Happy Anniversary to Me and Shanghai

Wow, and just like that a year has flown by! I landed in Shanghai on 12/12/2018, exactly one year ago from today, not knowing exactly what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that I would have the opportunity to teach yoga full time. I left my family, my partner, my friends, and my cat in Taipei, which was not an easy decision to make. But life presented an opportunity and I wanted to be open to discovering what might be on the other side of the door.

And so there I was. I arrived in HongQiao airport and took a taxi to the hotel where I would be staying at for the first two weeks of my time in Shanghai. When I got out of the taxi and entered the building, I was already lost. It took me an hour to find my hotel lobby and my first hour in Shanghai already left me feeling flustered.

It was December, so Shanghai was extremely cold and I felt very lonely. However, I kept myself busy by running all the errands I needed to run. Go to HR, sign some contracts, go to the bank, try to open an account, go to the police station and try to register myself there, go here, go there, search for an apartment, etc. So much of this part was overwhelming and I remember searching for the police station where I needed to get some documents from and one place would point me to another place, who would then point me to another place, and I spent an entire day just walking around Shanghai being sent from one place to another, until finally one police station worker lady yelled at me told me that she can not help me. I literally walked out of the station and just broke down in tears crying on the streets. There I was, a grown ass woman crying in the middle of the street outside a police station in Shanghai. I always took pride in my ability to be independent and figure things out on my own. However, within the first few days of arriving in Shanghai, this city broke me down! However, as I was searching for apartments, I met a housing agent who became my guardian angel. She went out of her way to help me get settled in to life here. From then on, I knew things would get better. To her I will forever be grateful!

So slowly slowly I began to get into a groove here. I was really enjoying the challenge of teaching MANY different people, teaching many different styles of classes, and learning how to be flexible as a teacher. At some point I questioned whether I made the right decision to move to Shanghai and work for such a big studio. When I started practicing yoga in New York, I attended donation based classes using a $12 USD mat I bought from Walgreens and wearing my oldest worn out t-shirts to class because I would be getting sweaty and gross anyway. I didn’t know about “yoga fashion” yet! But it didn’t matter what I wore because at the end of each class I would leave the studio feeling a bit more peaceful than I did when I entered. So now fast forward over ten years later, I am in Shanghai teaching in an environment that is completely the opposite of that. Here our studio is very high end, with towel service, resting lounge, clean showers with all the toiletries you need, etc. We provide Manduka mats and endless amounts of wonderful props to be used. The aunties and uncles clean each mat individually after each class. It is very nice! And with that I was also presented with a very different group of students to teach. My yoga journey began with mostly poor college students and now I am teaching classes filled with middle upperclass wealthy people.

At first I questioned if it was the right place for me to be. If people would even be able to relate to me as an instructor or if I would be accepted. I questioned whether I even had anything of value to teach them. But as my time went on here, I began to know some people a bit better, having a bit more understanding of their background, their work life, their home life. And then I realized that I am exactly where I am meant to be. I am meant to be here with these beautiful people. They are amazing and they’re encountering so many different people each day, whether they are business owners who have to deal with clients and employees, or if they’re house wives who are raising their children at home, or whether they are foreign business people who were sent here for work. These are people who have influence and my role here is to make sure that I hold a space for them to cultivate inner peace, so that when they walk out of the yoga class and back into their lives, that they then take that bit of peace with them as they encounter people, as they raise their children, and as they lead their staff.

Now as I sit here reflecting over my first year in Shanghai, I am filled with gratitude for everything and everyone who have been a part of this year. I have grown so much in many ways and feel very much at peace with the person I am becoming. I can not even imagine what year 2 in Shanghai has in store for me!