Yoga: A Metaphor For Life

“You won’t intimidate me if you are a warrior woman. Show me your best warrior!” Donovan Fyne, head fitness director, challenges me to deepen my yoga position.

For the past few years I’ve been flirting with yoga, but for the most part I’ve been noncommittal, until a few weeks ago when I meet Bikram. I joined the hot yoga studio and have been practicing religiously. Bikram is recognized as the Marines of yoga, the hardest of all hard cores so when the manager of Round Hill Hotel & Villas in Montego Bay, Jamaica invited me to the morning basic yoga class I assumed it would be easy.

But here I am 20 minutes into class and my muscles are twitching. Either I am really out of shape of Donovan is a God given hero sent to rescue misguided yoga souls. Here I was thinking I was doing the poses correctly and in swops Donovan, adjusting here, and tweaking over here. All of a sudden my body is open and expansive.

The class is intimate, four students allows for many hands on adjustments to help us perfect the postures. Donovan tells us it is easy to assume yoga is just stretching, but when you do it right, the value is in the breath, and in each moment of stillness. We all gaze out into the teal green crystal Caribbean Sea. Tropical birds create the soundtrack to our morning routine.

I finish class feeling more engaged, stronger and connected. Donovan has reminded me that finding a good teacher, whether you are looking for a new yoga teacher, a mentor, a boss or a guru, the teacher can only teach when the student is ready. And a good teacher will always make for a good practice but the real take-a-way is yoga is just like life, as Donovan tells us, “What you put into it, you get out of it.”

Written by Shannon Kaiser

Shannon Kaiser is a contributing travel tip writer for Healing Lifestyle & Spas and Examiner.com. She is in Jamaica for five days exploring spas and the wellness aspect of the island. Follow her journey here and on facebook. She is founder of Playwihtheworld.com. An adventure blog dedicated to helping people love life to the fullest.