My Personal Journey of Falling In Love and Out of Yoga

When I was contemplating about how my life’s gonna turn out to be when I ended my career in the Philippines as a Starbucks Barista last year, one option that I’d love to consider is to be a yoga teacher in Ubud, Bali. But I don’t know jack shit about it except only for the fantasy of finally finding out how to align my chakras for me.

Kids, while you’re too busy worrying about where your next smoothie is going to come from, it’s true that things are happening when you least expected it.

So when I was about to get hired as a Coffee Shop Manager in Internet City in Dubai, things didn’t turn out well between the owner and the building where the coffee shop was about to be located. So I went ahead to find another job and thankful for my lucky stars, I ended up in Downtown Dubai.

I got hired as a barista in a wonderful yoga studio called Zoga.

Working at Zoga, even though it was only short, was quite special. Because I got to join all the yoga classes for free! And I remember how passionate I was about learning it. I read all the books about yoga available in the studio, I joined classes every time that I can, and I got to meet awesome yogis.

Yoga is not about touching your toes, it is what you learn on the way down.

Jigar Gor

The first time that I joined a yoga class was a pain in the ass. With all the stretching and poses, I wasn’t doing well. But when I finally learned how to incorporate each poses with my breathing, it felt so good.

It’s like getting back to my core that kept me grounded.

Practicing yoga was very liberating. Every time I step on my mat, it feels like a whole new world. And as a wise person say, yoga does not transform the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.

Yoga was my daily inspiration. It eases my anxiety and it took away all my troubles.

I had it all planned out – save enough money and go to Rishikesh in India on my first allowed vacation leave to take a 300 hour Yoga Teacher Training so that when I come back to Zoga, I’ll be teaching yoga too! But things went on a different way yet again.

And as my friend Ryan told me before I left Dubai, “The universe has its own science where it wants things to be, it’s like an equation. It’s always adding or subtracting events from your life to line you up where you are destined to be.” And these words has been trapped in my mind since then.

When I came back home here in the Philippines, I continued with my practice in the comforts of my own bedroom. But you know it when there’s not enough fan to flame your passion on certain things? I guess that’s what happened.

I could’ve been more flexible doing more difficult poses by now, but a person’s interests have a nasty habit of disappearing overnight, right?

Maybe a constant change in interests is normal.

Today, it’s still nice to get on my mat and be grounded as I practice yoga. And even though it’s a lot different to have Vinyasa Flow inside a yoga studio with a few other yogis, it’s still a journey of falling in love with taking care of my body, mind, and spirit.

Namaste.