An athlete growing up, Sally had always enjoyed sports and running, but after the birth of her third child, fitness was harder to find. “I was always willing to work, but now it was harder to get results, and harder on my body. My knees and lower backed ached when I did my go to work out of running, and I was intimidated by the thought of group fitness or stepping on a gym floor when I felt so out of shape,” Sally recalls. She tried her share of workouts at home, but was never all that committed and found it hard to stay consistent. Eventually, she started watching yoga videos on YouTube and doing yoga in her living room, and the seed for change was planted.
Sometime around the fall of 2018, her quest for fitness took a drastic turn. “My body was running on little else than coffee and carbs, and truth be told it had been that way since I had first left my career and began staying home with my children after the birth of my second. The death of my beloved grandmother was the proverbial straw to the camel’s back, and I remember being doubled over in pain on NYE in my living room floor telling my husband that I was positive something was really wrong.” The following week she visited her doctor, and the long and short of it is that she walked away having heard the words “lifestyle changes”, and it hit her like a ton of bricks. “My Mimi had lived to three weeks shy of her 98th birthday, and she did it by being so active she played golf well into her nineties and only quit when she could no longer independently stand. That was the future I wanted and honestly just assumed I would always have…being active with my kids, moving my body and staying fit throughout my life, but had I not found yoga, I’m positive I would not have gotten here with my physical health and fitness, and definitely not with my mental health journey.” She joined a gym and began taking yoga classes, and as they say, the rest is history.
“Beginning the practice of yoga and staying committed to it completely changed my life,” she says. “It began the process of healing so much in my life, things I didn’t even know I was struggling with and others that I did. I gave up so much of my identity when I made the choice to stay home with my kids. I left behind a career, that despite its stresses and occasional drama, I loved. I gave up the social aspects of my life—being constantly surrounded by others, making a community of my coworkers, having a lunch hour for errands or just some me time. I loved being with my kids. In fact, the anxiety of being away from them was the very thing that had driven me to be a stay-at-home mom in the first place, but somewhere in the shuffle, I lost myself…my dreams, my direction, my confidence, my social life or really just regular adult interaction at all. I felt very low, and like so many other moms, I was so overwhelmed by the anxiety I felt, but I never dealt with my health because I was so focused on everyone else. Yoga gave me the opportunity to do that…focus on myself and find community. And in doing so, every aspect of my life has been touched and improved by yoga.”
Sally recalls recognizing she had increasingly struggled after the birth of each of her children, and just felt stuck. “If not all of those who wander are lost, while I’m happy for them, some of us are lost. Searching for wherever it is we belong. Where we are supposed to be. Where our hearts are full and our minds are calm. And yoga helped me to find that…find my way back to who I am when I take all of the labels off and remember who I truly am at the core of my being, and more importantly that I am tough and I have the grit it takes to be successful. It’s honestly through yoga that I know that whatever comes my way, I can handle it. I know I already have what I need within me to be successful. Yoga gives me a confidence I wish I had when I first became a mom or was in college. Developing a yoga practice is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, and I truly enjoy being a part of that for other people.”
When not on her mat, Sally enjoys spending time with her husband, four kids and three dogs doing all things outdoors, traveling, gardening and interior design.