Veteran Yoga Spotlight

Erik’s passion for his yoga practice and surf shows every time he’s on his mat. His fluidity in movement during his pre-surf warm up is inspiring.  Thanks to Kate Moon Yoga, Erik has been awarded a 200-hour yoga certification scholarship to her teaching training this summer. We can’t wait to see what Erik brings to the classroom and to the mat. 

Here’s what Erik has to say about what his yoga practice means to him.

“I first started yoga to balance out other exercises and deal better with recovery from them. But it always had a vibe that was intriguing beyond the skeletomuscular elements that I couldn't quite fathom. There seemed to be a lot of depth in that practice. Eventually, I moved from my DVD yoga to a studio. From there I carried my practice with me to sea and all the stops on the way. I began to notice how it had shaped my mindset as I frequented military installations and felt the stark contrast. That was what I couldn't fully understand before. There is very little opportunity to flow with the moment on a mission like you would practicing the physical or mental parts of yoga. Sure, you have to pivot sometimes, and pivot fast. But the rigid goal is always the goal. Yoga gave me tools like breath work, which greatly improved my technical skills under pressure and helped me stay calmer in stressful scenarios. Balancing the technical mission-oriented mindset with the let-it-go mindset is quite the challenge. Yoga has become a spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical practice for me, providing space for things I don't understand or have pushed to the side. It's a form of worship and an opportunity to connect with a community of people. Of all the lessons I have been learning from yoga, breathing, all it affects, and the metaphors that go with it is at the core. Without breath nothing works. And with it, things seem to work out like they're meant to.”