My First Pair of Yoga Pants

I was 18 and it was Christmas.

I had only in the recent months started yoga and was doing it to videos in the upstairs bedroom of the house I lived in.  I would gladly, maybe even excitedly, retreat away from the world I was living in at that point to indulge in the movement of my body.

I really loved yoga right away.  I mean I loved it with every cell in my body screaming for it to be had each and every night before I would embark into my evenings.  My body would move and flow and lift and dance through the video, an hour would expire and my spirit would drop to the floor with the rest of me in a pool of gratitude.  Detached from what was lying ahead of me or behind me, becoming content and satisfied.  And even better, I still LOVE yoga.

When my family bought me yoga pants, a sports bra, a yoga mat with a bag, a strap and a block I nearly cried.  I anxiously put on these pants that had no buttons, no zipper, no waistband or elastic and stated that I was done wearing jeans and blouses and bras with wires and that I would be a yoga instuctor just to wear the clothes.

As many things do my passion and time alloted for yoga would ebb for months and I would return to the pants and they would inspire me to step onto my mat.  Always taking me back to the satisfaction and contenment, igniting the flow of a regular yoga practice back into my life.

And quicker than I would have liked those pants lost their elasticity and became disrespefctfully see through, destined for the trash.  I began my search high and low for the exact same pair that originally stole my heart.  Though it never happened, it was in that search that I began to slowly accumulate "yoga clothes" and gift my friends with all the clothes that I have quite honestly had detested for years.

I truly adore that every day when I get dressed for work it is this type of clothes that I jump into, and that I no longer feel the need to run home and change as quickly as possible to be comfortable.  I would even go so far as to say that it is likely a combination of the clothes and the practice that have caused me to be a teacher and a student for what is now 12 years.

But really, in the great big scheme of everything being everything in the world, it would only make sense.  Yoga made me comfortable, flexible, and powerful in my skin, it got me through some shit times and put me into some shit times.  The clothes have always just been symbolic as to how yoga has made me feel.  Flexible and relaxed in my own skin.