Crystal Marshall – Owner
“Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe its about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place. – author unknown”
Some people are blessed knowing exactly what they want to do and be when they grow up. I wasn’t the girl who dreamed of her wedding day, or even what I would be when I grew up. I was a child who always wanted to follow my heart. I lost that part of myself and its took me almost a long time to start to listen again. For me, I took the long way, not the wrong way.
I believe your dharma (life purpose) calls you when you are ready. I was first introduced to yoga as part of the “get into a sexy wedding dress routine” in 2003. However, it wasn’t until 2010 that I rediscovered yoga and started practicing it regularly. I had two boys eighteen months apart, baby boy number two was born in October. Postpartum, in combination with seasonal depression, resulted in a very exhausted, grouchy, and blue mommy. I found myself in a yoga studio with a friend one March evening because at that time, “anything was better than being at home”.
I’ve always been an emotional person. Life essentially desensitized me. I went from crying in a healthy way to building walls to hide my emotions rather then releasing them. These metaphoric walls got bigger and bigger, making me numb. Behind the wall a cluster f**k of a disaster brewed. At moments weak spots would cause cracks in these walls and the garbage I was not dealing with would sneak out in the form of panic, and depression. Unfortunately, with the mess behind the wall I never knew for sure why I was so depressed or anxious. When I decided to make a change, and clean up behind the wall, it was the amazing people, and support I found that got me to where I am today and pushes me to keep moving forward. I want to return the favour and be part of the cure. Society tries to teach us to treat what makes us different, as if feelings were a disease. If you over think, it will cause a headache, there’s a pill for that. Over worked tight shoulders, pill for that too. Are you sad or scared? Dr. Prozac can help you! Too much energy, ADHD, let’s get you some ritalin. Not enough energy? Adrenal fatigue, let’s get you started on some cortone acetate. There is a time and place for western medicine. However for me, like many of my clients to date, western medicine hasn’t cured the whole problem. It has, however, bought us time to do the work on ourself, and get to the root of the problem.
My relationship with yoga has had many ups and downs. Fast forward through the years; another baby, kidney disease and a lot of life in-between. Yoga was always there to help me get through, or pick up the pieces, no matter what life threw at me.
“In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step backward into safety.” -Abraham H. Maslow
I chose to step forward! In spring 2017, I had the opportunity to start my teacher training adventure right here in Medicine Hat, at Yoga You4ia. I always thought I practiced beyond the mat, no amount of asanas could have prepared me for the journey I was about to take. I completed my first 200hr in January 2018. It took me on a mental & spiritual adventure I was not expecting to be so hard, leaving me with the hunger to learn more. We live in a world where technology has been the death of so many things. Aside from increased disease, it has caused a decline of the human desire for real human interaction. I had the privilege to spend a delicate part of my youth in a small hamlet in southern Saskatchewan. Over twenty years later I returned to show my three boys. Wow!!!! Nothing left! No people, just a few crippled buildings. Nothing left to the naked eye, but to my soul…MAGIC!!!!”
Yoga lead me to reiki, reiki flowed into crystals, astrology, psychic/mediumship, sound therapy, and acutonics, in 2019 was the start of Ayurveda training. In April 2022, I completed my second year of Ayurvedic studies, receiving recognition as a Ayurvedic Councillor. Since then I have decided to blend all my courses, and design some programs that will incorporate both logic and intuition. Stay turned and see what this witch is brewing up. A wise fish once said, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming…”.
Coming Soon… My first book! The book before the book; Stripping Inherited Karma.