Our founder Lauren Rudick
and her yoga practice...
I rarely post videos of my practice these days. Even more rare is someone else capturing it. This was the first time another person pointed a moving camera at my personal yoga practice.
It could not have come at a better time…
This is our main yoga shala at my school, Yoga Academy International. We spend 4-5 months per year here in Nicaragua teaching people to be yoga teachers, offering them the tools we have to lead a more mindful and joy filled life. We offer continued education for existing teachers too. Mostly though, we offer an opportunity to come as you are, be immersed in nature and join a loving community based on the tenants of Patanjli’s 8-limb path of yoga.
As the leader of this school and community, I sometimes feel like I don’t know enough, like I can’t do enough.
Having been in the yogagram world of social media for 7 years I sometimes feel lost in a very crafted and curated scene. I feel like I am not enough- not knowledgeable enough, not strong enough, not young enough or skinny enough, not bendy enough…
Although this video is just a short 1-minute clip of a physical practice, it brought me back to wholeness. It reminded me of my 15-year dedication to the practice of yoga. I remembered that in my 10-year career as a yoga instructor I have truly learned and experienced a tremendous amount and there is still an infinite vastness of clarity and understanding to pick away at. This short video gave me confidence that I do have what to offer and teach. I am further excited by all that I still have the possibility of learning.
This might look like a few cool tricks on a yoga mat, but these movements serve for me as a proof that dreams can become reality, the seemingly impossible can become fathomable, that we can achieve anything through hard work and dedication and finally, that we each get to craft a life that makes us feel alive.
We can each carve out a life based on our passions and deepest desires. We all deserve happiness. Each of us can make our own paradise wherever we are standing.
Thank you to my friend Spyros Vathis for capturing these breaths and movements.