2022 State Weightlifting - 2nd Place 81kg
76kg Snatch
94g Clean and Jerk
200 hr Yoga Instructor / Rishikesh, India
USAW L1
Strength and sports have been my entire life for as long as I can remember. When I was two years old, my dad lied about my age so I could start figure skating. I've played sports ranging from basketball, volleyball, softball, and track, but the sport that got me to weightlifting was rowing. I rowed Division I and was introduced to the weight room, and it was love at first power clean. I later found CrossFit and began weightlifting and competing in both. Yoga has been there to help ensure I stay healthy for my sports. My connection with yoga grew once I went to India for my yoga teacher training. While there, I was introduced to yoga's spiritual and meditative side, which has changed my life. There's nothing I love more than sharing those benefits and always doing so with gratitude.
I can be my own worst enemy. Self-doubt creeps in, and my internal dialogue tells me I’m not good enough, not strong enough, and never going to be enough. My need for external validation is a coping mechanism to quiet the self-doubt, but it also works against me. The need for external validation and my self-doubt have allied, and their mission is to keep me stagnant where it’s comfortable. Growth doesn’t happen there, but neither does failure. The never-ending battle between myself and the duo of self-doubt dances in circles. Some days I win. Some days I reach a flow state in my training, and it doesn’t feel like a battle but as if thought is absent and it’s replaced with action. Some days the self-doubt is so intense that it makes me beg for that validation, those aren’t the best days, but we still power through and try to take them as they are. The fight is always in our heads; when the internal dialogue is too strong, I try to remind myself to reach for that flow state instead of external validation and approval from others. The grind will save us all, or it will be better.
When I was young, I used to go to my dad’s basketball and baseball games that he would coach. I remember one time a former student and athlete came up to me and told me how my dad changed his life when he was young. Since then, I knew I wanted to be a coach, teach people those essential movement patterns, and give them life skills they can use forever, such as teamwork and the mental toughness that comes with developing skills. The mind-body connection and breathwork are essential for our well-being, and yoga ties them together. Being an athlete has impacted my life, and I want to share that with others and help people grow into their potential as athletes, humans, and yogis. We’re all multifaceted, but the skills we develop in the gym are transferable to many areas of our lives.
