Sheila Conner

I was first introduced to Reiki, then to massage. In 2005, I began taking my mother to a local gym for water exercise, which I attended as well. Little by little, I began attempting Yoga at the gym, but they seldom offered what I called real Yoga. Most of the time it was Power Yoga, or what I called a Yoga Wanna-be, or very large classes. As drawn as I was, it was very hard for me to do. In 2008, I was finally diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. At last I had a name for my symptoms, but there was little help available. Something inside knew that in order to keep going I had to keep going—that exercise was vital and necessary, but I knew so little about body awareness and how to listen to my body, that a lot of what I tried was trial and error—except for the Reiki and massage. The greatest gift of massage was my massage therapist who taught me how to breathe and how to listen to my body, and little by little how to begin working with it. She is also a Yoga teacher, and she gave me Yoga in small bite-size pieces to practice at home.

Then this miracle thing happened. Something inside me kicked in with a hunger to learn, and at the same time, I had the opportunity to leave gym life and look for “real Yoga”. I had taken Yoga with Cristina Bacica on occasion at the gym, but now I it was time to look her up and really begin Yoga in earnest. And the Universe gifted me with an on-line spiritual teacher who began hooking me up with books on trauma and trauma release. The hunger grew, with me reading everything I could on the body and different illnesses, then on a crazy whim, I decide, at the age of 63, to train to teach Yoga so that I could help people who suffered like me, with chronic pain.

One of my favorite sayings is “When the student’s ready, the teacher comes.” That has been so true on my journey, as I’ve sought to learn about my body and how to love it to health. The teachers have all been there, all along the way. Now it’s my turn to give back the love of life that’s been restored to me.