I started practicing yoga around 2010 as an overwhelmed graduate student working full-time in Chicago. At the time I felt lost, unsure, and alone, and that one hour of stretching and breathing reminded me of my own strength and presence. Eventually I got my two-hundred-hour certification and taught yoga for several years. The number one question I was asked in that time was this: “How do I start practicing yoga?”
Which tends to make me laugh. Not because I can’t empathize—I totally appreciate the genuine desire to explore yoga, and I definitely can relate to not knowing exactly how or when to begin. But at the risk of sounding like every other yoga teacher I’ve ever met, I’m sorry to say there’s no mysterious answer. In fact, it’s pretty straightforward: you just start. Today. Before you buy a cute yoga outfit, before you find the best studio in town, before you research unfamiliar terms, before you master a single pose, before you’re skinny enough or fit enough or “good” enough…before any of that, you can start a yoga practice.