Introducing Our "Purpose of Healthy Living" Series
This fall season, Purpose Tea is spreading the goodness of healthy living! We are sharing personal stories of your purpose for living a healthy life, eating and drinking healthy foods and beverages, and being good to your body, community and world. We want you to fall in love with healthy living. Fall in love with wellness activities and exercise. Fall in love with the nutrient-rich power of healthy foods like purple foods and purple tea.
As a supertea, purple tea helps to promote healthy living and has more antioxidant activity than green and black teas.
Purpose Tea's "A Yogi's Purpose" Instagram Contest
For National Yoga Month, Purpose Tea joined the worldwide yoga community to celebrate how the practice of yoga promotes healthy living. We know there are many reasons for practicing yoga, like stress-relief, reducing inflammation, increasing flexibility and many more! So we asked yogis to share their #AYogisPurpose stories on our Instagram page - to answer questions like, "Why do you practice yoga? How does yoga help inspire your healthy lifestyle?"
We are excited to have Dallas Yogi Stephanie Wallace join us in celebrating the good health benefits of yoga and purple tea! Stephanie’s #AYogisPurpose story is an inspiration to women, and all yogis on a mission to bring goodness into their lives and the lives of others. In our first blog post, Stephanie shares how yoga and service to others helps inspire her purpose for healthy living.
Join our contest and be one of the first to experience Purpose purple tea!
We are inviting all yogis to share your #AYogisPurpose story on our Instagram channel @purpose_tea! The winner will be selected at random at the end of the month to receive samples of our antioxidant-rich purple tea, as well as yoga apparel, a yoga mat and a gift card to your fav yoga studio. We are excited to see your yoga story!
Healthy living guest blogger: Stephanie Wallace, Dallas yoga instructor at WeYogis and V12 Yoga
A Yogi’s Purpose Has to Start Somewhere
My story is not one of “immediately hooked!” when it comes to yoga. It was a struggle for me. Physically, working through injury or limitations of simply being “inflexible,” as well as mentally, having to make a conscious effort to quiet my ego for long enough to make it to the mat, let alone muffle the noise from my busy mind for an entire hour! But I kept at it. I eventually found a studio and teacher who took the time to guide me through the practice in a way that was intentional and less intimidating than I’ve ever experienced. Because of this teacher’s mindful words, movements and adjustments, I started to grow in my practice.
I started to see a glimpse of the purpose of my yoga journey.
At first, little changes occurred - from the ability to breathe smoothly in class (for the most part) to having a more peaceful quality of mind day to day. Through this teacher’s presence, I was guided to a whole community of yogis and other teachers who took me under their wings and encouraged my growth in every way. Because of this community, support and leadership, my relationship with the practice strengthened and I was inspired to pursue certification as a yoga instructor.
A Yogi’s Purpose
It was in 2013 that my vision became more clear - my purpose for practicing yoga was inspired by my dreams towards a life of service to your health and mindfulness, as well as service to your community and the world.
One thing I always tell my students is, “Give to yourself. And then you can give to others.”
As a yoga teacher, I aim to guide my students towards their purpose - beyond the asana, or physical aspect of the practice. Past the little voice that nags “I can’t” or “I’m not flexible enough” or “I don’t really look like a yogi.” Peeling away the layers of self-doubt and judgment, to move into a more peaceful relationship with their bodies, their minds and their community. One of my favorite things to do is encourage a practice beyond the studio - getting outside and in places where you’re able to let the safety guard down a bit. It’s a beautiful thing to see people come together from all backgrounds and walks of life to breathe and move together. To discover new strengths that can carry them towards a more fulfilled life. Something happens when strangers gather and start peeling away the layers of ego, judgment and insecurities. We’re all the same underneath this skin of ours. We’re all aspiring to find our purpose!
A Journey Powered by Service to Others
In my work and personal world, I’ve always been guided to a life of service. My parents were (and are still!) active in community and mission projects, and have lead by righteous example, offering a hand up to those in need. In the DFW community, I have worked and volunteered with nonprofits serving mostly women and girls, locally and globally, in hopes to instill a sense empowerment and work toward an equitable society. Helping women - anywhere in the world - causes a ripple effect. When you can help a woman, this establishes an investment - time, money, effort - in her own potential, and that of her children and family. When we show up for ourselves, we are able to make sound, lasting decisions that will affect everyone around us. Whether that is our physical practice, healing our bodies through yoga and mindful nourishment, or our mental health and spiritual growth, offering sensible reactions to any encounter we approach, our journey is important. To ourselves. To our family and friends. To our communities, locally, globally, on the mat and off.
Partnering for Healthy Living
When approached with the opportunity to partner with Purpose Tea, I was absolutely thrilled! Tea is already such a healing product, for yogis and non yogis alike, and learning about purple tea has been fascinating. Pair that with Purpose Tea’s women’s empowerment initiative Seed A Future, and you’ve got the perfect path to yogini activists hearts everywhere!
The mission of Purpose Tea is exactly in line with that same message I share with my students - serve yourself, so that you may serve others.
And in this case, you’ll soon be able to enjoy Purpose Tea’s purple tea with your next yoga practice and promote something that encourages your good health, with (really) good taste, while instilling a sense of good in this world.
Give us a shout on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @PurposeTea.