There’s no such thing as mistakes

Let’s go back in time.

I was in grade 11. I had just stepped off stage, my hair backcombed and sprayed gray, a plastic rat stuck into the mess (I’m not joking), feeling more exhilarated than I had thus far in my 16 years on this earth. This is it, I said to myself, I want to be an actor.

But wait a minute Emily, I thought you said this was going to be the story of how you found yoga!? Stay with me friend, we’ll get there.

That thrilling moment was the beginning of my whole-hearted determination to work as an actor. I went to university to study. I spent four years rolling around on the ground, playing dress-up, investigating the human condition. I loved everything about it…until I didn’t.

I had moved to Toronto after graduation, I was working with local theatre companies, I had just finished my training with Second City, everything I had dreamed of for years was finally coming true.

It was a random weekday and I had an improv gig with my team that evening. I remember feeling this dread in my gut. This feeling of “I don’t want to go.” Those words echoed in my head. And…

BOOM.

I realized that this thing, this vehicle of self-expression that I had committed myself to so fully, had, without my noticing, lost its’ joy.

I started to take stock of my life and my joy had gone missing. I didn’t know where to find it, but I knew what I was doing wasn’t working.

So I broke my own heart and stepped away from acting. It felt like ending a decade+ long relationship. My whole identity was wrapped up in this thing. I could no longer introduce myself and say “hi I’m Emily, I’m an actor.” I had to re-learn how to be and show up as me. The being deeper than any labels, shoulds, and assumptions.

Once I made the leap into the unknown, I no longer had my old structures in place. What would I fill this life with? Where would I find that joy?? It was from that place I began what I called my Joy Mission. I would wake up every morning and ask myself what would bring me joy today…and that’s where the yoga came in.

I started trying out classes at the Y and thought, okay this feels pretty good. I grew up dancing, so I took to the physical aspect of the practice quickly. Then I found a yoga studio that I loved and went to as many classes as I could. It more often than not was my answer to my morning joy inquiry. At that point, it never even crossed my mind to teach. It was purely about the joy of a holistic body/mind/heart/spirit connection. About re-embodiment, a homecoming. In the acting world I was made to feel like my body was wrong. In yoga, it didn’t matter what I looked like.

I quickly decided that staying in Toronto didn’t make sense since I wasn’t acting any more. It was the whole reason I moved there in the first place. And my west coast heart was speaking louder and louder; every time I came home to visit it was harder and harder to go back to Toronto. I had to leave behind some amazing friends, but what is right is not always what’s easy.

My next destination was Vancouver. Still a big city, but on my beloved west coast. Win win. I almost immediately found a yoga studio and applied to do an energy exchange there. That means that I volunteered my time once a week to support the studio and in exchange received free yoga…again, win win. This studio was One Yoga for the People, the place I met the people who taught me how to teach. Over my years there, I logged over 350 hours of in studio practice. It was home. I was so inspired by all the teachers and the other students. I can very whole-heartedly say that that studio made me the teacher I am today.

My drive to train to be a teacher came out the profound effect that this practice had on my own life. Welcoming yoga into my life was the biggest gift I didn’t know how to ask for.

Before the idea to pursue yoga as my new career was even on the table, I saw an intuitive healer in Vancouver. I needed guidance big time. She told me something that still sticks with me. She said “Your time as an actor was not a waste. All our experiences feed each other. There’s no such thing as mistakes.”

And she was right. The amount of crossover between what makes a good actor and what makes a good yoga teacher is quite great. Most of these being the things that don’t get taught in a teacher training. Like, how to be up in front of a group of people, how to use your voice so every person in the room feels like you are talking personally to them, the ability to pivot and think quickly if what you’ve planned is just not right for the group you’re with, the understanding of creating an experience, one with a beginning middle and end, the list goes on.

Also, what I love so much about teaching yoga is not far off from what I loved about acting. They are both experiences that can facilitate profound feelings of connection. The feeling of being in a room, having a shared experience, that none of us will ever have again…that is so exciting to me. It makes me feel alive. It makes me feel a purpose.

It makes me feel joy.

I am so so glad I trusted that voice, that feeling of inner knowing, so many years ago. Even though it went against everything that I was supposed to be feeling. It put me up against a crap ton of self-investigation and discomfort. But I came through it with a deeper understanding of what it means to be me. It was this same voice that pushed me (it learned how to get a lot louder) to move back home to Victoria.

And now I get to set the stage for others in the same way. I so deeply believe that we all deserve to remember that we are whole, complete beings, who are deeply loved and needed on this planet. These are the teachings of yoga. We are all connected. This is a message that I am honoured to share and live on a daily basis.

THE END

Just kidding! There is never an end, just a continuation. The learning and growing never stops. My next dream is to go to India and learn directly from the culture that birthed this practice.

So,

Thank you to India.

Thank you to my teachers.

Thank you for reading.

May you keep learning and growing.

May you keep listening to your inner voice.

May you keep remembering there are no mistakes.

I send you love and the space to listen deeply,

Emily Opal