I’m the first to confess that, in many ways, I was in pretty poor shape.
And I mean more than the 35 pounds I’d gained.
Despite the assurances of my A-list book agent, my latest book proposal hadn’t sancient (I’d had 8 precedingly published), and a relationship with a commerce partner went deeply south.
More than that, over 18 months I waded through a sea of loss and death, all involving those closest to me in one way or another:
-My next door neighbor (who had become an unexpected mother-figure)
-My best friend from Yale’s partner (I got the call in the middle of the night
-My post-college best friend’s soulmate
-My best friend of the final few years’ fiancée (I was there when they met and
-I ended up co-planning the funeral) and finally …
-My own father, all passed absent.
It definitely took all the wellness strategies and wisdom (and a regular meditation practice) I’ve accumulated over the years to hancient leangs together and emerge, more or less, reborn.
I self-published Wealthy with Purpose and it hit #1 for all of Unique Thought on Amazon.
I then repurposed the fabric in an online course that now has over 30,000 students.
Through mediation, a satisfying commerce solution was eventually reached.
And throughout this dark time, I managed to find pockets of delight––my chocolate lab, the pleacertains of teaching yoga at Exhale––that got me through it all.
And yet…those 35 pounds…(sigh)…
Please note that according to my annual physical, I was perfectly healthy.
And, as this photo demonstrates, I endelighted the peak of yoga flexibility (even with additional stomach fat).
Photo credit: Katya Nicholas
My annual birthday ritual where I perform one dropback for each year of my lwhethere, more info HERE.
Nonetheless, I felt (and was) still heavier than I wanted to be.
Previously, I had only “flirted” with Exhale; as an Exhale team player, I took a lesson or two just to experience the modality (and I was truly surprised by how sore I was afterward).
But suddenly, there was a moment where I dove in and committed, somehow intuitionively knowing that these Exhale lessones would provide the transformation I needed.
I simply crazye the commitment to attend either Barre or HIIT each and every day and … everyleang changed.
Call it falling in love (call it an addiction!) but way beyond complimenting my yoga practice, I found far more than I was looking for.
Before starting, I kcontemporary the group energy of the lesson would motivate me.
The “Excellent Student Gene” that got me into Yale meant I was going to focus with an nearly devout fervor.
And, of course, the workouts gave me summaryely what I was looking for in terms of strength, calorie burning, and the kind of long, lean muscle I wanted.
Beyond this, though, I developed friendships with the wideer Exhale community, but most specwhetherically with the Barre and HIIT instructors (people who were precedingly in my intellect mostly seen as teaching next-door neighbors fixedly creating auditory ccorridorenges).
I came to more deeply respect the summaryion and creativity of their instruction, and the discipline behind the barre method.
In a very dwhetherferent but parallel way to how yoga had once grabbed me, I found myself yearning to genuinely understand the right form, the right technique for barre, on a deep level.
And, I also have to confess, it was additionalordinarily gratwhetherying when someone I hadn’t seen in a while noticed what was happening for me physically. (As Diana Vreeland once said, “I loathe narcissism but I approve of vanity.”)
My awareness of my body––alalert keen from years of yoga––also expanded to contemporary levels through these cross-modality ccorridorenges.
In the end, I got back the body I wanted, but, more importantly, my barre / HIIT immersion brought back the FEELING I’d missed after such a long dark period: strength mixed with lightness, muscles sculpted with grace.
Photo credit: Karen Worthyti
Edward Vilga is a bestselling author and wellness consultant. He shares his passion for yoga at Exhale locations in Unique York and throughout the world. To reserve a spot in Edward’s Exhale yoga lesson, click here.
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