Peace, Quiet and Poses
Member Katia Saito explains how Club yoga lessons have helped her find health and inner peace.
I wanted to change it all: fitness, school commitments, work style, daily routine, everything—especially fitness. I had felt this way for five years. I finally did so in 2019.
It wasn’t just about physical health though. I had reached a point where I felt like life was dragging me along rather than me being in the driver’s seat. Learning to take time for myself and improve my mental well-being was as big a part of my goals as losing weight.
It’s not that exercise wasn’t a part of my life before. Growing up in Brazil, I had always gone to the gym since I was 13, and I really enjoyed it. But many years later, living here in Japan and becoming a mother of two, I found that the sense of responsibility—always doing things for others and trying to keep all the balls in the air—was leaving me feeling guilty when I did things for myself. I still went to the gym, but I felt I should be taking care of the kids, taking care of the house or working. It wasn’t my priority to take care of my own health.
I had too much stress and I knew I had to make big changes. I wasn’t feeling well, wasn’t healthy, so I changed my diet, stopped drinking alcohol, started doing Pilates and cut back on various activities that were leaving me little time to see to my own needs.
These things helped, but the real game changer came later in the year when I started taking yoga classes at the Club. At first it was group classes, but soon I began private lessons with Luiz Olimpio. What a difference it made in my life!
Luiz is kind of like my therapist. We talk a little bit about things, what’s going on and then we do meditation. When we do the flows and poses, he knows that I like challenging things. If there’s something I can’t do, I want to learn how to do it.
When I started with Luiz, I had trouble just holding positions and letting go of all the things in my mind. It was hard to concentrate. I couldn’t quiet myself. I wanted to speak, wanted to move. I was very agitated. But with each lesson, I learned how to control myself, how to enjoy meditation. Luiz taught me that we have to put away our problems, we have to concentrate. Today I can do the supported headstand pose, the “salamba sirsasana.” That requires focus.
My life started to change when I began the private lessons at the Club. It was a kind of healing. And since I learned to meditate—thanks to Luiz’s guidance—I look more inside myself and can find my inner peace. I feel like I deserve. I don’t feel guilt anymore. I’m now 45, but I feel like I’m in my 30s.
As told to INTOUCH’s C Bryan Jones.
Top Image of Luiz Olimpio and Katia Saito: Kayo Yamawaki
