how many of us knew exactly what we
intended to do with our life when we
were kids well when I was 17 and a
senior in high school I thought I had it
all figured out I plan to go to Columbia
University in New York and get both a
rigorous academic experience while also
training to be a professional ballerina
I remember the exact day that that plan
got derailed it was a sunny day in April
and I just finished track practice I
started into the routine of calling home
every day to see what college acceptance
letters had arrived in the mail on that
particular day when I called my mom was
so excited to tell me that Columbia had
arrived I asked her if the envelope was
big or small and when she told me the
envelope was small I immediately started
crying my mom urged me to hurry home and
open the envelope myself but I knew in
that moment that my professional dance
career had ended before it ever started
I went to Cornell not Columbia and I
continued to dance albeit not
professionally my ballet teacher at
Cornell began each class with a brief
yoga practice ballet introduced me to
yoga and yoga ultimately introduced me
to myself through yoga I developed a
self-awareness that set me down the path
to discover my true life intention most
of us are moving through life on
autopilot we’re going through the
motions giving little attention to the
behaviors we take every day and the
moments that we’re collecting from the
time we’re very young we’re set on a
race track of time milestones that we
should precisely hit at every turn if
we’re doing life right from playdates to
driving going off to college getting
your first job
getting married and have
children then ultimately moving into
your four-bedroom home with your two-car
garage in the suburbs and most
importantly feeling happy the goals and
accompanying timeline are set for us by
the cultural norms and values of the
society we live in we are in an
achievement oriented productivity driven
society the ability to meet goals and
accomplish things makes us feel proud
and valuable and worthy but it’s never
enough
we’re rarely Emma now and we’re
constantly seeking the next best thing
we’re surrounded by messages to do more
faster bigger better my own life has
certainly fallen subject to this at
times study get good grades participate
in sports and extracurricular activities
go to college then grad school then more
school and the cycle has continued and
then the process of working tirelessly
to stay on track I’ve often been an
anxious and neurotic wreck rarely if
ever did I stop to ask myself what my
true intention was and how my goals and
everyday behaviors aligned with that
intention since I couldn’t become a
dancer I did the next best thing and
became a psychologist I was living in
Ann Arbor doing a post doctoral
fellowship in psychology and in the
midst of a breakup when yoga found me
again I’d studied enough psychology at
this point to appreciate the importance
of self-care and scheduling positive
behaviors so I made an intentional
decision to start going to yoga I’d been
wanting to get back into it for a while
and now seemed as good a time as any as
Ann Arbor is hardly a town known for its
bustling nightlife in the therapy world
it is commonly held
that the interactions that play out in
the context of the therapy space are
microcosm of how people behave in the
real world the same can also be said for
yoga the anxieties and frustrations of
the real world often play out on the mat
and the awareness and intentionality
that’s cultivated on the mat can be
taken back into real life when I enter
the yoga studio I roll out my mat and I
sit down in my designated space in the
front corner of the room because my
default is to operate from a place of
structure and routine I always sit in
the same space and when I’m not able to
sit in that space I’m anxious or I’m
annoyed I’m still working through that I
sit down and I check in with myself and
I survey all of the places in my body
where I feel strain or discomfort I
purposefully check to see if I’m
clenching my fists or firing my brow I
check the pace of my breath sometimes I
lie down I lie down and allow the floor
to carry the full weight of my body I
let go of all effort I allow myself to
just be in my many years of practicing
yoga I’ve come to appreciate the great
privilege it is to have this few minutes
to check in with myself even before the
formal class starts when I’m in this
space I’m just a girl that sets up her
mat in the front corner of the room not
all of the labels and expectations that
society places on me or that I place on
myself when the teacher comes in I sit
up promptly ready to be a good student
and do my best yoga classes often begin
by setting an intention for what you
hope to get out of the practice that day
when it’s time for me to set an
intention it’s usually something like
relax or
number you are enough I follow as a
teacher guys the class through a series
of familiar postures
despite this familiarity some postures
are still very challenging a battle
against the frustration at the postures
that I can’t do yet and the postures I
used to be able to do that I can no
longer do I remind myself of my
intention you are enough as the class
reaches its climax my body starts
showing its signs of fatigue I push
through and win fathom taking an
unsolicited child’s pose because I don’t
give up I notice my breath becoming more
rapid I follow the teachers instruction
to breathe intentionally when a posture
is particularly challenging I remind
myself of my intention relax some
postures bring me an overwhelming sense
of relief they feel as if stress and
worry is literally being wrung out of my
body as if the weight of the world is
being lifted off of my shoulders I
noticed this feeling and I breathe it in
with joy and gratitude the practice ends
just how it started I lie down and allow
the full weight of my body to sink into
the floor I check in once again to
notice where I still might be holding
tightness or tension sometimes my mind
starts to wander I bring it back not
wanting to lose any of the goodness of
these moments I feel proud that I
accomplished my goal of coming to yoga
that day and my body too is rejoicing a
few years into my yoga practice I
started to notice the ways in which Yoga
was changing me
Yoga taught me to be in the moment and
to accept things as they are not as they
were course or as anyway
them to be yoga taught me to embrace
stillness and the opportunity to check
in with myself yoga taught me to breathe
the breath is your life source and your
anchor through yoga I developed a
practice of observing my breath in
periods of ease and struggle and learn
to slow down my breath in moments of
struggle yoga taught me self-awareness
it taught me to observe my body my mind
and my emotions I noticed how I react in
the face of challenge and how my mind
can vacillate sometimes unpredictably
from peace to chaos yoga taught me
patience every day I walk into the yoga
studio is different and every day I wake
up and take on life is different there
are many roads to a singular destination
and sometimes an unpredictable road can
take you to a beautiful place that you
never knew existed yoga taught me to let
go it taught me to let go of rigid
expectation of what I thought would be
or expectation of what I think may come
it taught me to let go of things that
don’t serve me like situations people or
even my own thoughts yoga taught me to
be flexible Yoga is not only about
flexibility on the mat but the ability
to adjust to life
Yoga taught me to find my edge to work
within that space and be stretched and
grown a flexible body led to a flexible
spirit and a flexible spirit led me to
be less resistant and more tolerant of
unexpected life events and challenges
finally yoga taught me to trust myself
through yoga I became more closely a
with my sense of intuition and developed
a confidence in being able to listen to
that intuition and not the distracting
chatter of the world around me it’s easy
to look around and see that I’m not the
only one that’s jumped on the yoga
bandwagon there’s a yoga studio in every
corner Yoga YouTube channels you know
the magazines yoga apps in fact yoga is
one of the top ten complementary and
alternative approaches used by adults in
the United States in 2012 21 million
people stated that they had used yoga
for their health in the past year Yoga
has health benefits including reducing
stress depression and anxiety improving
attention and concentration physical
fitness strength and flexibility as it
became as I started to really think
about the ways in which I was personally
benefiting from my yoga practice I
started to wonder how people in my
clinical practice might also benefit
from the skills that I learned in yoga
in my clinical practice I treat adult
women who are experiencing symptoms of
depression and anxiety most of the women
I treat are highly functioning and just
need some extra support in coping skills
to get through the day-to-day challenges
of life a few years ago I treated
someone who was feeling stressed after
recently having had a baby she had a
traumatic birth and delivered early and
her baby spent two months in the NICU at
the point in which she came to me her
baby was nine months old and healthy but
she was extremely anxious because things
were not going according to her plan
this woman had been a professional
athlete and after her athletic career
ended she went to law school she married
her high school sweetheart she got her
first choice job and now she was having
her first child by her own report she
had always gotten every
she wants it but not now now things were
out of control
she was plagued with self blame and
guilt that she had not given her son the
grand entry into the world that she had
imagined she feared that she had already
ruined his life by not getting him off
to the best start despite having
information from her doctors that he was
progressing well she panicked
every time he moved with the fear that
he would do something to hurt himself or
she would hurt him she was so blinded by
fear and worried that she could not see
her healthy happy son in front of her
she was clinging relentlessly to the
storybook delivery that she thought she
would have and judging herself for her
inability to meet her own unrealistic
expectations this woman is not unlike
many I see in my therapy practice
anxiety disorders are among the most
common psychiatric conditions with about
one in five people meeting criteria for
an anxiety disorder at some point in
their life women are 60% more likely
over the course of therapy we work
together to develop an awareness about
her fears and worries that she wasn’t
and wouldn’t be a good enough mom and
the ways in which this fear impacted her
behavior by preventing her from allowing
her son to explore his environment and
from her from seeing the moments of joy
that were surrounding her every day
eventually she learned to slow down to
allow herself to just be and to be less
reactive and more responsive she let go
of her storybook delivery and accepted
what was before her and she got better
it’s easy to become blinded by the
stories we tell ourselves about how
things should have been or how we
imagine that things will be we can
become burden by expectations set by
ourselves or the world our active
wandering minds can get in the way of us
noticing and appreciating what is right
before us what would it be like if we
were to start each day by setting an
intention if we were to set an intention
set it free and wait openly for it to
come back to us how would your life be
different if you created moments of
stillness to check in with yourself and
truly get to know yourself how would it
feel to let go of expectation allow
yourself to just be and accept yourself
as you are what would it mean to trust
that your path is the right path and the
only path for you Yoga was my vehicle to
cultivate and greater self awareness but
what might open your spirit to
discovering your true life intention and
noticing the possibility within you and
around you every day I’ll end by sharing
my favourite intentions in my yoga
practice with you relax and know that
you are enough
[Applause]
intended to do with our life when we
were kids well when I was 17 and a
senior in high school I thought I had it
all figured out I plan to go to Columbia
University in New York and get both a
rigorous academic experience while also
training to be a professional ballerina
I remember the exact day that that plan
got derailed it was a sunny day in April
and I just finished track practice I
started into the routine of calling home
every day to see what college acceptance
letters had arrived in the mail on that
particular day when I called my mom was
so excited to tell me that Columbia had
arrived I asked her if the envelope was
big or small and when she told me the
envelope was small I immediately started
crying my mom urged me to hurry home and
open the envelope myself but I knew in
that moment that my professional dance
career had ended before it ever started
I went to Cornell not Columbia and I
continued to dance albeit not
professionally my ballet teacher at
Cornell began each class with a brief
yoga practice ballet introduced me to
yoga and yoga ultimately introduced me
to myself through yoga I developed a
self-awareness that set me down the path
to discover my true life intention most
of us are moving through life on
autopilot we’re going through the
motions giving little attention to the
behaviors we take every day and the
moments that we’re collecting from the
time we’re very young we’re set on a
race track of time milestones that we
should precisely hit at every turn if
we’re doing life right from playdates to
driving going off to college getting
your first job
getting married and have
children then ultimately moving into
your four-bedroom home with your two-car
garage in the suburbs and most
importantly feeling happy the goals and
accompanying timeline are set for us by
the cultural norms and values of the
society we live in we are in an
achievement oriented productivity driven
society the ability to meet goals and
accomplish things makes us feel proud
and valuable and worthy but it’s never
enough
we’re rarely Emma now and we’re
constantly seeking the next best thing
we’re surrounded by messages to do more
faster bigger better my own life has
certainly fallen subject to this at
times study get good grades participate
in sports and extracurricular activities
go to college then grad school then more
school and the cycle has continued and
then the process of working tirelessly
to stay on track I’ve often been an
anxious and neurotic wreck rarely if
ever did I stop to ask myself what my
true intention was and how my goals and
everyday behaviors aligned with that
intention since I couldn’t become a
dancer I did the next best thing and
became a psychologist I was living in
Ann Arbor doing a post doctoral
fellowship in psychology and in the
midst of a breakup when yoga found me
again I’d studied enough psychology at
this point to appreciate the importance
of self-care and scheduling positive
behaviors so I made an intentional
decision to start going to yoga I’d been
wanting to get back into it for a while
and now seemed as good a time as any as
Ann Arbor is hardly a town known for its
bustling nightlife in the therapy world
it is commonly held
that the interactions that play out in
the context of the therapy space are
microcosm of how people behave in the
real world the same can also be said for
yoga the anxieties and frustrations of
the real world often play out on the mat
and the awareness and intentionality
that’s cultivated on the mat can be
taken back into real life when I enter
the yoga studio I roll out my mat and I
sit down in my designated space in the
front corner of the room because my
default is to operate from a place of
structure and routine I always sit in
the same space and when I’m not able to
sit in that space I’m anxious or I’m
annoyed I’m still working through that I
sit down and I check in with myself and
I survey all of the places in my body
where I feel strain or discomfort I
purposefully check to see if I’m
clenching my fists or firing my brow I
check the pace of my breath sometimes I
lie down I lie down and allow the floor
to carry the full weight of my body I
let go of all effort I allow myself to
just be in my many years of practicing
yoga I’ve come to appreciate the great
privilege it is to have this few minutes
to check in with myself even before the
formal class starts when I’m in this
space I’m just a girl that sets up her
mat in the front corner of the room not
all of the labels and expectations that
society places on me or that I place on
myself when the teacher comes in I sit
up promptly ready to be a good student
and do my best yoga classes often begin
by setting an intention for what you
hope to get out of the practice that day
when it’s time for me to set an
intention it’s usually something like
relax or
number you are enough I follow as a
teacher guys the class through a series
of familiar postures
despite this familiarity some postures
are still very challenging a battle
against the frustration at the postures
that I can’t do yet and the postures I
used to be able to do that I can no
longer do I remind myself of my
intention you are enough as the class
reaches its climax my body starts
showing its signs of fatigue I push
through and win fathom taking an
unsolicited child’s pose because I don’t
give up I notice my breath becoming more
rapid I follow the teachers instruction
to breathe intentionally when a posture
is particularly challenging I remind
myself of my intention relax some
postures bring me an overwhelming sense
of relief they feel as if stress and
worry is literally being wrung out of my
body as if the weight of the world is
being lifted off of my shoulders I
noticed this feeling and I breathe it in
with joy and gratitude the practice ends
just how it started I lie down and allow
the full weight of my body to sink into
the floor I check in once again to
notice where I still might be holding
tightness or tension sometimes my mind
starts to wander I bring it back not
wanting to lose any of the goodness of
these moments I feel proud that I
accomplished my goal of coming to yoga
that day and my body too is rejoicing a
few years into my yoga practice I
started to notice the ways in which Yoga
was changing me
Yoga taught me to be in the moment and
to accept things as they are not as they
were course or as anyway
them to be yoga taught me to embrace
stillness and the opportunity to check
in with myself yoga taught me to breathe
the breath is your life source and your
anchor through yoga I developed a
practice of observing my breath in
periods of ease and struggle and learn
to slow down my breath in moments of
struggle yoga taught me self-awareness
it taught me to observe my body my mind
and my emotions I noticed how I react in
the face of challenge and how my mind
can vacillate sometimes unpredictably
from peace to chaos yoga taught me
patience every day I walk into the yoga
studio is different and every day I wake
up and take on life is different there
are many roads to a singular destination
and sometimes an unpredictable road can
take you to a beautiful place that you
never knew existed yoga taught me to let
go it taught me to let go of rigid
expectation of what I thought would be
or expectation of what I think may come
it taught me to let go of things that
don’t serve me like situations people or
even my own thoughts yoga taught me to
be flexible Yoga is not only about
flexibility on the mat but the ability
to adjust to life
Yoga taught me to find my edge to work
within that space and be stretched and
grown a flexible body led to a flexible
spirit and a flexible spirit led me to
be less resistant and more tolerant of
unexpected life events and challenges
finally yoga taught me to trust myself
through yoga I became more closely a
with my sense of intuition and developed
a confidence in being able to listen to
that intuition and not the distracting
chatter of the world around me it’s easy
to look around and see that I’m not the
only one that’s jumped on the yoga
bandwagon there’s a yoga studio in every
corner Yoga YouTube channels you know
the magazines yoga apps in fact yoga is
one of the top ten complementary and
alternative approaches used by adults in
the United States in 2012 21 million
people stated that they had used yoga
for their health in the past year Yoga
has health benefits including reducing
stress depression and anxiety improving
attention and concentration physical
fitness strength and flexibility as it
became as I started to really think
about the ways in which I was personally
benefiting from my yoga practice I
started to wonder how people in my
clinical practice might also benefit
from the skills that I learned in yoga
in my clinical practice I treat adult
women who are experiencing symptoms of
depression and anxiety most of the women
I treat are highly functioning and just
need some extra support in coping skills
to get through the day-to-day challenges
of life a few years ago I treated
someone who was feeling stressed after
recently having had a baby she had a
traumatic birth and delivered early and
her baby spent two months in the NICU at
the point in which she came to me her
baby was nine months old and healthy but
she was extremely anxious because things
were not going according to her plan
this woman had been a professional
athlete and after her athletic career
ended she went to law school she married
her high school sweetheart she got her
first choice job and now she was having
her first child by her own report she
had always gotten every
she wants it but not now now things were
out of control
she was plagued with self blame and
guilt that she had not given her son the
grand entry into the world that she had
imagined she feared that she had already
ruined his life by not getting him off
to the best start despite having
information from her doctors that he was
progressing well she panicked
every time he moved with the fear that
he would do something to hurt himself or
she would hurt him she was so blinded by
fear and worried that she could not see
her healthy happy son in front of her
she was clinging relentlessly to the
storybook delivery that she thought she
would have and judging herself for her
inability to meet her own unrealistic
expectations this woman is not unlike
many I see in my therapy practice
anxiety disorders are among the most
common psychiatric conditions with about
one in five people meeting criteria for
an anxiety disorder at some point in
their life women are 60% more likely
over the course of therapy we work
together to develop an awareness about
her fears and worries that she wasn’t
and wouldn’t be a good enough mom and
the ways in which this fear impacted her
behavior by preventing her from allowing
her son to explore his environment and
from her from seeing the moments of joy
that were surrounding her every day
eventually she learned to slow down to
allow herself to just be and to be less
reactive and more responsive she let go
of her storybook delivery and accepted
what was before her and she got better
it’s easy to become blinded by the
stories we tell ourselves about how
things should have been or how we
imagine that things will be we can
become burden by expectations set by
ourselves or the world our active
wandering minds can get in the way of us
noticing and appreciating what is right
before us what would it be like if we
were to start each day by setting an
intention if we were to set an intention
set it free and wait openly for it to
come back to us how would your life be
different if you created moments of
stillness to check in with yourself and
truly get to know yourself how would it
feel to let go of expectation allow
yourself to just be and accept yourself
as you are what would it mean to trust
that your path is the right path and the
only path for you Yoga was my vehicle to
cultivate and greater self awareness but
what might open your spirit to
discovering your true life intention and
noticing the possibility within you and
around you every day I’ll end by sharing
my favourite intentions in my yoga
practice with you relax and know that
you are enough
[Applause]
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