My mat is the place where I lay claim to and exercise my agency, boldly, bravely, sometimes uncomfortably and messily. My practice is liberating in that it is an act of reclamation. But this revolutionary practice requires safety to work. I want to be an instructor who can hold space safely for her students.

As a sexual assault survivor, my yoga practice brought me back into my own body. Instead of being the receptacle-literal and figurative-for someone else’s demands and desires and a stage from which another person’s power can be enacted, my body is mine. My body is mine to shape, to fill with breath, to explore and to understand.

Nine months later, the duo married in an elegant camp-themed reception inspired by the Wes Anderson characters they were dressed as the night they got engaged.