class.
In 2019, our little family was feeling safe, we bought a house, and I found out I was pregnant again. I had a rough first trimester, sickness and bed rest, and I took a break from my practice.
March 2020 hit and we were responding to all the changes of the pandemic, remote work, social distancing and limited time with family, and then the news came.
My mother’s medication was no longer working. Within a week she was gone.
It took me months to return to my yoga mat. When I did return, I just curled up and cried.
Eventually, I started to move again. In August 2020, my son was born at home with two amazing midwives and my husband in attendance while my daughter slept upstairs, my mother was there in spirit.
My postpartum period was rough, I suffered with anxiety and depression and spent a lot of time isolated due to the pandemic and grief. Following feelings of failure and lack of support in my career, while sorting through and helping to sell my childhood home, I questioned my purpose.
After my mother was first diagnosed, we created a team for a fundraising yoga event for breast cancer – “Finding My Dharma” was our name. What was my dharma?
Some introspection combined with some very curious universal alignment led me to sign up for a DONA birth doula training in January 2020.
I found the MaYoga prenatal yoga teacher training at the same time and thought what a wonderful complementary offering it would be. During my MaYoga training, I was so excited to be learning and practicing yoga again with renewed focus and energy, and to connect with others who felt called to this path after their own life’s journey changed them.
There was a pivotal moment during my training when my teacher gave the cue to root down into support. My lower body stabilized, my upper body felt light, and my heart lifted.
The heart my body had curled around to protect was open again. I am here today, grateful to be a part of this community, knowing that life provides many turns, there is a path for all of us.
We will find our dharma when we feel supported to open and expand beyond our own limitations. I am here to support you.
For more info about me, visit www.alisonsee.com.
