Wonder Woman: Sally Miller
The Wonder Women is a blog series that spotlight some of the most badass women I know. Women that have the courage and drive to live and work relentlessly within their passion. Each blog is written by a different Wonder Woman and will give you an opportunity to be inspired and connect with incredible women who are movin’ and shakin’, helping and healing. Enjoy!
This week's Wonder Woman is one of my nearest and dearest. She is the yin to my yang. Sally Miller of Sally Miller Yoga is the Yin Yoga Queen of Bucks County and beyond.
Sally Miller has extensive training in ayurvedic self care practices and somatic meditation. Sally has been practicing yoga for the past 20 years and teaching yoga full-time since she quit her job as a Chemical Engineer back in 2006. She is a beautiful example of a Wonder Woman, an empowered female living out her truth and pushing her boundaries everyday.
If you had told my 18 year-old self that one day I’d grow up to be an international meditation and yoga teacher who taught online and sold recordings of herself speaking softly and giving instructions about how to relax, I would have said you were out of your mind.
I was too shy. And I was way too anxious.
Do something “out of the box?” - No way.
Put myself, and my vulnerable emotions out there?. - Definitely not.
Disappoint my parents? - There’s basically nothing more terrifying to a perfectionist, Catholic-raised teenager than THAT.
I was much happier just getting good grades and racking up those goody two-shoes points on the outside while internally feeling like I never really fit.
So what changed? How did I go from shy and anxious to confident (enough) in my own abilities to live the life I really want to be living?
It was yoga. All yoga.
While I was in college, working my ass off, not eating enough, not sleeping enough, not really having much fun at all…. I found an amazing yoga studio. I could go in there and be anonymous (good for us shy people), and I always left class feeling super relaxed. It completely changed my life, and my relationship to my body. I was fascinated by how a few hours a week made SUCH a difference - on so many levels.
I still got that “good job” after college and worked as a chemical engineer for 3 years, but with yoga by my side I realized that the job was killing my soul. I would go to yoga class at night and on the weekends and just sob. I mean really sob. I was so tired. I was so angry. I hated my job. I didn’t know what to do. I went to seminars about work / life balance and took the occasional walk during my lunch break instead of eating at my desk, but my soul started to feel dead. My relationships were suffering and my health was suffering, too. I decided to make an incredibly bold move, quit my well-paying job, and go study holistic medicine for a year in New Mexico.
Fast forward these 14 years later, and now I find that my life, while it still has lots of ups and downs (I am still sooooo emotional), is actually anchored in something incredibly beautiful and indestructible. My life is anchored in the trust that I can take at least 30 minutes a day to myself. This is a huge deal. And I think no matter what I do for work (meaning even if I weren’t teaching yoga professionally) - this trust that self care is worth it and possible - is the REAL BREAKTHROUGH.
Self care lets you live a life of passion. Without it, you either burn out or are too terrified to even start.
No matter what, I make time to get on my mat for 30 minutes a day. Sometimes it’s meditation, sometimes it’s more active postures, sometimes it’s more passive postures, sometimes it’s sobbing. But I do it. Every single day. I trust that our passion and our interests mean something. I trust that the Divine gave me gifts that She wants me to share (even if it’s quietly… in my own introverted way).
And I trust that She feels the same about you.
Please share your gifts. With love,
Sally