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Yoga for Plus Sizes
A life-changing, committed group weekly class
Mondays 5:40pm
We commit to focusing on the positive, and tapping into our inner strength,
courage and wisdom.
We experience all the different styles of yoga taught at
A GENTLE WAY with joy and ease.

MY STORY

By Lanita Varshell, E.R.Y.T.500
Owner of A Gentle Way Yoga & Joyful Movement Center

I have always had a larger body. My mother put me on Weight Watchers at age twelve, and I lived the dieting yo-yo life over 20 years; starving myself to lose a few pounds, thinking my life would be better if I could just drop the weight, thinking that "who I was" WAS what the scale and mirror told me. If I could just get this weight off, I’d reason to myself, my life would be the way I wanted it to be, everything would be all right!

I lost weight, hundreds of pounds, just to gain more back, over and over again. Rarely did I last more than a week or two with the latest diet. Each time I couldn't’t take eating another carrot stick or another can of green beans I would hate myself more. The viscous cycle of giving up and then gorging wore my health and self esteem down to nothing.

Finally unable to work , diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue, and Fibromyalgia, I went from doctor to doctor begging for help! They would say to me, "if you would just get up and exercise you would start feeling better," but a twenty minute walk would put me back in bed. I would plead with my doctors saying, "help me feel better so I can walk out my door and start exercising, " but they didn't seem to know what to do with me, other than to describe more pain medication. Their looks were always saying, “you’re just not trying hard enough,” or “you’re lying about what you are eating.”

Severely depressed, but determined to keep trying, I ended up at a Gentle yoga class, not because I ever thought that I could even do yoga, but because this teacher kept trying to convince me that her class was different. I finally showed up, figuring that one class of making a fool of myself would show this skinny little yoga teacher that this large, sick body would never be able to twist into a pretzel, sit cross-legged on the floor, or do a headstand. But this class was different. It was not intimating, it was relaxing and very do-able. After just a few months of consistent weekly classes, I noticed such a physical and emotional difference that not only did I continue my classes, but I immediately began training as a teacher, and have now taught this wonderful method of "Gentle Yoga" since 1995.

Gentle yoga has drastically improved my health, and changed my life. I had spent a lifetime of joining Health Clubs, working out for a week or two, and giving up because of the body pain, shame and humiliation. I finally found a way I could begin to exercise without pain, in the presence of other larger women who were also committed to their health, and in the presence of other amazing women and men of all ages, sizes, and walks of life who do not judge us by how much we weigh.

Yoga is much more than just exercise. Yoga is joyful movement. Yoga means “union,” uniting the three aspects of who we are, body, mind and spirit, by focusing on three things:

1. pranayama: focused aware breathing

2. asana: a movement or pose we hold and breathe into, and

3. savasana: deep relaxation.

I no longer waste precious life "die-eating," but now focus on health: total health of body, mind and spirit. Yes, I have lost some weight since beginning yoga, but I no longer believe that my worth is measured by the scale or my dress size. Gentle Yoga is teaching me how to nurture my body lovingly, gently back to health. It's never about how much you weigh, it's about how happy and healthy you stay, in body, mind and spirit. What is weighing down your spirit???

Let yoga help you re-discover the lighter, brighter, healthier you.

If you do not live in the San Diego area and are looking for a yoga class, please email me and I will support you in finding a class in YOUR neighborhood.

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From a Student....
 I am so grateful to have an emotionally safe place to go to exercise. PERIOD
Of course it also makes me feel better mentally and physically; but the true gift to me is my ability to get up and go every Monday night and not feel self conscious, or judged, or fat. That truly is the best gift that Lanita and you all have given to me; even though so many other great things have come from yoga. I feel protected and safe, that I can go to the studio in whatever I have to wear, however I am feeling about myself, my weight, my life, which in the past has made me a prisoner, frozen in fear and rejection. It is because of Lanita and you gals that I don’t have that fear anymore. Even though sometimes I forget, or take for granted what I have on Monday nights, or think somehow, sometimes I can manage without it for one night...it really doesn't work like that. For me it is like overeating...when I am doing it, I don't necessarily feel badly about doing it. I feel in moment like it is "no big deal” or “for this one time what harm will it do?” If I miss one class what is the big deal…the big deal for me is that I quit on myself. I have been quitting on myself since I was in my 20s…when will I stop letting myself down? The time is now, the day is today.

I read this in a self-help book years ago; ”People make time for what is important to them.”
The question today is, "How am I spending my time today?"

Deeply in gratitude to all of you!
DeAnn  11/07