The Transformation: How Yoga Changed my Life

By Linda Munro

Yoga?

That was my response to a friend I ran into on the street 15 years ago in Toronto, Canada when she told me she had just taken a yoga class. I was immediately intrigued. And, my second response was Where? That weekend I was in my very first yoga class. It was a fairly gentle hatha yoga class on a Sunday morning. I was young, but had an aversion to exercise. I had tried running, aerobics, swimming, using machines in a gym, but couldn’t keep myself engaged in any of these activities. Yoga was different. There were no mirrors, no comparisons, no pushy coaches yelling at me to work harder and no competition. I loved it!

A couple weeks later I woke up in the hospital; I had been in a fairly serious car accident. Hospitalized with a broken shoulder blade, whiplash and fused vertebrae in my neck, head and eye damage, I also had other broken bones, cuts and bruises everywhere. Nothing life-threatening, but I was pretty much broken up. After nine months (interesting, this amount of time, because I feel the accident was my own personal re-birth) of rehabilitation and physiotherapy I asked my doctor about replacing the physio with yoga. She was a bit perplexed as at that time there wasn’t much information about yoga, but was open to the idea.

Finally I was back to my Sunday morning hatha yoga class. It’s been fourteen years now since I went back to yoga and I’ve practiced regularly ever since.

At that time of my life I was an ambitious fashion girl; intent on working my way up the ladder to become the leader of a top fashion house. And, of course, I was always dressed to kill. I wanted to be noticed!

Parallel to this fashion career I was unknowingly making an internal transformation with the yoga. A few months after doing the Sunday morning class I felt it was time to add another class into my weekly routine. One of the teachers suggested I try the Ashtanga yoga class. I said, “Nah, that room is always all sweaty and steamy at the end of the class”. I didn’t say it, but it grossed me out to sweat a lot, and if you remember, I didn’t like exercise-- not to mention it would have wrecked my hair and make-up! Anyway, this teacher (who was and is a very inspiring woman) came up to me to find out how I liked the class. “I hated it” was my reply. She said, “Oh, just try again”. How could I say no to her?! So I did. She told me “you’re going to become a yoga teacher”. I thought, “Yeah, right! I’m going to be the president of Calvin Klein!”

Well, she predicted correctly. I did follow my career to New York City and then to Paris. I had an amazing job and everything I thought I wanted. But I wasn’t any happier, nor was I more special than before.

The fashion was wonderful and exciting but the years of practicing yoga gave me a deep fulfillment. Yoga helped me become physically stronger after the car accident and it cured circulation problems I had had since my early twenties. Before yoga, I was on daily migraine medication and I had had a numb big toe and thigh. When I was twenty-three, I went through numerous exams to find out why I suffered chronic migraines and why one leg was slowly going numb. Brain scans, CAT scans, blood tests, food and headache diaries and many appointments with specialists were ended with “There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re in perfect health. Just continue the medication.” Ok, fine that’s what I did. After about a year of practicing yoga seriously I was off the medication and the feeling was coming back to my leg. I was twenty-nine years old.

The deep inner peace I was cultivating gave me the confidence to leave the world of fashion. Yoga transformed me (and continues to do so) and I felt a deep desire to share this with others. This is what I’ve been doing for the last 8 years and I hope to continue to inspire others to find a yoga practice that will improve their lives.

Linda lives and teaches Ashtanga yoga in Paris with her husband, Gerald. They have 2 beautiful children; Amaya and Jonathan.

www.ashtangayogaparis.fr