The Path to Peace
And people we meet along the way
I have been interested in wellness for many years. I started exercising when I was a teen and continued through college - attending aerobics classes at the university rec center. In my post-college life, I ran (reluctantly), did a few sprint triathlons, and continued attending fitness classes.
A few months after my 2nd child was born, I started teaching fitness classes at our local YMCA in Northbrook, Illinois and earned my first certification as a group fitness instructor. Over the next 20 years, I added 2 more certifications as a health coach and personal trainer and worked part-time teaching classes at various gyms.
To say I like teaching fitness is an understatement. I LOVE it. I love the music, the energy, and the community of fitness classes!
After my mom died in 2003, I decided that I would try a yoga class. I found the yoga practice to be calming during this grieving period. It was a place that allowed me to get out of my head. The physical practice of yoga made me feel strong and empowered in a different way than other fitness classes. To this day, I still am friends with my first yoga mentor, Nancy!
At that time, I practiced yoga only one time a week, but I loved how I felt afterward. At the time, I wasn’t interested in becoming a yoga instructor. I enjoyed focusing on my own practice. Unfortunately, I fell away from my yoga practice as ‘life’ happened.
When we bought the hotel, I was excited because the hotel had a small fitness room, and I thought maybe I could teach/train any hotel guests that wanted to keep their fitness routine going while they were on vacation. Guess what? They didn’t. Well, most didn’t. Most of our guests got their exercise in a different way - hiking, kayaking, surfing, waterfall rappelling etc. The few that used our fitness room weren’t interested in working out with a trainer.
Costa Rica is super-huge on yoga, however. When we first moved there, I reconnected with my yoga practice by attending a handful of yoga classes in town and practicing with some YouTube videos. After moving to a foreign country, completely changing my lifestyle, knowing no one, learning how to run a hotel and dealing with the storm’s destruction, my stress level was through the roof. I remembered how a yoga practice felt after losing my mom those years ago, and I was searching for that feeling again.
I guess that feeling was peace.
A friend of mine in the U.S. told me that she was going to yoga training to enhance her personal practice but wasn’t considering teaching. It was the spark I needed to explore yoga teacher trainings in Costa Rica-land of yoga. I could enhance my personal practice to find that peace again and decide later if I wanted to teach at all, maybe to hotel guests.
Then I found it! At the bottom of my mountain road, there was a yoga school holding an intensive 3 week 200 hour yoga teacher training (YTT). With only about a month before the training, I was afraid the class would be full, but I called the director, explained that I lived up the road, and wouldn’t need lodging or most meals. I had hoped she would still let me participate in the training. I drove down the road to meet her and she accepted me into the January 2018 3-week program. I was so excited.
As I prepped by reading the required yoga texts and reestablishing my regular yoga practice, Mark and I returned to the U.S. late December to celebrate Christmas with our family. A few weeks later, we were to return to the hotel to regroup with the staff and make plans for me to be gone 12 hours a day for 3 weeks.
Our flight back to Costa Rica was on a Sunday in early January, and the yoga training was to start Monday morning. We had a layover in Houston on the way back to Costa Rica. Our flight was delayed in Houston, and I had a lot of anxiety, as I was certain we’d miss our connection to Costa Rica. I was afraid I would not get back in time to get to training by 6am Monday morning. Little did I know at that time how much yoga training would help with my travel anxiety!
We made it back to the hotel late Sunday, and I prepared my things to leave for training early Monday morning.
I headed down the mountain early Monday to the Hostel compound at the bottom of our road where the yoga training was being held and all the participants (except me) would be living for the next 3 weeks. Since the group arrived Sunday, and were staying together at the hostel, they had already met each other, so it felt strange arriving Monday morning.
Our yoga group was a big one. There were 23 attendees-22 women and 1 man ranging in age from the low-20s to over 50. It was an amazing group of people. There were those from the U.S, Canada, Germany, England, and other places around the world. I was amazed that these 22 people could take 3 weeks out of their lives to fly to Costa Rica for yoga training. It was so much easier for me - I was living just up the road!
That first morning, we met on the yoga platform for an opening yoga practice followed by breakfast. At breakfast, I met most of the group before we had icebreaker activities and got started with the rest of our day.
Each night, I’d drive back to our hotel up the mountain, shower, eat dinner with Mark, talk with a few hotel guests, and fall in bed exhausted.
Early each morning, I’d drive down the mountain again for another 12 hour day. We spent the next 3 weeks sharing meals, working in groups, and practicing asana. We had anatomy lessons, yoga philosophy, and meditations at beautiful Costa Rican waterfalls.
After YTT was over, we went our separate ways, but the 23 of us stayed connected through our WhatsApp group and I still follow most all through social media accounts. We will always have a special connection for our shared experience that month.
In addition to the yoga attendees, and the yoga director, we also had 5 yoga facilitators with us for the month.
Karolina was one of the YTT facilitators for our group. She had recently moved to Costa Rica from Canada with her husband, Ragnar, and their dogs. She went through the same YTT program the summer before and was helping for our session. We easily connected and promised to get together and introduce our husbands.
After yoga training was over, I’d go to Karolina’s house a few times a week to join her yoga classes and met some other local gringos. It was a great outlet from the hotel to keep me sane as we spent the next few months getting the remodeling and reconstruction plans ready for the big shutdown of 2018!
We finally got together as couples, and Mark and Ragnar hit it off as well. After being away from our friends and family for months, my extroverted self was so happy to meet new friends.
Our yoga connection began a wonderful friendship between the 4 of us that still exists today, even though, for all of us, our Costa Rican chapter has closed. As What An Adventure! continues, you can expect to hear more about our adventures with Karolina and Ragnar.
After being in Costa Rica for 5 months, I finally felt connected to something again. A lost part of me.
And I again found some peace.
How beautiful Marlo. What serendipity--right down the road for your yoga retreat, and that the 'high' could continue as you were still involved in classes with her. What a great connection.
Yoga teacher training is life-changing. My two adult kids and myself, we’ve all been through the training. I'm so happy to discover this about you, Marlo! Looking forward to reading more about Carolina and crew!