News / fitness

Just over a year ago, I started my 200-hour yoga teacher training. I signed up after I took a look at the life I wanted to lead, and realized I needed a shift.

I am Type A by nature (and I think the family members involved would agree that there’s some nurture involved). I am driven. When there’s a job to be done, I would aim to do it to perfection, and thought of time as merely a construct. When I started running, I quickly started going longer and was at the marathon distance within a few years. When I started triathlon, it was to do an Ironman 70.3 and then, a few years later, Ironman. It should have come as no surprise, then, that I have burned myself out on more than one occasion.

Yoga helped me to find balance in my “fitness” life, as I came back to it after I was exhausted from my first Ironman. I knew that there was something to how I had grown through yoga, and toyed with yoga teacher training for a while. When I was presented with some options to change my role at work, I really thought about what I wanted out of life, and realized I needed a different balance between work and everything else.

As I went through the process of training, I took a hard look at myself and why I felt the need to work so hard. I realized that my perfectionism came out of a fear of not being good enough… or just enough, for that matter. I found a different relationship with my own personal boundaries in a safe setting with a group of women I adore, and I was introduced to Sandra and Loko Sport as I was on that journey.

I was proud to have ethical clothing from a local creator and a woman who has created her own business and an inclusive niche within the broader fitness apparel industry. Truthfully, I felt better on the days that I could show up to training in clothing that reflected my own values of empowering women, buying locally and ethically, and ensuring that yoga is safe, accessible, and joyful for everyone.

Coming out of yoga teacher training, I realized how valuable the experience had been for my personal growth. I had thought I might build a career as a yoga teacher, and that may still happen someday, but the process actually made me realize that there was space to bring what I had learned in my off-the-mat practice to my day job. I teach at my own office, the London Roundhouse, one day/week. More importantly, I bring what I have learned about myself to my role as COO, and I lead our team with love. Yoga teacher training helped me to find a different flow between work and life, such that I truly bring my whole self to my work, and have the opportunity to infuse yoga into my work-life in a way that fits. Incidentally, Loko Sport is part of that very journey, as I can so easily pair the fitness apparel with my work clothing for easy transitions from the mat to my desk.

Rachel Berdan