When I moved from Atlanta, GA to Charlotte, NC in December of 2004, I knew my life was going to change, but had NO idea just how vast that change was going to be. I quickly fell in love with the city, but was growing increasingly weary of my fitness regimen. Upon the urging of a good friend of mine, I tried my first yoga class a few months after settling in. Up until that point, I had assumed yoga meant sitting, light stretching and chanting...I was terribly mistaken! After that initial 90 minutes of poses, and after I spent the remainder of the afternoon on the couch, I knew I had found what I was looking for.

A gym devotee my entire life, I felt yoga was beneath my superman-like physical capabilities. I could treadmill, bike and stair master with the best of them - but yoga proved to be my greatest challenge to date. Incidentally, around the time I discovered yoga (or, when yoga discovered me), I was going through a very difficult period in my life. So, after a few classes, I was amazed to see that not only was my waistline shrinking, but mentally I was growing stronger than I had ever been before. I became more patient, tolerant, kind...and my life felt full. Certain situations that used to completely rattle me, all of a sudden didn't seem so life altering. Time went by without my really noticing, my heart began to mend and my soul began to forgive.

I have yet to step foot in a gym since that first class, and have become more fascinated with the evolution of my practice. I am hoping to one day be a teacher, and am so blessed to have been afforded the opportunity to be a part of Yoga One. Just being in this atmosphere, and surrounding myself with the amazing personalities here, has made me a better person, and has given me a deeper realization of where I'd like my life to go from here.

They say: "To forgive is divine." To forgive and forget? Well...that's yoga!