Yoga and learning to be intentional | Curated by Courtney

Hi Tanya’s friends! My name is Courtney Bier, I write the health and wellness site, Curated by Courtney. Tanya is a very dear friend of mine! Our journey together started when I was her Account Consultant at rewardStyle. As I watched her brand grow, we continually met for coffee and lunch to discuss what was next for Tanya Foster. Each lunch was filled with many laughs and as I learned more about Tanya she became my version of #lifegoals. We are so similar and she has taught me the world! The woman is truly genius and also so incredibly genuine, true to herself, and kind. A real gem in this world! We are both Capricorns, my first day at rewardStyle was ironically her birthday, we were both Zetas in college, and love many similar past times and hobbies. Sometimes God brings people into your life and you just know why – Tanya is one of those people for me.

I recently went on the most fulfilling yoga and life journey and I was honored when Tanya asked me to share it with all of you.

Where to begin! I got into yoga when I was pretty young, my first class was around age 12. I was immediately turned off from it because it seemed like some boring hour of stretching and if I was going to workout I wanted to actually burn calories. I kept going back to yoga because my mom would go and I started to like it. There was a sense of accomplishment during each class and I think in our day-to-day, in someway, we are all looking for a sense of accomplishment to positively stroke our ego. Yoga was a very small hobby of mine until college when I started going to classes a few times a week. It made me feel amazing physically and mentally and I really got into it. After college I moved to Dallas and started working full-time. I got my first job when I was 15 and had been working since then, but the whole 9-6 thing was a very hard adjustment for me. Everyday it felt like all I did was go to work. I knew I had to do something before or after work to break things up during the day and yoga did just that for me. My mental push to go to yoga was so when I went to sleep at night, I had the sense of accomplishment I was doing something besides just working. I highly recommend finding an after work hobby to help you in your routine!

After about 6 months of being in Dallas I had this crazy idea – I wanted to teach yoga on the side. The studio I wanted to teach at offered teaching training but because the course was 10 consecutive weekends in a row, I could never commit to the dates.

Fast forward a year, I had been in Dallas for about a year and a half and this yoga thing was still hanging over my head. I had this desire to teach and help people and it sounds cliché but I felt it inside of me to teach others all which a strong yoga practice teaches you. Again, the dates thing, it still wasn’t working out. Everyday I found myself going back and forth with this idea and finally after sitting on it for a while, I started looking at other options.

Bali, Indonesia is one of the most sought out yoga destinations in the world. Many training programs are offered here and they are on average 4 – 5 weeks long. All day, every day, sun up to sun down, yoga. This whole experience was extremely appealing to me but the “don’t do it” voice in my head kept going off and saying – “what is wrong with you? Clearly this isn’t a good idea.”

There was also my job, clearly I could not go on a 5 week hiatus. I decided to make a complete career change and while it was very scary at the time, I haven’t looked back once and know I am doing the right thing.

Before committing to Bali I went with a safer route and booked a week of yoga r&r and teachings in Tulum, Mexico to ensure 1) I was comfortable traveling out of the country by myself and 2) I actually liked filling my life with so much yoga. I anticipated booking this trip would ease my yoga wanderlust a bit but it actually made it so much worse. The first morning after my last day at work, I booked my yoga training in Bali for 4 1/2 weeks – all a week after I would get back from Mexico. It was all so spontaneous and last-minute which is polar opposite of how I do anything normally. Simultaneously it taught me a lot about not having to have a plan all the time which has done wonders for me.

So, yoga training! This experience honestly cannot be put into words. How I live today is very different from how I lived 6 months ago. I live with more purpose, less stress, more happiness, and way less negativity and complications. Here’s 3 things I learned which I hope you can take with you.

Detach from What You Cannot Change

I wrote a big blog post about detachment recently and recommend it to everyone I know. We are all living in this world where we seek so much control and it really sucks the fun out of everything quite honestly. We create an opinion about everything, have you ever wondered if things were created so you can form an opinion about them? They were not. Once you start looking at life this way and detaching from how you think things should be, how they should go, life seems much more simplified and enjoyable.

Differences in the World Are What Make it So Incredible

At yoga training I was one of only a few people from America. The rest of my group was from Australia, New Zealand, London, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Morocco, Thailand, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland and many more incredible places across the globe. I quickly learned how different our lives were, our day-to-days were, our thoughts and beliefs were. The best part of all, I realized how beautiful it was to be surrounded by people who were so vastly different from me. I learned from these people day after day. Every conversation I walked away with new knowledge and it was incredible. Many people often see others who do not have the same views or backgrounds as them as a source of frustration. They do not give them the time of day. It is an incredible opportunity and gift to hear about how the rest of the world lives. America seems big but it is really so small. We are 1 of almost 200 countries in the world. Listen to how others see the world and do not have conversation to offer argument or criticism, simply learn about their culture. It is truly an incredible thing to know we all live in the same human body but somehow our lives are so different.

Get off Your Phone

This one is hard, it is really hard and I totally get it. I do everything on my phone just like you do. All my banking is on my phone, I talk to people through my phone, my business relies on my phone and its social media apps, I find new restaurants on my phone, I take pictures on my phone – trust me, I get it! You have got to find a way to balance it. This whole standing with your phone in your hand 24/7 and tied to your hip thing is really decreasing our quality of life. I still do all of the things listed but I have become more conscious of how much time I give this brain and time sucking device. I wake up in the morning and I do not do anything regarding my phone until I am sitting down at the table with my morning coffee. I get the day started with a clear head. While drinking my coffee I think of everything I need to get done with requires my phone. I do them and then ta ta goes my phone, I put it in a different room until I am done with what I need to get done in the morning. This has honestly made it so much easier for me to get stuff done. When I am out and about I take photos and upload and edit them later. The only time I have a lot of quality “screen time” is before I go to bed. I know people say this is the worst time to be on your phone but it works for me. We live in a day where people feel this urgent need to post everything they are doing. When I was in yoga training I intentionally did not post anything on Snapchat or Instagram stories for weeks. I did not want to see a new continent through a filter and taking time away from my phone, granted I also did not have any wifi 95% of the time, felt so good. I wish I could live this way everyday. You notice things you normally do not notice when your neck is not at a horizontal angle looking down at your device. It is nice to have gotten to see things I may never see again with my full attention, and I know no one at home was suffering because they did not get to see my many experiences via video.

shop the post

Final day to enter the $500 giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway