Changing your life path is not easy at any age but sometimes life swoops in and invites you to make a change. Four years ago, Hillary Moffatt was a third-year apprentice electrician, pregnant with her second child, and living with excruciating back pain. Yoga was the only thing that helped alleviate the back pain, and yoga became the path that intrigued Hillary. Now twenty-four, the mom of two children (5 and 2.5), half way through her third year in Health Promotion in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina, Hillary is volunteering with Astonished! in our Yoga for Everybody class.
Hillary has completed her 200 hour Yoga teacher training and is currently working towards her 500 hour Yoga teacher certification. She teaches yoga at Oxygen Yoga and Fitness where she runs a kids Yoga program, and also teaches yoga to a boys’ basketball team (13 and 14-year old’s) for an hour each week. Her dream is to create an inclusive yoga program for children and youth ages 2-18, so volunteering with the Astonished! Yoga for Everybody, which is led by Rebekah Lindenbach and Ruth Blaser, seemed like the perfect place for Hillary to volunteer.
Hillary says “I love what I am learning about how people practice yoga in a wheelchair. When I teach yoga, the hardest part is to get people to feel relaxed and feel grounded physically and mentally. At Yoga for Everybody, everyone is able to come into shavasana (the final pose of any yoga class) in a way that is comfortable and relaxing for each individual participating.”
Welcome Hillary, we look forward to what we will learn together on this place where our paths cross.
Photo: Rebekah Lindenbach and Hillary Moffatt
