After Melissa’s Sunday night sculpt class, Ashley Da turned to me and said, “that was hard.” Outwardly, I agreed. Inwardly, I felt satisfied with myself. I had survived a class one of my favorite instructors found challenging.

Afterwards, I felt too yoga drunk to drive home. I sat in my car and tried to turn on Spotify but I couldn’t even remember how to turn on Bluetooth. I decided to just sit and eat my banana in silence.

I finally hit the road and about 5 minutes into the drive I started crying. Crying!?! Was this the body’s natural reaction to Melissa’s sculpt class? You physically have nothing left to give so the only thing left to do is cry? But I realize it was so much more than a reaction to Melissa’s class. It was a reaction to the gift Power Life has given me over the course of the past year. Power Life has given me what I need to finally feel like myself again.

I walked into Power Life for the first time roughly a year ago feeling like a shell of my former self. The previous December, I had nearly lost my life while losing a pregnancy that I had prayed years for. I was lost emotionally. I was physically recovering from a traumatic, life saving, emergency surgery. Previously I found my identify and sense of community in fitness, suddenly that was taken away from me. I could not find joy. My spirit was broken.

A month later I talked to my trainer and dear friend, Lisa, about joining the Power Life community. She always had such positive things to say about it and I felt yoga would be the best way to take care of my body while slowly re-introducing movement. I walked in and instantly felt welcomed. That day I attended a meditation class and a few minutes in, I fell asleep. The teacher gave my mind a sense of peace I hadn’t felt in a long time.

For my second class I decided to try Maria’s restore. Throughout class she discussed the human experience of bearing witness to one another. She walked around the room and lightly touched each one of our backs (remember how nice that was???). At that point, I lost it. I literally cried for an hour straight during restore. I couldn’t stop. It hit me like a ton of bricks that I was given another chance to live, and here I was doing it: LIVING.

It has taken almost a year, but with Power Life’s help, I finally feel like myself again. There are so many instructors who have made my experience a positive one, it would be impossible to mention them all here. But to each one of you and the larger Power Life community: Thank You.