The World Is My Yoga Mat: Well-balanced yogi

How many times have you run into someone you know outside of the place or activity that you know him/her through, and didn't recognize her? The suit-wearing business man at Sunday brunch in worn jeans and a t-shirt. The yoga teacher out dancing in 4" heels and a short skirt. The hipster barista at a spin class in head-to-toe spandex.

We have a tendancy to categorize people when we meet them. Maybe it's a technique to help us remember people and interactions. Maybe it's our evolving psychologies that have yet to break out of our mold-making/archetyping habits. I've been on both sides of this. Some of that was inherent in working multiple jobs in a ski town. I taught multiple yoga classes a week at the studio in town and also hosted and served at a popular fine dining restaurant. Visitors in town would sometimes not initially recognize their yoga teacher from that morning in the black shirt and tie clad server or dress-wearing hostess in front of them. With makeup on too! I'm the yoga teacher in their minds, and they're not expecting their yoga teacher to be presenting them with braised buffalo short ribs and a bottle of wine.

Server job

Yogi/teacher job

Hostess job

I found this to be the case frequently in my ski town. Servers were professional skiers, and waited tables at night so that the day could be spend hucking cliffs and filming powder videos. Liftees had masters degrees, and decided they'd rather live a mountain lifestyle than use their degree in an office in a city. Ski shop clerks spent the winters skiing and then moved somewhere equally exotic for the summer, forever following the next season.

I'm finding this is common on the West coast, people working a certain job so they can have the hours they want, or to pay the bills so they can pursue their true passison once off shift. Non-traditional jobs are more common out here, too. Working from home, owning your own business, having unusual hours or work days... All of the above is way more common out here than I found on the East coast. I just read an article about the "slashie" movement in our generation, bartender/aspiring actor for example. In general, I find that people out here don't define themselves by their career or job quite as much. (That's not to say people here aren't hardworking, motivated, goal-oriented, or have careers, or that East coasters aren't passionate!)

I personally love this. I love that nobody is strictly how we initially perceive them to be, that we as humans defy categorization (Divergent, anyone?). People are dynamic and multifaceted. In my worlds as a yoga teacher and on the West coast, things and people are very...fluid. Laid back. Striving for happiness rather than strictly for success. Even if it's a stage in their life, like a ski season after graduation. I remember chatting with a table at my restaraunt job in Colorado. They were in town visiting, and one man was absolutely shocked that I'd graduated from a four-year university that he'd heard of. He went on to bring up how his son studied three different fields in school, and was even more shocked when I said that I had too. After a pause, he asked, "Then what are you doing out here?!" To him, I was a ski bum working in a restaurant. In fact, pretty much everybody in my previous home was very well educated. They'd just made the concious decision to take some time off or make a lifestyle choice, and put health, happiness, nature before traditional career success.

I also remember one time a student came up to me in the grocery store (remember, VERY small town) and looked through my cart! I'd dealt with health questions and shock over the fact that I'm not vegan many times before, but that was definitely a first. I absolutely try to eat healthy and well-balanced most of the time. However, I do have a sweettooth. That doesn't even begin to explain the relationship I have with chocolate. I enjoy wine, coffee, sweet potato fries, and a big ole burger after a day of hiking... I also love quinoa and salads. I firmly believe in striving for balance. Nothing super drastic is going to be sustainable. Just like I've had periods of getting up at 5am to practice yoga before a day of studying yoga for 8 hours or getting up at 6am to run then surf then eat mangos then do yoga and meditate on the beach AND other periods of staying out dancing until the club shuts down (2am in the States and 5am in Buenos Aires). I LOVE shaking my booty, just as I love yoga and beach running.

Dancing with the girls

Cinco de Mayo celebrations

Bridesmaid perks

People aren't as they appear. They have passions, families, vices, pasts, stories... We each have so many roles to play in our lives: mother, wife/partner, friend, daughter, niece, employee/r, yogi, teacher, skier/hiker/runner/surfer, photographer, writer, etc... We are made up of ALL of these facts and roles. That's what makes us so amazing!