Have you ever thought of trying yoga for a workout, relaxation, or just a change of pace in your daily routine? Seen those videos of super skinny, bendy people laying on the ground, ringing a gong, chanting, and thought to yourself nope, this is not for me? Well, that’s where our next girl boss changes the game and image. she shows us that Yoga is for all shapes, sizes, and body types!
Tisha Downing is a beautiful wife, mom, model, Pageant Queen, and an RYT200 Certified Restorative, Trauma Conscious, and Empowered – MST Yoga Instructor and lead program instructor for Connected Warriors.
Tisha has always enjoyed the healing nature of yoga and her brother-in-law told her about Connected Warriors when she was going through YTT (Yoga Teacher Training), Tisha immediately contacted Connected Warriors to get trained. While her husband served in the Navy, Tisha was an Ombudsman, and as a military spouse, she knew firsthand what families went through while their service member was deployed and what PTSD could do to the families as well as the service member, so it was an easy decision to join Connected Warriors. Tisha wanted to give back to her communities and country’s heroes the best way she knew how and being able to change lives through yoga was a no-brainer for her.
Tisha has practiced Yoga for over 10 years and teaches Restorative, Chair, Trauma Conscious, Empowered (Military Sexual Trauma), Vinyasa, Gentle, Yogalates, Yoga for people with EDS, and Meditation.
Despite what you may see, this Queen’s journey hasn’t been easy. She has battled relearning how to practice and teach yoga, since being diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Hypermobility type (hEDS) a few years ago. She lives with chronic pain so, she has good days and bad days but when you ask what keeps her going, Tisha says “ honestly I know things could be worse, and I am blessed to have what I have and I don’t take that for granted, ever, I feel that I can help others with what I am going through, so as long as I can help someone I will!”
Learning to work through the brain fog and chronic fatigue has been a struggle and faced with bad days, Tisha has learned not to be so hard on herself and just go with it, her favorite saying is, “it is what it is.” She can’t help what medical issues she may have but can deal with the way she allows them to affect her mood and overall well-being. According to Tisha, “I don’t let it bother me, I am imperfectly perfect and I love me just the way I am!”
Tisha has a lot to love about herself too. When asked about her greatest accomplishments, she easily came up with her list:
“Losing over 150 pounds is one of my biggest accomplishments, the other is connecting Connected Warriors with an organization called Dove Transplants. Dove Transplants is an organization started by an amazing lady named Sharyn Kreitzer, who saw a need in the veteran community for kidney transplants. She connects living kidney donors to veterans in need of a kidney. It’s an amazing program and I saw the need and the benefit of both organizations to work together, so they are in the process of setting things up to help the recipients and donors to get some type of meditation and yoga program implemented for them. Surgery is trauma to the body, so I thought it was a win-win for both organizations! And I’m almost finished my 300-hour training course to become an RYT500 hour Yoga Instructor as well as 200CMT, (Certified Meditation Teacher)”
Looking to get started on your yoga journey or know someone that can benefit from this programming? Connected Warriors offers yoga classes for free online and in person. They have also started an Outpatient Behavioral Health center in conjunction with their Trauma Conscious Yoga program. For more information on that please visit their website at ConnectedWarriors.org or call (954) 278-3764. Also, if you are on active duty, a veteran, a first responder, or a family member please check out their website for additional services.
If you would like to be considered as a donor for Dove Transplant, please visit them at Dovetransplant.org for more information on how to become a donor or how to donate to this amazing organization.
Looking forward, Tisha plans to become a yoga therapist and continue to be an advocate for EDS so that it doesn’t take others like herself, half of their lives to get diagnosed. She also plans to continue helping others in my community and wherever I am needed.
Learn more about Tisha or attend her virtual classes by following her on Facebook: Tisha L. Downing/Mrs. American Beauties National. Instagram: HypermobileQueen. Snapchat: Mrs. American Beauties National. Twitter: Hybermobile Queen
Always be true to who you are, even your flaws, we all have them. Never for one minute let anyone dull your sparkle! Always shine as bright as you can because you never know who needs to see that brightness as a guiding light!
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