I have a yoga girl crush. Her name is Kathryn Budig, and she is amazing. Strong, beautiful, an amazing teacher, crazy talented with a great personality to boot. Get in line boys, because I’m first. When I found out that she was coming into town to do a workshop, I threw down the cash and yelled Yahtzee (alone in my apartment in front of my iPad).
The day came, and I made sure to taper down in my yoga so that I would be full of energy and strength. This was going to be a yoga marathon of awesomeness, and I wanted to be ready.
I arrive at the venue, and the place was a buzz of energy, yoga pants, and kombucha. I make sure I have a potty break when I ran into an amazing teacher name Gina Caputo from Boulder, Colorado who herself is pretty amazing.
“Gina!!! So glad to see you! I’m so excited your here to assist Kathryn, she is amazing!!”
I continue to profess my love when Gina says, “Turn around!” with a smile.
And there she was. She was as authentic, sweet, kind, and better than I expected. She smiled, gave a hug, and even offered help with a few questions I had in between sessions! A dream come true to say the least.
The class was amazing. I was learning so much and having a blast. Midway during the session, she pauses to demonstrate a move when she asks, “Where’s Clare?”. At this point, I look around and think, “Where is Clare? She better pay attention because Kathryn needs help demonstrating……OH MY GOD THAT’S ME!!!”
At this point I black out (not really, but it was a blur).
Apparently she asked me to show ), and well, I nail it. She even gave me a little “good game” smack on the sacrum.
It was amazing.
After the session was done, my friends, co-workers, and random people gave me hugs, high fives, and it was surreal.
Then someone asked the question, “How did you do it?!”. My honest response was, “It just takes practice”. Let me explain what that means.
I try my best to practice yoga with as little expectation as possible, of course I’m human, but I’m working on it. But each time I step on my mat, I know that it’s, MY moment. My moment to love myself, to be myself, and do the best I can. I practice with every intention to do what feels good and makes me feel as strong and as beautiful and I know I am capable of being. To be the best I can be in that given moment, and hope for the best. On that day, it was good enough.
What I took away from that experience is that you never know when your moment it going to be. That you don’t need to prepare, to study, to run a mile to warm up, just be yourself.
Be yourself, and maybe, someone will help to let you shine.
