Yoga is the process of learning about you.  

It was hard to get rid of the old concepts of how I saw myself in relation to the world. The society has held out few positive images from which a young African American girl could grow and learn about herself. I had to keep digging deeper below the labels and stereotypes to find out who I really am. This was not easy as at every turn there were the typical roadblocks from those closest to me whose opinions I valued the most (some were teachers, some were family, some were community leaders). This was the first test on my journey towards the real self and probably the most difficult.

As I grew into a young women I received news, that I was pregnant with my daughter, this turned my world upside down for a short time. It was at once a beautiful, exciting and scary time in my life. I wanted to ensure that my baby would have a flying chance of being the healthiest baby every to enter this world. I knew that it was in part up to me to take the necessary steps to take care of myself throughout my pregnancy.

I began to explore all aspects of my health including the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual. I thought the easiest thing to do would be to stop smoking. I did not consider myself a heavy smoker, but I wanted to stop, so I made up my mind to do so, and stopped. Almost everyone that I knew at the time smoked. It was hard. I asked people to go outside the house to smoke and tried to stay out of places that were smoke filled and made a point to sit in the non-smoking sections of the restaurants if there was one. Next, I figured I could change my diet and reduced my intake of pork and some fried foods (like hamburgers). This was more difficult, as it seemed this change caused some raised eyebrows inside my inner circle of family and friends. They thought I was becoming a bit too discriminating about my food choices and let me know on every occasion that we gathered to share a meal. However, I was determined to avoid food that I learned was not good for the baby and me.