Living Yoga Through My Heart Journey

Life has a way of calling us back to what matters most. For me, that call came through my heart—both in the symbolic and the very real, physical sense.

Before my surgery, I had already been living a life anchored in yoga. For over 26 years, yoga has been my home, my guide, my way of returning to myself no matter what life brought my way. Through joy and through loss, through challenges and triumphs, I found my way back to the mat, back to the breath, back to the essence of living yoga.

But nothing could fully prepare me for the moment I was told that my heart—this organ that has carried me, nourished me, and allowed me to share so much love—needed surgery. It was as if life asked me: Will you trust? Will you surrender? Will you walk this path with open eyes, an open body, and an open heart?

The time before surgery was filled with uncertainty, fear, and countless moments of deep reflection. I leaned into every teaching yoga had ever given me—presence, surrender, compassion, trust. I practiced breathing when anxiety came. I whispered mantras into the silence of the night when sleep wouldn’t come. I placed my hands over my heart again and again, reminding myself: This is where love lives. This is where life begins again.

The surgery itself was a threshold. A passage. To be opened so deeply, to have the very core of my being touched, was both terrifying and sacred. It was the ultimate act of surrender—placing my life in the hands of others and trusting in something greater.

And then… the healing began…

The path of healing has not been linear. It has been slow, painfull, tender, humbling, and full of lessons. Some days I have felt strong and full of life. Other days I have felt fragile, uncertain, and in need of the deepest patience. But through it all, yoga has walked with me. Not as a set of postures or practices to achieve, but as a living presence. Yoga now lives in the way I breathe more softly with myself. In the way I move gently, listening to what my body can and cannot do today. In the way I place my hand on my heart each morning and whisper gratitude simply for being alive.

I am learning that healing is not about rushing to “get back” to where I was. It is about meeting myself exactly where I am, with kindness and love. It is about honoring each small step, each breath, each opening. Living yoga through this journey has shown me that resilience is not about pushing through—it is about softening into trust, again and again. It is about rising from the places we fall, not as the same person, but as someone changed, deepened, widened by the experience.

My heart has been opened—literally and spiritually. And in this opening, I have found not just healing, but a new way of living yoga, even more fully, even more deeply.

This is my path now, to walk gently. To honor this body. To live with gratitude.

To share yoga not as something we do, but as something we are. A way of meeting life with presence, kindness, and love—no matter what comes.

When your heart can breathe freely there is peace in your Soul.

From my healing heart to yours,
Sending Love in all directions ❤️🙌🙏