Cristina M. Colón

Like most people, yoga found me when the suffering became more than I could bare. I was 33 years old living a life that most people would envy, I had a nice house, made good money, a company car and lots of friends and social interaction. I was a single mom, but had tons of support and a great relationship with my ex, so all in all life was good.  The truth is, that on the surface everything looked great, but on the inside I was falling apart. 

"The good job" that I had came with a price. I was constantly working, stressed, felt very unappreciated, and to top it off, my values didn't align with the products I was selling. Day after day I would peel myself out of bed to simply put one foot in front of the other and keep this life going. But the weight of living outside of my truth was so heavy, that eventually I fell into a deep depression. 

The gift that depression offered me was that it began my search for answers. Admittedly this search started well before my 33rd birthday, and in 2011 when I was in the deepest whole of depression I've ever been in, I decided to rent out my townhome and move in with my parents to pay off debt and prepare to change careers. 

This time spent back with my folks was a gift, because it helped me realized that simply changing careers wasn't going to fix my issues, that was an inside job. That's when I discovered meditation.

Meditation is singlehandedly the tool that helped me take the edge off of the depression, and begin the process of unlearning the the habit of despair.

In 2013, I added reiki to my self love healing journey, and in 2014 I enrolled in the One Yoga, Yoga Teacher Training (YTT), and my life is forever changed. 

The thing that I didn't know about yoga is that it is much more than just breath-work, postures and meditation, it's a blueprint of how to live life fully present, free and completely authentic. Since undergoing this transformative process, it has now become part of my DNA and I can't help but express that part of myself and want to share it with the world. I know what it's like to make choices that dishonor my truth, and to not have or uphold boundaries that are kind to me. I've been there, but I'm not going back. Yoga has been the biggest blessing of my life and I'm honored to be able to share that gift with others.