What do you associate yoga with? A flexible body? Body slimming? Body-hugging outfits? To Vanessa, yoga carries a wisdom that is an essential part of life and allows her to reflect on life and stay positive in face of adversity. Vanessa, a Toby awarded Top Pro, will share with us how she found enlightenment in yoga and developed a positive attitude to tackle the difficulties brought on by the pandemic.
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【2024 Top Pro】Vanessa — Freeing the Body and Mind & Staying Positive during the Pandemic
【2024 Top Pro】Vanessa — Freeing the Body and Mind & Staying Positive during the Pandemic
Updated: Jan 12 2024
【2024 Top Pro】Vanessa — Freeing the Body and Mind & Staying Positive during the Pandemic
Transitioning from Fashion to Yoga
Before becoming a yoga instructor, Vanessa had an online apparel business and enjoyed sharing fashion tips with her customers. While her gung-ho attitude and expertise had helped her bring in business and increase profits, she had also sacrificed her work-life balance in the process. She shared, “I felt like a hamster on a running wheel… Day in and day out, I was just repeating the same chores. That got me thinking… Is money really that important to me?”
The feeling of lacking something in life, along with the onset of health issues, prompted Vanessa to take up yoga to improve her mental and physical health——stretching her body, boosting her flexibility, and relaxing her mind. Vanessa soon became a yoga enthusiast as yoga can effectively relax her body and mind and help her to maintain a work-life balance. Even if she was overwhelmed with work, Vanessa insisted on attending yoga classes regularly and has been practicing the discipline for over 10 years. She started teaching yoga in 2018 and has taught over 700 classes within 2 years.
Turning interest into a career, yoga has made her healthier and brought her positive changes mentally and physically.
The Wisdom of Yoga
Aside from having the opportunity to stretch and exercise, Vanessa is also intrigued by the wisdom of yoga and her instructor made her recognize that yoga is not just about exercising but also provides a path to mental calmness. After a long period of soul searching, Vanessa realized that she wanted to learn more about yoga and started to read the yoga sutra to pursue spiritual progress. Her interest and passion for the discipline have prompted her to become a yoga instructor and preach about the learnings of yoga.
Whenever Vanessa gives a lesson, she will not only concentrate on the techniques but also on strengthening her students’ physique and boosting their flexibility and muscular endurance. In addition, Vanessa wants her students to understand and have a first-hand experience of the advantages of yoga——how it can connect the body and mind and help to obtain inner peace, which in turn can relieve stress and enhance mental and physical health.
Yoga has helped Vanessa find health and satisfaction in life. For example, advanced poses are difficult to perform and require a lot of practice but taking up the challenge and succeeding can boost mental power and confidence. Vanessa expressed, “Yoga has helped me understand myself by allowing me to see my true nature and giving me the opportunity to reflect.”
“Yoga has helped me understand and reflect myself by allowing me to see my true nature.”
Vanessa is keen on promoting yoga. The passion also pushes her to be a professional yoga instructor.
Yoga Training during the Pandemic
Aside from being a source of steady income, Toby has enabled Vanessa to have a flexible schedule when it comes to lesson times and locations and provided her with a large customer base. Even though the pandemic has put all yoga classes to a halt, Vanessa hasn’t lost her motivation because “yoga has given me the strength to continue with the challenges in life.”
During the pandemic, Vanessa has made good use of her spare time and began to read, self-study, practice, and work on her spiritual transformation, so that she can maintain a positive attitude, decide how she will go forward as a yoga instructor, and have more flexibility in life. She shared, “Life is filled with uncertainties, all we can do is go with the flow and adapt to changing world.”
