An Open Heart is #WhyIYoga

Yoga gave CPY Studio Manager, Tyler Scheef, the permission and safe place to open his heart – and to become his true self, inside and out. 

Tyler grew up in a community where a strong faith and a love for sports were not just encouraged - they were a right of passage. “All the men in my family played sports and I was expected to do the same. The school I attended from 3rd grade through high school was attached to the church that I went to every Sunday.  It’s what we all did as kids – play sports and go to church.”

Tyler didn’t want to play football, though.  For as long as he could remember, he had loved the theater. “I started acting and singing when I was 6 years old – it's the only thing I ever wanted to do. I loved it – but I also knew it made me different. While all my friends went to practice, I was in rehearsal.” 

As time went on, Tyler was made more aware of his differences. “I was a sensitive kid growing up, and where I was from, sensitive equated to feminine. I was bullied and I never felt like I truly fit in. I couldn’t help but think something was wrong with me. On the inside I was bursting at the seams to share my feelings and stories, but on the outside I put a wall up and completely shut down.”

Despite the challenges he faced growing up, Tyler pursued his passion for theater in college and afterwards with a move to LA. But the feeling of not being able to express his true self carried with him. “I was cautious and reserved with everyone I met – and felt like I had to hold my cards close to my chest.”

As part of his theatrical training, it was important for Tyler to workout. “I didn’t really enjoy working out at a gym, but I did what I had to do to keep in shape. I frequented a local gym in LA, and spent most of my time moseying around waiting for ‘my hour’ to be up.” One day, while on his way to the gym, Tyler’s best friend asked him to go to a yoga class. “I thought, why not?  It has to be better than another gym workout.” Tyler went to class with his friend that day – and experienced something much more than he could have ever expected.  

As the instructor led the class through various postures and poses, Tyler found himself connecting the intricacies of the practice with his own life. “The posture that was the most eye-opening for me was Camel pose. It forced me to be vulnerable and open my heart fully and completely. Trying to get into that pose was so symbolic to how I was living my life. Except in real life, it would be the equivalent of trying to get into Camel pose and having someone punch you right in the throat and stomach. All my life I had tried to open my heart and be my true self, but each time I did, I was left with pain. It wasn’t until that yoga class, though, did I truly realize how much of myself I was holding inside.”

Shortly after that first experience, Tyler was introduced to CorePower Yoga. “I knew after that first class that I wanted – needed – to keep practicing yoga.” With each class, Tyler re-lived his life in Camel pose, but with each one he left feeling more open and safer than ever before. "I spent so much of my life thinking that my open heart was a bad thing – but yoga taught me that my open heart is the most beautiful thing about me.” For Tyler, this discovery opened up more doors than he could have ever imagined – including the one to his true self.

”I now live my life open to what’s next and I trust it’s right, no matter what. The walls I once put up are gone and I know its ok to be me. Yoga helped me see that and gave me the permission to open up – both on and off the mat. Something that was never celebrated in my days as a kid, I could now embrace with open arms. I had arrived. I was free.”  

Tyler Scheef

Studio Manager Mission Bay