Misha’s Story

Hi, my name is Misha. I have been asked to share my experiences with you, tell you how I became a Bikram Yoga Teacher and what my life is like now. I love being able to share my story with others in hopes that I can inspire you to follow your dreams. I hope that my story will enable you to realize just how powerful you are. That you have this unleashed strength and potential you are not even aware of

I will start my telling you that I am in living in perhaps one of the most beautiful places on earth. Byron Bay Australia is my home for the next 3 months. I live in a beach house. I teach and practice yoga everyday. I get in the ocean everyday. I meditate at the beach everyday. I walk along the beach everyday. Everyday my life is full of joy and gratitude. I am living my dream. Before Byron Bay, I taught in Singapore for 6 months. I was able to travel to Indonesia twice during those 6 months. I learned how to live in another country. I also came in second place in the Singapore Yoga Asana Championships enabling me to go to Los Angeles and represent Singapore in the International Competition. I learned yet again, that I possess this “Bengal Tiger Strength”.

I am 38 years young and have been a Bikram Yoga Instructor for a little over 3 years, been practicing Bikram for almost 5 years and have been sober for a little over 5 years. I tell you that because that is who I am, that is part of my story, that is how I get to do what I get to do today.

I started doing Bikram about 6 months into my sobriety. It seemed to be the only time during my day that I could really quiet the chatter- class killed me…everyday it killed me. But, that final savasana was magical for me. I worked hard for 90 minutes to get there. To get to that space where NOTHING, NOONE else mattered- it was just me and it was starting to be ok being “Just Me”. It never used to be ok. That is why I drank and did drugs. I wasn’t comfortable in my own skin. Pretty soon, I was getting to that space before final savasana…..I loved this. Eventually I started coming to class early so I could try and get in that space before class too. I loved this yoga, I loved what it was doing for me. I was changing.

I lost my job in early November, pretty close to my one year sobriety birthday…..I got messy over it. Tried to figure out WHY was this happening to me? What was I going to do? I was still learning how to live life on life’s terms and then life threw me a curve ball. All I had was my sobriety and my yoga. I was unemployed for about 2 months……I did yoga everyday. It saved me from myself. It saved me from the drink that I was so close to. It saved me from the drugs that seemed like they would ease all my pain. I wanted this to be my new job. I wanted to share this gift with others. I needed to get to Los Angeles and become a teacher. HOW????? I didn’t even have a job yet.

So, this is where it all starts….this power of positive thinking, this “assuming” you already have something that is not quite in your grasp, this thing they call manifesting. I started talking about going to training with my friends, my family, other students, teachers….everyone knew that I wanted to be there in September. This was MAY. One of the students in Paradise Valley Arizona suggested that I try to get out of my lease and move in with someone for the last couple months to save on rent. He said I could move all my “stuff” to his place as he was heading back to Minnesota until December (graduation was in November). Another student overheard this and asked me if I could dog sit for her two pugs while her family went to Canada….from May until September (I would leave in September for training). Was this all really happening? YES! My condo was Sublette, I got out of the lease in MAY, moved all my “stuff” into John’s home and moved into Deb’s home to live for free while becoming friends with two pugs

I wrote an email to headquarters asking if I could send money in as I got it- Shelly believed in me for some reason and agreed to take money in installments. But I was only saving $2100 by moving out….what next? I decided to ask for the money…..from everyone I knew. I put together an email in which I told everyone how much I wanted to become a teacher, how the yoga had been so healing for me and made such a difference in my life. I put in the email if they were offended that I was asking to simply delete the email, but if there was any way they had any money to donate that I would be forever grateful and that I was going to be the best teacher I could be and that I would never forget how I got there. I started receiving checks in the mail. I received one check from someone I didn’t even know…people had forwarded on my email to their friends as well. I would send Shelly checks for 210.00, 130.00, 55.00.…anytime I had money- I sent it. When it came in, it went right back out. I made up my mind and I was going to keep trying until I had the money I needed- I kept going. Some of my friends in recovery got word of what I was doing and money started appearing from everywhere. I hung a jade lotus in my car from the rearview mirror. It was supposed to bring on unexpected miracles. Each time I got into my car, I rubbed the lotus and said, “I am going to training”. While in class, I started to use my 90 minute meditation to get me to training. I would breathe in Training and Security, I would breathe out Fear and Anxiety. I was manifesting…I was making this happen. I have a God Box that I put things in…things that I can’t quite figure out, things I need help with, things I need God to take care of- I put a piece of paper in the God Box that just said Fall Training 2005.

Next came the t-shirts and hats. I decided that I would invest a little money to see if I could make more money by doing so. I worked for a restaurant at the time and had a T-shirt guy that did all the shirts and uniforms for the restaurant- he agreed to help me. He sold me shirts and hats at his cost. I designed the shirts, “Know Yoga, Know Peace. No Yoga, No Peace” Put a little stick person on them and started selling them to students, teachers, family, co-workers. I had baseball caps made that said, RELAX- those were pretty popular too. As it got closer to training, people were just giving me money and telling me to keep the shirts and sell them at training GREAT IDEA, all yogis like yogi clothes!!!! Selling my leftovers at training fed me for a couple weeks!

I was cleaning the yoga studio in return for free practice- that saved me quite a bit of money those last couple of months. I was saving every penny, I wasn’t shopping, eating out, spending money frivolously- everything extra I had was going to headquarters or towards my bills that would need to be paid during the nine weeks. By mid August, end of August- everything was paid for, my bills were paid and any extra money was going towards living expenses in Los Angeles .

I had an unexpected let down with a home I was trying to sell- the person that was renting the house had trashed the home and it was looking like I either wasn’t going to sell it before training or that if I did sell it, there would be no profit. When I saw the pictures of what my home looked like, I went a little crazy. I ended up having to leave work that day. My father knew I was in trouble and made me meet him. I remember the sadness in his eyes when he said, “You are probably going to have to wait and go to training in the spring, it is just not the right time”. I looked at him and said, “I will go to training in the fall, Dad- spring is not an option”. I sold that home, the net out was $518.00- and I think I owed someone $250.00 for cleaning it…didn’t matter. I was going to training- The Universe and God had already teamed up, heard my prayers, saw how hard I working and decided this was to be. I graduated November 19th 2005 two days after celebrating 2 years of sobriety.

Today, I have to be careful what I wish for- I am very much aware of the power I possess. I told myself I would stay in Phoenix for 6 months after graduating and that I wanted to travel after that- almost 6 months to the day I was meeting with Joani Nunez in Los Angeles and discussing a move to Houston to be mentored by her and Mike Winter. I moved to Houston with all my “stuff” in July 2006 and taught, and practiced and grew. I learned so much in Houston. Joani taught me about detachment, she introduced me to Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth, Beauty, Abundance and to this day, I have an amazing relationship with this beautiful deity. She has taken care of me since. When I think about where I was back in 2005 financially and where I am today, I am still a bit amazed. When we stop worrying about money, when it stops being such a big deal, when we believe that we will be taken care of as long as we are doing the next right thing- good things happen. Things fall into place. They have for me. I am traveling the world right now- I am making enough money to live in the space that I have chosen and then am free and powerful enough to pick the next space and just get there. I have since sold all my “stuff” so that I could be free to travel and teach and practice and grow and share. I get to give back what was so freely given to me. I never forget how I got here and I am a better teacher because of it. I just found out that I get to be on the teacher training staff for the last 4 weeks of Spring 2009 Training in Palm Desert- that is another dream coming true for me. So, I will do that in June, in July I will spend time with my 19 year old daughter that has come back into my life after 18 years ( I gave her up for adoption) and then in August I will continue my journey- where? Not sure yet, but certainly not worried about it because I know that wherever I am supposed to be, I will be. If I decide I want to see The Swiss Alps, I WILL SEE THE SWISS ALPS! It truly is as simple as that- believe in yourself! Start to believe that you have no limits and you won’t have any limits. Start to believe you can have whatever you want…and you start having whatever you want As long as I stay sober and keep teaching and practicing Bikram Yoga…..the world is my oyster-

Namaste-

Misha