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Yoga Journey to India, and becoming a CIYT

I was living in Midtown Atlanta when I discovered Iyengar Yoga. Before that, I had heard of yoga, and I was curious to know more.

In 1999 I was a newlywed, and my husband was in graduate school studying International Affairs at Georgia Tech. As a 23-year-old wife I had the perk of taking free continuing education classes at Georgia Tech. I read the printed brochure of offerings and signed up Kundalini Yoga, not knowing what Kundalini meant. There were no yoga mats, and everyone showed up wearing all white. For eight weeks we sat on the carpet floor and breathed. Growing up I did classical ballet and gymnastics. That yoga was not for me. I needed movement. 

Two years later with a shiny new diploma, my husband got a grown-up job that came with a gym membership on the top of a grown-up high rise building downtown. The Peachtree Athletic Center had a juice bar before that was a thing, a bougie warm towel service and a beautiful group fitness center with hardwood floors that reminded me of a ballet studio. They offered yoga so I decided to try it again. 

My body and mind were at home in that class. My body aligned with the physical instructions, and my mind aligned with the breath to go deeper within myself. It was my first class, and I loved it.  

After class I learned the teacher was Mark Bodner and he was preparing for his assessment to become a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (CIYT). His mentor was Kathleen Pringle of Stillwater Yoga, and her Iyengar Yoga studio was within walking distance to my house in Midtown Atlanta. 

Now begins the practice of Yoga

I took my first yoga class with Kathleen at Stillwater. Painted on the wall above the door welcoming students into the main studio (which sadly closed shortly after Covid) was the first sutra from the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – Atha Yoga Anushasanam, translated as, now begins the practice of yoga.

The door of Iyengar Yoga opened, and my yoga practice evolved into a home within me – a place I always wanted to return. Where I can feel grounded, present and peaceful.

Another sutra painted on a studio wall was, yogah cittavrtti nirodhah, translated as yoga is the cessation of movements in the consciousness. My yoga practice has traveled with me through the fluctuations of life and guided me even when I could not guide myself. 

There were other sutras on the wall at Stillwater. I would look at them during class, craving more knowledge about yoga.  

In the early 2000s Stillwater was buzzing with students going up for assessment and making plans to visit the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India – the home of Iyengar Yoga. Everyone was joyfully serious about their practice and teaching. 

I wanted to be a part of this community. I wanted to be a teacher like them. 

At the time I was enjoying my life as a freelance journalist in Atlanta. Those were the days when bins of poche magazines and alternative newspapers lined the street corners downtown. And I was writing for many of them. I was living my twenties and our pre-kid life to the fullest. 

But as we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary, talks of having a baby were well in the works. 

I got pregnant and was grateful to study with Kathleen throughout my pregnancy. But I could not ignore the constant buzz about teachers going to India to study with BKS Iyengar, for a month every year!

None of the teachers at Stillwater had children. So, I thought to myself: “When I’m done having babies, I am going to India.” 

Decades of Full Time Motherhood

Haiden, our first baby, was born Fall of 2004 and Esther, my last girl, was born Summer of 2015.

After Haiden was born, I stopped buzzing around town as a journalist to stay home with her. Like all my babies, Haiden nursed and never took a bottle. Brian and I’s parents lived in different parts of the sprawling city and were still working. One afternoon a week my dad drove my mom downtown to watch Haiden. I had just enough time between feedings to attend yoga class with Kathleen. And that’s what I did every week with my three hours of “me time.”

In Fall of 2005 when everyone at the studio was buzzing about the October 2005 Iyengar Convention in Estes Park Colorado (the last time BKS Iyengar traveled to the United States to teach) my husband was starting a new job and we were moving to Knoxville, TN. 

When I moved to Knoxville there were THREE yoga teachers in town. I appreciated them all for what they offered. But nothing came close to Iyengar Yoga with Kathleen at Stillwater. So, I rolled out a yoga mat in my living room and finally established a home practice. Literally.

I was grateful for my knowledge and confidence to safely practice yoga through all my pregnancies, and phases of mothering small children. 

Between baby girls three and four, in 2013, I had two miscarriages. The sadness of that period was the longest time I ever went without getting on a yoga mat. To heal, I went the beach for the summer but didn’t plan on doing yoga. 

When I got there, I was surprised to find a new island yoga studio. I rode my bike to class everyday wearing my pajamas. It was not Iyengar Yoga. But the owner was (and still is) a classically skilled teacher with a dedicated personal practice. She welcomed me and provided the space I needed for healing. And I was home again, with yoga.

A New Chapter with Iyengar Yoga 2014

Back in Knoxville, in August 2014, I heard the news the BKS Iyengar died. I wasn’t done having babies. I had not been to India. And now he was gone. I picked up my copy of Light on Life, reread the intro and was profoundly moved by the well-known quote, “My end is your beginning.” 

By now, an Iyengar teacher named Cindy Dollar from Asheville, NC was traveling to Knoxville to teach a nine month-long program. I wasn’t done having babies and I wasn’t interested in being a teacher at that time. But I did want to learn from a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. 

Two months into the program I became pregnant with my last baby girl. After Esther was born, I taught prenatal and postnatal while wearing Esther in a baby carrier. 

Cindy stopped coming to Knoxville to teach. So, when Esther started Montessori pre-school school, I started making day trips to Asheville once a week, for classes with Cindy. It was a two-hour drive over the mountain to get to class. I left early, took two classes, and was in the school pick up line by 3:30.  

About a year later, Cindy was selling her yoga studio. Wanting to support me, Cindy suggested I go to Nashville to attend mentoring sessions with Aretha Mckinney, a senior Iyengar Yoga teacher who now owns Chestnut Hill Yoga.  

While I was a new student in Nashville, Geeta Iyengar died. 

Geeta was BKS Iyengar’s daughter who wrote Yoga A Gem for Yoga – the very first yoga book I bought at Stillwater. Geeta and her book guided me through pregnancies and my practice as a woman.  

I was done having babies and I was time to prioritize my goal of studying to be a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher. It was 2018 and I was ready to embrace a new beginning. In Nashville with a new teacher. 

But part of me wondered, with all the changes, did I wait too long to pursue being a CIYT and going to RIYMI in India.

Becoming a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher after 2020

Soon after, the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States (IYNAUS) announced they were revamping the certification process and taking a year-long break of certifying new teachers. 

Then came COVID and I began to realize accomplishing my big goals while parenting teenagers was harder than doing it while having small children. Because 2020 brought all kinds of challenges. 

Our oldest daughter experienced a mental health crisis. To find adequate in-person treatment we spent four months in a city eight hours away. That time, my yoga mat, props and yoga books all came with me!

In that scary, cold feeling apartment (like that desperate summer at the beach) my yoga practice felt like home, allowing me to find peace within my body and mind.

During Covid I did not utilize the Zoom yoga world right away. I retreated within and had a quiet existence with my family, until we all got in a better place.

Eventually, I was grateful for Zoom yoga because it meant I could take on-line classes from Abhijata Iyengar – BKS Iyengar’s granddaughter, a great teacher and businesswomen now managing RIYMI in Pune, India. 

Seeing the RYIMI yoga hall in the classes for the first time on my computer screen felt surreal, like a mini trip to visit India! It showed me it was NOT too late for me to join the CIYT community visiting Pune. 

Abhijata is a mom to young children. While teaching international classes on Zoom, sometimes one would make a surprise appearance from behind the zoom curtain to gift her a freshly made piece of art. I felt a connection to her. 

Here is Iyengar teacher who was also a mom, leading RIYMI through challenging times and doing it very well! 

It felt like the right time to be exactly where I was on my journey! It felt like another new beginning.

I kept going to Nashville and taking classes with Aretha. And online with Abhijata. 

In May 2023 IYNAUS hosted the US Iyengar Convention in San Diego. Abhijata would be there teaching. It wasn’t Estes Park, but it was a big deal to attend. I had never left my family for that long!  

New teacher assessments with IYNUS were back happening but all on Zoom. I gave myself a deadline to decide by the end of the convention to apply (or not) for assessment in 2023. I was as ready as I was going to be. Aretha agreed and recommended me for assessment.

That year IYNAUS offered an option to teach in-person, using a Zoom camera to display the class. So, I signed up. I passed in September and became the first Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher in Knoxville, TN. 

Planning for Pune, India 2025

Our family always travels together. My husband Brian and I have been to 27 countries together since we met in 1997. So going to India solo was a big deal.

Summer 2024 travel plans were designed to be a steppingstone to India. Our family would go farther and more exotic than ever before, as the Simmons six.  It included Australia, Bali and other remote scuba diving destinations in Indonesia. 

Mental Illness challenges from 2020 re-appeared. So, in support of our daughter, we traded a trip for therapy at home. Life happens and canceling our summer plans was the obvious answer. 

Needing a place to heal, I scrolled the IYNAUS calendar of events and found a last-minute spot for a retreat with Marla Apt at the Feathered Pipe Ranch in Montana. While doing yoga in the mountains with many other CIYTs who have traveled to India, I knew it was time for India. 

On the last day I sat outside having breakfast with Marla, and I asked her when should I go to India? She said, “RIYMI is hosting a big 50th Anniversary Celebration in January. You should go then.” 

Before my flight had left the mountains, I texted Aretha and a few other teachers from Nashville asking if anyone wanted to go with me. Four of them said yes. 

Two days after Christmas 2024, I kissed my husband and my family goodbye for a month!!! And I flew to Pune, India. Solo. Country number 28. 

Aretha and my Nashville friends would me there a few days later.

On New Years Eve, I walked into RIYMI, introduced myself, signed up for classes and went to the library. 

The desk where BKS Iyengar sat and wrote his books is just the way he left it. Except now there is a photo of him in the chair he sat in. On the table is a book of newspaper clippings from his death and his life. The cover of it said, “My end is your beginning.” 

That night I rang in 2025 on the rooftop of where I was staying in Pune, down the street from RIYMI.

I was in India. I felt at home. Very at home. 

Older posts you might like:

A New Beginning with photo from Stillwater Yoga Studio

Aligning Life Through Yoga

Yoga Play at Home with kids having fun!

Yoga for the New Year 2016 Throw back to baby Esther! And I had a home studio, when all the yoga happened in my living room.

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Lost Laptop Lessons

Two days after Christmas 2024 I departed and spent a month in India practicing Iyengar Yoga. India is more than an adventure and far from a vacation. It is an awakening. But it was time to go home to my mom life with four daughters. 

I carried my 16” MacBook Pro with me on this trip to type yoga notes and manage travel arrangements. But I never used it. The Wi-Fi was terrible I and my international phone plan was all I needed for the minimal communications I made to the world outside of yoga.

Before leaving for India I officially closed my yoga prop business. I was ready for an awakening of what comes next. I did not need to drag a laptop with a terabyte of old data with me, especially when not all of it was properly backed up!

My laptop proved to be unnecessary baggage

My journey home began in Bangalore with a 3:35 AM flight that was delayed. Which left me with in a 45-minute layover in Frankfurt, Germany, before my second 10-hour flight to Chicago. I was traveling solo.

I landed in Frankfurt at gate B6 and departed for Chicago at gate Z25. I had to go through immigration and the security line was barely moving. My flight was boarding in 10 minutes so I skipped the line. I felt nervous about doing it but people were kind and understanding. My carry-on suitcase got stopped for inspection, and in a hurry, I left my laptop in the security bin while I re-zipped my suitcase. 

Relieved that I made it to my gate before my plane started to board, I stopped to order a cup of European coffee. I was savoring it after living through a month of instant coffee in India, when I heard on the loudspeaker… “Rebecca Simmons come to immigration.” What!? Me!? I checked with my gate agent to make sure my passport cleared for boarding and decided to ignore the announcement.

I landed in Chicago and got settled for a productive 6-hour layover before my last leg home. My layover plan was to upload my 2024 teaching hours to the Iyengar Yoga National Association United States website and formulate my teaching plans for 2025. But my laptop was gone.

Airports have lost and found

While brain when was still adjusting to what day it was, I made foggy yet determined attempts to rethink my steps. The Find My app still showed the laptop at the Bellur Iyengar Institute, the last time it connected to weak WIFI.

I searched the lost and found website at the Bangalore airport and tried to make plans for an American yoga teacher to retrieve it for me. Navigating Indian airports is its own awakening of half managed chaos functioning quite well with A LOT of people. Surprisingly several grey laptops were left at the Bangalore security the same day as mine, and they employ a helpful 24-hour lost and found staff. But they don’t ship found items.

Next I remembered that strange airport announcement as I sipped my European coffee in Frankfurt. Rebecca Simmons is my username on my computer log in which was why I was called to Immigration.

Germans, with their commitment to order, had a straightforward website for me to report my laptop as lost, a number to call during normal business hours, and website to pay my 237 Euros to ship it home. When DHL delivered it to my front door, a week after I got home from India, the laptop was still charged.

What was I thinking when it was lost?

In Chicago when I realized my computer was gone, I went into action looking for it, but I did not panic. In India I expereinced a tremendous showing of kindness and people willing to help strangers and foreigners. When my wallet fell out of my bag in a rickshaw, the driver came back to find me and return it!  I had a renewed feeling of things working out and people being good people.

I thought about losing six years of yoga notes, journaling, class sequences, assessment studies and more that were left on my desktop. And I accepted that might be the case. I would move on, relying to what I know now in my head, heart and body – after India. A true fresh start.

I was also ready accept if my unsaved photos did not return to me, I could piece together enough data – from various places though iPhoto, Dropbox, social media, old blog posts, and emails. And it would be okay. That alone is enough. It would have to be. Especially compared to photo books of faded prints from my 80s and 90s childhood. 

However…. my daughters are growing up and my second girl is graduating high school this year. It’s fun to look back at all the photos, memories and forgotten home videos, neatly organized on a computer desktop, versus digital overloads from smart phones now living in dust bunnies under a bed as “a back up.”

Re-entry into home life after a month in India takes time to process. The extra time to be disconnected to my terabyte of reality, in hindsight, was a gift. 

A Found laptop finally made me clean up years of digital mess

The return of the laptop initiated a greatful response to back up all photos, videos, written stores and yoga notes saved on my desktop, and a collection of aging thumb drives and external hard drives.

I purged photoshoots and files from my old business, letting go of that past. I made space in my terabyte for recovered data, precious photos, videos and memories.

I am working on digital organization but not digital hoarding. Because no kid wants to be handed an obsolete computer to find their childhood photos unable to open. Or be told the story when a laptop of baby photos never made it home from India. 

Old data is nice to have but I need space to move forward. Space for the unfolding of a journey that continues at home, while India stays in my heart.

Germany, thank you for sending my laptop home. Thank you for giving me a week after India, to realize I could let go and move on, but feel the relief and gratitude that I didn’t have to.

Next trip, the laptop stays home.

Incase you are curious… or need to know…

External hard drives do go bad. Scan drives go bad. And forgotten passwords for digital photo accounts can be a pain to recover.

It took a full weekend of staying focused to avoid long trips down memory lane… but here’s what I organized and backed up to digital sources.

  • Six years worth of professional family photos from my laptop
  • Everything on my desktop Laptop
  • Managed accounts from iCloud, Google and Dropbox that included pre-smart phone years
  • Twenty year old photos on thumb drives, memory cards and external hard drives hiding under my bed because I wasn’t sure if they worked and I was too scared to look.
    • The good news is, the most important external hard drive worked! And I found things I hadn’t seen my current laptop was purchased in 2019.
    • The scan drives worked!
    • I’m only missing one photography beach session from 2018.
    • In addition to having my desktop back, all the photos, stories and random files living under my bed from previous old computers are now available to enjoy.

Thank you Germany. Thank you India. 🙏

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Where have we been?

Since the last travel post of Summer of 2021, we went a lot of places. After losing and recovering my laptop after traveling home from India, I have spent days organizing old photos and revisiting past years. There’s a post on that.

Looking forward, I have new hopes for documenting travel but with the same mantra of taking adventures and not vacations. Adventure is about the journey and the journey all depends on where you let the trip take you. Here’s where we have been…..

2021 Winter Holidays was spent in Canada

In December 2021 Covid tests were still a part of travel. We showed vaccine cards to get into restaurants in Quebec City and risked a non-refundable remote destination trip to a Northern Lights lodge on Christmas Eve if one of us would have tested positive for Covid before we boarded the bush plane. In Banff, the ski school had to be vaccinated to stay for lunch, but the Canadian kids didn’t have access to the vaccine yet. So, Esther was the only one to stay for lunch! We all skied during a hard freeze where the lifts sometimes didn’t open because it was -25C. The three-week trip was magical and epic. COLD but amazing.

That trip was documented well on Instagram and you can find the posts here.

In 2022 we went to warm places and CUBA

The next year we went scuba diving in Andros, Bahamas and Little Cayman. I took the girls to Anna Maria Island for Fall Break but we got evacuated by Hurricane Ivan.

In 2022 I bought a yoga prop business and ran the Inner Space Yoga website while traveling to remote destinations. Recently, I officially closed the business and am changing my focus back to this space. Literally – I even bought a new camera and am learning to use new software!

Now, I’m making a “brief” catch up before I move on to my next phase of documenting epic and meaningful travel. Like our long-awaited trip to Cuba, orginally planned for March 2020 when Covid shut down the world.

On Christmas Day we flew to Cuba and rang in 2023 in a country that changed our hearts and minds forever. We met beautiful, kind souls who welcomed us openly and joyfully. We traveled with amazing friends and our combined SEVEN daughters. We stayed in hostels and were hosted by local Cuban families. We had amazing drivers who led us on road trips through Cuba in vintage cars with no seatbelts – passing horse and buggies, meandering cows, beautiful oceans, farmlands and so much more in this country of struggling situations that feels like a misunderstood mystery to us Americans.

We traveled under a “Support for the local people Visa.” We were not allowed to visit and give any support to places that were owned by the Cuban government. We gave most of belongings away to locals we met and left with empty suitcases, but wide openhearts. Put Cuba on must visit List!

In 2023 we went a lot places!

The year 2023 included Mont Tremblant, Vermont, NYC, Taiwan (for 1 kid), Bonnaroo music festival, Bonaire and Finland! Haiden graduated high school and there were several college tours in the mix too.

During a long winter weekend, a friend and I took a gaggle of girls to NYC. We love sharing travel with friends and we love Canada, so for Spring Break has friends join us for skiing at Mont Tremblant, Quebec. In February I snuck off for a sunny birthday break solo at AMI and paddled around the island. In May I went to San Diego for the US Iyengar Yoga convention, as made monthly trips to Nashville to study with my yoga teacher. Somewhere in there (not shown in photos) I took FIVE girls to see Taylor Swift in Atlanta!

One college visit included a long Easter weekend for the six of us in Burlington, Vermont. Exactly eight hours after high school graduation, the graduate was on a plane with a friend to Taiwan. When the graduate asked to take my vintage camper to Bonnaroo, I enlisted my NYC mom friend to join me for some VIP glamping. And Bonnaroo became one a major destination!

That summer we spent 12 days scuba diving in Bonaire before moving Haiden to college in Atlanta. Esther is now counting down the six months to go until she turns 10 and be a certified diver with us!

In October I passed my assessment to officially be a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher – this was HUGE In fall we went camping with my sweet vintage camper, a few times. We visited Haiden for family weekend at college and I flew to a yoga training in LaCrosse, WI.

We wrapped up 2023 with a big family trip to Finland, a road trip to the Arctic Circle to the home of Santa and onward North for skiing in Levy. It was dark, cold skiing and it was my favorite ever skiing adventure!

Find a few more pics on Instagram from Finland.

2024 was a weird year

With a Haiden away in college, we went without her on a two week trip of Costa Rica. We missed her. But really, this was not her kind of trip. She has led the charge on scuba diving in our family. She was happy to skip trekking in the rainforests with the birds. The rest of us loved road-tripping around Costa Rica.

The summer was quiet as we played catch up on life and stayed home. I went to my 30-year high school reunion. I had never been to one before and that was a TRIP. We took a short visit to our old time home away from home Anna Maria Island. And Esther had her first official lessons in scuba diving.

Then I took the leap to do some solo adventures. I went to an Iyengar Yoga retreat at the Feathered Pipe Ranch in Big Sky Montana. I took Esther camping solo. I passed my free diving certification which felt like a BIG win at the time. And I took my first live aboard to scuba dive in the Sea of Cortez, to swim with whale sharks and twill with sea lions.

The day the kids got out of school for Winter Break we left for a quick ski trip to Mont Tremblant and Montreal. We flew home on Christmas Eve because they all requested to be home Christmas morning. It was short and sweet. And everyone had a great time!

Next up is INDIA!!!

Two days after Christmas Rebecca left for India to attend the 50th Anniversary of the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, the home of Iyengar Yoga.

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A New Beginning

This is the first yoga studio I ever visited. It was Stillwater Yoga in Atlanta and my teacher was Kathleen Pringle. She planted the seed for me to be a life-long learner of Iyengar Yoga. I took this photo during one of my last visits before this special space closed. I’m grateful for it, along with all the Iyengar studios that feel like home, my mentors, and the teachings of BKS Iyengar. 

In Fall of 2023 I pass the national assessment process to become a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher.

“It is my profound hope that my end can be your beginning” – BKS Iyengar. Light on Life

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The courage to teach

I took a long break of teaching yoga since Covid hit. Parenting four kids in a pandemic was a full-time job, plus some more. While studios across the country offered Zoom classes and eventually opened back up with various mask policies and social distancing. I just wasn’t ready for that. I was giving everything I had to my family.

While I haven’t taught during Covid, I have been grateful for my practice. Yoga keeps me in check mentally, physically, and emotionally. When times are challenging, that’s when I need my practice the most. It grounds me, gives me balance, and equanimity. I love inversions. Even if life has left me exhausted, doing a hanging headstand on my ropes wall is always the solution for a better day for me. It’s almost like the cheeky saying, “turn a frown upside down.” Inversions do that for me. And I love to teach inversions. They can make students feel strong, joyful, and light. And they usually leave class feeling like they accomplished something hard. When we feel like we can do hard things, we accomplish hard things.

I’ve been on an intrinsic kick lately about being brave and having the discipline to do difficult things. I was reminded by a friend last week that walking into a yoga class can take courage. She didn’t think she was strong enough to do shoulder stand. She felt safe in our private session. We went through actions of lifting the body in standing poses and relating it to being upside. It’s not just a balancing act, inversions are a lifting act. She learned she was strong enough to do a shoulder stand using the wall as a prop. I was grateful to teach her this. She was grateful for my teachings I offered to her.

And with that, I decided I am ready to teach again. I have the courage to teach. I have the space in my life and my heart to teach again, and I need to be offering this goodness to others wanting to learn the benefits of yoga.

So, I’m putting myself back out there. If you are interested in a private session or being part of a semi-private class email me at rebecca@innerspaceyoga.net. I would love to share yoga with you.

And now that I’m a co-owner at Inner Space Yoga and Meditation Supplies, there are plenty of bolsters to around. Or up and down. It’s perspective. And it’s all yoga.

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Being a runner again

It still sounds strange to think of myself as a runner again. I haven’t defined myself as a runner since before I had kids. But I loved it then, Walkman and all.

Last month I found out I love it again.

I was fine taking my daily walks. Until I felt the need to be more productive during the day. Basically, I didn’t have two hours to stroll the neighborhood and chat about gardening. I love talking to my neighbors. I really do. But I needed more pep in my step.

Brian my husband joked that people don’t stop to talk to him when he’s running.

Monday morning, I downloaded a running app to keep my time and made a goal to do three miles in 45 minutes. It was just a goal to keep me from stopping to smell the flowers for too long. I’m not trying to win any races here.

Two days later I popped in one Air Pod and some 80’s music. Now I’m dancing down the Greenway to I will walk 10,000 Miles, Footloose and Like a Virgin.

My hesitation to running again was that my pelvic floor is not exactly like a virgin after four babies. Running is the equivalent to jumping on trampoline at age 45. It always sounds more fun that it is.  But I have you know… after running four mornings a week for a month, my pelvic floor is probably in her early 30s again.

Together, we are rocking this running thing. Even on muddy trails. Even in the rain. But mostly, it’s been good to have discipline and a goal to stick to everyday. I write running in my calendar (yes, I have a paper calendar) and hold myself accountable.

I’m so, so close to doing 3 miles in 40 minutes now. I think it will happen this week.

Have you done something lately that you just want to say, “Yeah, Go you?” I give you permission to do it. And to dance down the Greenway. 

UPDATE: Two days after I posted this I ran three miles in 38 minutes. The silly part of me had the theme song playing in my head, “Girl is on Fire.” It was fun.

 

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A summer spent in the water, being brave

One positive thing about Covid was we spent a lot of time outside and at the beach. By Summertime we were ready to travel beyond the beach and mountains where we had family to visit. Since our 20 countries in 20 years Scandinavian wedding anniversary trip, we had to postpone a scheduled trip to Cuba as well as hopes of traveling to new continents in 2020.

Playing it safe but traveling as far away as possible in the United States, we spent a chunk of our summer in Hawaii. We basically lived in the water, and I was so proud of my family for trying so many new things. Esther Kate was 5 and became a great snorkeler. Lydia June was 11 and had her first ocean scuba diving experience since getting certified at age 10 in a quarry in East Tennessee.

We all had a day where we kayaked up a river in the rain, hiked a mile though the mud and swam a cold waterfall.  It was an empowering day. It was cold, kids were cranky, our picnic didn’t work out as planned, and the one-mile hike did not advertise hiking through a river. But we did it! And something inside of me switched that day. It said, “YES. We can do hard things!” I was so proud of us and grateful to have that experience together while traveling. I documented our island hoping trip in Hawaii on my Instagram account, with plenty of photos in my feed and saved on my stories. 

Our Hawaii trip was all about building us up to do a very big cool thing as a family.

To visit Belize and the Blue Hole

While in Hawaii, I realized was tired of watching my family scuba dive. I admitted was scared to scuba dive. I was scared I would run out of air. I knew that fear getting in my way of adventures, because I love to swim in the ocean. I decided to be brave. And I got certified to scuba dive one week before we visited a scuba diving report in Belize. I wanted to dive with Lydia, my older teen Haiden and my husband Brian.

But hmmm….if I’m not on the surface to be Esther Kate’s snorkel buddy who will swim with her? Her teenage sister Aubrey who was afraid of sharks and eels and things that slither in the water? It was going to have to work. We can be brave. Yes, our family can do hard things.

On my first dive, Lydia was already in the water waiting for me to jump in. I looked at Esther’s scared face and I said, “You got this.” I looked at Aubrey and I said, “This is going to be fun!” And I left them on the dive boat with a snorkel guide who had the big job to make them feel safe and have fun.

I descended down to the ocean’s floor for the first time as a scuba diver, in charge of my 11-year old. And leaving some people I just met in charge of my nervous snorkelers on a boat off the coast of Belize. I reminded myself about dropping small children off at school, and the how the drop at the door and walk away trick works better than the sticking around for too long mistake. And how children listen better to teachers than their parents sometimes. And I swam. Fifty feet below the surface. Trusting that a 5-year old and a 15-year old could be brave together.

Eventually I looked up and saw Esther and Aubrey waving down at us from the surface. The snorkel guide Carlos had worked his magic just like I put all my hope and faith into him to do. They were having a blast.

“This is going to work.” I thought to myself as I lived out my mermaid dreams swimming though beautiful coral reef. “It’s going to be a great week. We can do hard things together!”

On the third day we made it to the Blue Hole. We snorkeled the rim together since we are not advanced certified divers to go down 120 feet. The reef system in Belize is the second largest in the world, to The Great Barrier Reef in Australia. While snorkeling with Esther Kate, I asked the guide if I could take off her life jacket. He said sure if I was comfortable with it. Immediately Esther started free diving 6-10 feet deep. She never wore her life jacket again that week.

The next stop was an island where we dropped off the snorkels, and the boat headed back out to deeper waters. Carlos showed my not-scared-anymore girls a shark, an eel, and taught them to free dive even deeper.

We spent a week on a remote island at The Blackbird Resort. We cannot say enough wonderful things about the dive team there, and all the staff. We took a tiny plane from Belize City to get there. We traveled with all our snorkel gear and scuba gear for four people. Yes, four. We can do hard things. We can learn amazing things from traveling.

To see all our amazing pictures from our trip to Belize, visit my Instagram account.

I’m not sure when we will make it to Cuba and that level of off the grid travel that I want to experience with the kids. But for this summer, Belize was amazing.

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Rebecca’s Yoga Schedule

The doors to my home yoga studio are open again. It’s a beautiful space that I’m grateful to have and grateful to share. If you live in Knoxville and are interested in joining a yoga class or scheduling a private session, I’d love to hear from you.

Class offerings at my home studio.

  • Thursday at 9:30 is Yoga with Ropes Wall
  • Fridays at 12:00 is All levels Yoga
  • Private sessions are available between 9:00-2:00 and 4:00-6:00 on weekdays

Yoga with Ropes Wall uses the ropes wall as a prop to achieve alignment and extention of the body. It is helpful for stiff bodies, back issues, inversions and restorative poses. This class has evolved into a semi-private group of regular students. I send out a text reminder on Sunday to those with intention of attending class, to see who is available that week. I have space for six students. It’s a 75 minute class for $12. New students are welcome.

All Levels Yoga is an introductory class using props as necessary. It covers all genres of standing, sitting, twisting, backbends and inversions on the introductory level of Iyengar yoga system. This is a new class. I will be teaching this class to incorporate what I am studying as part of my Iyengar yoga teacher training program. It’s 60 minutes for $10. Drop in students are welcome.

Private sessions are a wonderful treat for anybody. It’s a perfect fit for people who need specific modifications or have questions about being brand new to yoga.  Semi-private sessions can be arranged if you have friends or co-workers looking for a similar yoga experience. Private sessions are available at a sliding scale rate.

Contact me if you are interested in joining a class or arranging a private session via email at rebecca@simplynaturalmom.com.

What is Iyengar Yoga? Iyengar yoga is developed by B.K.S. Iyengar. The style yoga is about attention to detail and precise focus on body alignment. Teachers go though poses slowly for students to absorb instruction and align their bodies in each pose. Props such as blankets, blocks, straps, and bolsters offer support to observe alignment with an understanding that leaves you feeling balanced and restored.

About me: I am a certified registered yoga teacher at the 200 hour level. I am on the path to my Iyengar certification which is a rigorous assessment process that takes 2-3 years to prepare for. There are no certified Iyengar teachers living in Knoxville. I study regularly with Aretha Mckinney at the Iyengar Yoga Center of Nashville. I take day trips to Asheville Iyengar Yoga for weekly classes while my four girls are in school. Since 2014 I have studied under Cindy Dollar, former owner of One Center Yoga in Asheville. I took my first yoga class in 2002 at Stillwater Yoga with Kathleen Pringle, an Iyengar studio in Atlanta. Visiting that studio still feels like going home.

I am located in South Knoxville. I practice and teach from my small studio in my detached garage behind my 100 year-old craftsman home. My doors are open to new and old friends. 

You can follow me on Facebook at Yoga with Rebecca.

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Reykjavik, Iceland

We flew in and out of Iceland for our Scandinavian trip mainly because Iceland Air offers the cheapest flights in and out of Europe. Especially when booking a last minute trip in July. So from Sweden, we went back to Reykjavik for two nights before flying home.  On our first stay in Iceland we did not visit the city. We had a rental car and explored the Golden Circle for three days. This time we did not rent a car. Instead we took a taxi to the city and walked everywhere we went. It worked out great. Our Airbnb was small, no frills and in the trendy harbor district.

In one full day in Reykjavik we went to Aurora Reykjavik to learn about the Northern Lights, the Whales of Iceland museum, a whale watching tour, walked around the old city and visited Hallgrimskirkja Church and went on the rooftop of our Airbnb for a final goodbye to our trip. We did a lot in Reykjavik and felt one day was enough time for us to explore the city.

From the rooftop of our Airbnb, we said goodnight to Iceland and goodbye to all our travels. We loved all the sunsets, all the boats, being around all water even if it was cold, all the family dance parties even if the words were in Swedish, trying all the local things and wearing ourselves out going place to place.  The end of our trip was bittersweet because we were going home to face the sad days of Brian’s dad passing. We didn’t want to go home but home was calling us. We made a 10-hour pit stop to toss our dirty clothes in the laundry room, repack, drive to Georgia for funeral arrangements.

During this trip we learned our family does well going with the flow together, because we really love to travel. We learned a month is a long time to be together 24/7 and we do get cranky sometimes. But it brings us all together!  Our older girls feel like they were missing out on life with friends being gone this long, and are protesting my goal of traveling the entire summer next year. Surprisingly, I learned I’m not as attached to my home as I used to be. Through my yoga practice I’ve learned to feel grounded even when everything around us is moving. Practicing non-attachment is working because we can easily live out of our carryon bags and a 10 piece wardrobe for 24 days. I could honestly sell everything and travel around the world full-time. But the girls have to go school and our time for untraditional schooling is closing as they age out Montessori school, start public high school and have to follow attendance policies.

As we move into the school year, I’ll be doing more writing about Home Life and Yoga Life. But the next time we hop on a plane or take a good road trip, I’ll be here to tell you about it.

Here’s a link list to each post from our Scandinavian Trip

2o Countries in 20 Years, Adventures for Six

Iceland, The Golden Circle

Faroe Islands

Copenhagen, Denmark

Tallin, Estonia 

Stokholm, Sweden

Reykjavik, Iceland

Norway trip from 2013

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Stockholm, Sweden

Sweden was our 20th country visited for our 20 Countries in 20 Years Anniversary Trip. Traveling with four children presents it’s own unique challenges but we find it worth every penny to experience this life with our children. Prioritizing experiences over things has become a way of life for us.  I envy young families becoming full-time travelers and being creative with non-traditional schooling options. Earlier in our marriage we didn’t have the ability to make that choice. But we are grateful now, that Brian his own business which allows us the time and means to have this grand experience lasting 24 days abroad. We are most grateful for our health and ability to travel. We are choosing to live in the moment and travel now. We are not waiting until EK is older or LJ is older or until the kids are grown or until we are retired. The days spent with our children goes fast. Just like that, 20 years has past and our oldest child is starting high school.

I say all of this with reason. Neither Brian nor my parents ever traveled abroad. We both high school graduates when we boarded our first an airplane or got a passport. Both of our parents retired to take care of a spouse. Brian’s dad had a stroke at 63 and faced limitations ever since. My mom has MS.  Both celebrated 50th Wedding Anniversaries making memories at home and unable to board an airplane to take a trip of a lifetime.

One of the reason’s we waited till the last minute to book this trip is because Brian’s dad’s health was wavering. He had been in and out of the hospital with heart and lung complications. But we thought he was getting stronger. Unexpectedly, his dad’s health declined and while we were in Sweden Brian’s dad passed away. His mom insisted we finish out our trip. His dad would have wanted us to do that as well. Sweden will always have a special place in our hearts.

We planned our time in Sweden as a vacation from our vacation. We booked an Airbnb in the island Storholmen in the archipelago of Stockholm, and planned for some down time on the water. It was a peaceful place to process what was happening at home. We did our best to keep traveling with open and grateful hearts.

Below are photos of the sweet cottage we rented and memories of our sweet times on the water. When we got off the ferry, our directions to find the house were good but limited. It was like this: go down the path, turn right, pass the brown house, turn by the trash cans, walk down the path to the door, enter in the basement and look on the grey shelf for the key. You can imagine the adventure! Eventually Aubrey climbed through an open window to open the door, while LJ bravely sifted though the basement to find the key. We loved every second of the adventure.  The cabin was built in 1900 and had a perfect old school Swedish feel. The water was cold but we went from jumping off the dock to hoping in the sauna. On the first night as we sat in the sauna we got asked THE question.. “What’s the Wifi password?” From the sauna Brian said, “Um it’s by the TV.” Four minutes later Haiden reported back, “There is no TV!” We never got the Wifi to work either. It was a glorious reset of family time. That little cabin behind the main house was where the older girls stayed. They had to walk around the main house to the basement where the one bathroom in the house was located. It was good for them. There was an old school CD player in the living room. We found a Dolly Pardon CD and mixed in some 9-5 with our Swedish listening. Games were played. Puzzles were put together. Sunsets were better than at the beach. This Airbnb was pure bliss.

We took a ferry into Stockholm to go to the city. There was no grocery store or cars on the island where we stayed. There was one restaurant at the marina, which was quite good. A mom of five children ran it. We enjoyed learning about the way of life there in the winter where children walk over the ice to the next island to go to school, wearing an ice pick around their necks incase they fall in the ice! Children drive boats to friends’ houses before they can drive a car.

I have always been enthralled with Sweden for it’s family friendly values. Every time I saw an opportunity, I would strike up a conversation with mothers on boats and trains and in restaurants. I learned yes it’s true…mother’s receive 1.5 years maternity leave with up to 80 percent of their salary paid by the Swedish government. After that, childcare costs less than $100 a month for working mothers. Public schools are loved. Everything is covered and paid for by the government tax program, from lunches, books and pencils. Healthcare is free. Blended families of other nationalities choose their Swedish citizenship hands down, and move back to Sweden to have a family. Swedish children prefer to speak English to each other and they start learning English in school by age 6. Although most homes speak some English, children pick it up from cartoons on YouTube before they go to school. The world is much smaller than you think. Basically, I love Sweden. Just as I always knew I would. We often found ourselves asking people to speak English because they assumed we were Swedish with our blonde hair, blue-eyed children.  Then the Swedish people would laugh for mistaking us Americans for their own. The people were so nice to us. We felt right at home.

Despite being in shock and grief, we did have some fun while we were in Stockholm. We went to the Abba museum, which had an exhibit on Mama Mia and was a big hit with the older girls! The Museum of Children’s Literature was darling. We took a walk around the old city of Gamla Stan, bought some Fjallraven rucksacks, visited the bohemian trendy area called Södermalm, and the girls discovered their love for the Swedish based H&M clothing store. Basically that’s what traveling with four girls ages 3-14 looks like in a big city. I would have visited the Museum of Photography and the Museum of National History. But our time in the city was limited do to following the ferry schedule and not missing the boat back to our Airbnb. Our trip to Paris in October was chockfull of art museums so we went for more light-hearted fun on this trip. Modern Swedish architecture, art and their way of life could be felt everywhere.We loved the woman on the crosswalk sign above, and the male holding the hand of a child sign! Next photo is us swooning over the stroller culture in Scandinavia one last time since EK has officially outgrown our 14 year old Bugaboo stroller. But wow that thing came in handy this trip! She napped in it everywhere from the subway to the boat during a whale watching tour in Iceland. And subway stations were all stroller friendly, unlike old the metro systems in Paris and London. 

We lost count on this trip how many metros, ferries, taxis and Uber’s we took. But the public ferryboat in Sweden was my favorite mode of transportation.

It was not easy saying goodbye to Sweden. Plus our hardest physical travel day of the whole trip was getting from the island, through the largest metro station we have ever been through, while hauling luggage and children up and down about 15 super long escalators – making our way the commuter rail, to the Stockholm airport, then a layover in the Oslo and back to Iceland. Traveling the world teaches children amazing resilience and to always seek out the adventure in the things. It definitely helps that EK is about the cutiest thing ever riding her red suitcase through airports. Next was our last leg in Iceland before flying home, which was not going to be easy knowing what waited for us. But again, we did our best to keep a steady and calm peace of mind, while appreciating deep in our hearts this life we are living and cherishing.

 

Here’s a link list to each post from our Scandinavian Trip

2o Countries in 20 Years, Adventures for Six

Iceland, The Golden Circle

Faroe Islands

Copenhagen, Denmark

Tallin, Estonia 

Stokholm, Sweden

Reykjavik, Iceland

Norway trip from 2013

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