Yoga

Saturday, June 21, 2014

LEARNING

I was recently interviewed by Hakim Belamy for a blog about learning and want to share it with you.  direct link to blog I-remember-this!  or read it here-

I remember this! 
Christina Bouajila is a former K-5 art teacher who struggled with a learning disorder in grade school. Fortunately, her 6th grade year saw the efforts of a vigilant teacher and a determined mother converge as Christina was enrolled in a graduate student led program at Southern Methodist University. There, Christina saw her reading level rocket from a third grade reading level to a post 9th grade reading level as she was about to enter her freshman year of high school. She credits that leap to the passion of those young grad students and the attention she received in an environment where there was one teacher dedicated to the progress of two or three assigned students. However, later in life Christina learned a different kind of “reading”. She learned how to read and listen to her body.I loved teaching, but what I experienced was one of the failings of our education system. I had 950 students in a very large elementary school, dealing with a different classroom and different classes every 45 minutes. I was passionate about it and I loved it. I put a lot of energy into it, but it became like riding a roller coaster, you can only ride it so many times in a day. So I burnt out. It was at a time when the economy was crashing, so I was losing my house. And something started happening at the time where I wasn’t coping with stress. There always seemed to be an endless stream of thoughts, worries about the future and analyzing the past. Very little time was being spent in the present. I also happened to be getting carbon monoxide poisoning from a car that I knew had an exhaust leak, but I thought with the windows rolled down I was protected. Things got so bad that I thought, at the young age of 49, that I was developing early onset dementia. It was frightening, I would be driving places I had been numerous times and get lost. It was really frightening for myself and my pre-teen daughter. I was so afraid and aware that I was losing the ability to have power over my own mind.

So I started looking to solve my lifestyle. Deal with living in relative poverty, part-time work and not wanting to go back to education for a while, so I started going to a community yoga class that was affordable twice a week. And all of the sudden i was like, “I remember this.” I had studied dance and I had always been very active. Before going into teaching and right after college I taught fitness for many years, as well as guided relaxation at the end of intense workout classes for people. And here I was going to this class and all of the sudden I felt peace. I remembered it, and I thought “I know how create this. I know how to do this”.

I kept going to the class for about three or four months. Then, the instructor mentioned that she was going to be moving and that she was having trouble finding someone to take over the class. I’d taught it before and was beginning to practice it more while I was not at class, so I said “You know, I think I could be ready in a month, and I’d be willing to take over the class.” However, I knew in order to take over the class I had to live the example. So I began daily meditations and daily yoga, and it saved my life.

I found my way back to being relaxed, and I mean really relaxed. Not the kind of relaxed you get when you plop down in front of a TV. I was able to be deeply relaxed and calm my mind enough to just be in the present. Now, it’s been over four years of daily practice that brings me back to that place of peace.

Christina Bouajila is a yoga instructor, meditation coach, visual and performance artist. The proud mother of a fine young scholar, Christina also organizes flash mob style, synchronized meditation events called "Med Mob". Find Christina and her yoga practice at HappyMountainYoga.com.