The Thoughts with Love series comes to a close with my self-interview, to give you an idea of what it is I am trying to do over here on this corner of the internet. I wanted to fill you in on what brought me to yoga and meditation – and share why I find these tools so important.
I’ve written out my introduction blurb below, in classic blog post style, but you can certainly just skip the reading and tune in to the interview below:
Thank you for tuning in. It really is an honour to share the tools that have helped me.
With Love, Esta
“Hello, my name is Esta, and I am a yoga and meditation teacher.
I started my meditation journey over 13 years ago now, and my yoga practise followed alongside.
What prompted me to begin these practises you might wonder?
It was panic attacks to be completely honest. As a teenager, I grappled with depression without really knowing about it. I figured anxiety was just a combo of working full time hours at a fast-food joint while I maintained an honour roll grade point average. Without addressing any of these flags, I carried on into my early twenties like this, until panic attacks knocked me right down.
I have acquired tools and resources over the past decade, that have brought me peace, resiliency, and the magical ability to live in the present moment. These tools came in the form of guided meditation, breathwork, CBT therapy, EMDR with a registered psychologist, yoga of all styles (hot yoga, hatha yoga, yin yoga, Yoga with Adrienne, Yoga with Tara Stiles, self directed yoga while listening to music etc.) and finally – completing my yoga teacher training.
I am a 200-hour certified yoga teacher, and all that means is that I completed 200 hours of study and physical asanas (yoga flows) with an accredited yoga teacher certification program. I completed my studies entirely online, with Uplifted Yoga – created by my yoga teacher: Brett Larkin. I talk about her plenty on my website withloveesta.ca if you want to learn more.
I am currently completing my 300 hour yoga teacher training, so I will have a collective 500 hours under my belt. As I deepen my studies, I am releasing a guided meditation, yoga pose breakdown and thoughtful blog post related to meditation/yoga/deep thoughts – each week.
I wanted to provide easy to access tools that help anyone begin a meditation practice. Starting with short guided relaxations, breathwork, and visualizations. We explore all kinds of meditation here!
The same goes for my yoga pose breakdowns. I wanted to provide a sort of library of poses that people can access on their own time, at their own pace, and come back to again and again. Once you learn the dance moves of yoga, you can start to choreograph your own flows – and you can customize the experience to stretch or strengthen whatever you’re focusing on now.
As for my Thoughts with Love blog post series, I have always been a writer. I can’t count the number of notebooks I’ve scribbled full. Writing has always been a way for me to organize and articulate my thoughts. This creative outlet is where I ponder meditation thoughts, string together ideas from books, bloggers, yoga teachers, and creatives alike, and just generally try to share uplifting ideas.
I will get into the interview questions now, thank you to everyone who dropped me a line for these, and a huge shout out to my husband for sitting down and hot seating me for the first draft!”
So – now what?
I am wrapping up the Thoughts with Love series, as we wave goodbye to summer this long weekend.
As we head into back to school season, I am shifting back to the basics. 🍎
The weekly blog posts will continue, but they are shifting to FRIDAY publish dates, and will be more focused on the bare bones of meditation and yoga.
Wishing you a joy filled long weekend.
With Love,
Esta
with love , Esta 