Twizzlers in the laundry room

I'm from Ohio originally but I spent the first ten years of my yoga practice at my hOMe studio in Texas. One of the most challenging times in my practice came right after we moved.

Not long after we moved from Texas to Ohio, life felt like it was spinning faster than I could keep up. I had a 3-year-old, a newborn, and we had just bought a new house. My husband had started a new job, and everything was new and foreign. Routine? Out the door. Sleep? Nonexistent. My practice? Unrecognizable.

One afternoon, in our nearly empty playroom surrounded by inflatable furniture, I remember hiding in the laundry room, quietly sneaking Twizzlers so my toddler wouldn’t ask for any. I had a moment of pause and realized—I didn’t recognize my life or myself.

What had we done? Who was I in the middle of all this change?

The only constant then was Being Yoga—a Monday night yoga philosophy class—and my individual lessons with my teacher Padma. During one of those lessons, as I was juggling kids and chaos, she said something that pierced through the noise:

“You are still the same person.”

I didn’t fully believe it at the time. How could I be? So much had changed. But I kept showing up—through interrupted meditations, sleepless nights, and my own resistance. It took time, and the support of my teacher and community calling me back again and again, to understand:

My practice couldn’t wait for life to get easy. It became easier as I accepted the stage I was in and kept practicing anyway—perfectly imperfect. Slowly, I found my way back to myself.

Looking back now, I’m grateful I had tethered myself so closely to my community that I couldn’t walk away. It would’ve been easy for that woman in the laundry room to lose her why and her way.

(Thank you, past Heather 😃)

My teacher and community have brought me back to myself again and again.

And if you’ve ever found yourself wondering who you really are, I hope this serves as a reminder:

You are still the same person.

The practice will bring you home, too.