This story is about how yoga helped me to to gain freedom. It’s been four years since I was having a very crazy routine, working 14-16 hours a day, lots of stress and responsibilities due to work. My daily breakfast consisted of chocolate with Red Bull every single morning and every night when I reached home I would have a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream while laying in bed. A very stressful and unhealthy lifestyle.
By that point I thought life was good in general as I was doing well in my career. Surprisingly (or not really) I found out about a problem on my sciatic nerve, which was getting worse and worse due to many hours standing, which started to affect my happiness at work.
The doctor told me a surgery would be required. A simple one, with laser, all would be sorted. We scheduled it for two months later and I was completely satisfied that my main issue in life would be sorted.
It happened that one week prior to the surgery I received a call from the hospital. A nurse was telling me that unfortunately my health insurance was not approving the procedure, as my company’s HR shifted the insurance policy without informing me.
At the first moment, I was mad as hell. How could HR do this? I needed the surgery. They not even informed in advance about the change, so I could have tried to anticipate the scheduled date. But after a moment of reflection, I was able to realize that they wouldn’t make anything different, so it was on my hands to approach the situation from another perspective.
What could I do? That was my question for few days till yoga came to my mind. I was completely stiff at that point, not able to do most of the positions, but decided to keep focusing on that. One month later I had improved a lot, it was crazy how fast the results were and it was like a whole new person was there.
Many questions started to pop on my mind, many different thoughts about life, priorities, objectives. I started to question every single thing in my life. “Am I in the place I am supposed to be?” “Am I having the life I am supposed to have?”
It was a really deep self-awareness process, that took me to a whole different perspective about my own self. That’s when I started to question my career and initiated my moves to leave that life behind.
First, I tried to simply shift to a different company, a different country, expecting that things would get better inside my head. Lived in 4 different countries in one year time, trying to get answers (or trying to run from the answer which was already there?). Up to the moment that I finally realized it was not about shifting external factors, but the inner ones. Accepting that I was no longer feeling comfortable with my old career, my old self and gathering the inner courage to start changing what was not making me satisfied.
Having time to think about it now, I realize that the surgery was not necessary as my issues were fixed with a change of old habits and a more healthy lifestyle. The pain on my leg lessened tremendously as I acquired a more balanced life. By no means I’m a fantastic yogi, but I can say that the practice of yoga brought me freedom.
