Finding the Silver Lining
How Erica Woolley turned a career-ending injury into a reborn passion for yoga.
“Just five more seconds!” Erica Woolley cheered on the students in her afternoon fitness class. Just one of her ten classes a week, Woolley was in her element.
“You got this! Five, four, three, two–”
A raging pain shot up Erica Woolley’s leg.
The woman who has always been known for her fiery spirit was now knee-deep in it. “All I knew was that my leg was on fire…It was catastrophic,” Woolley recalls.
A subtle strain in the leg masked as an irritated IT Band, likely due to overuse and distance running, turned out to be a nerve root compression. Effecting the l4, l5, and S1 nerve roots, Woolley suffered excruciating pain damaging the disc in her leg that provides shock absorption. Woolley was at risk for sharp pains to travel further down her leg and up her spine.
“I can’t do this anymore,” Woolley cried to her supervisor as she waved the white sweat towel high above her head. Surrendering to her only known livelihood.
Starting in the local swimming pool at the age of sixteen, Woolley’s life has revolved around teaching people how to, and how to love, exercise. Falling in love with personal training, Woolley built a career in group fitness.
“I LOVED it,” she paused in reflection, “and I was good at it.”
Teaching seven classes a week, always offering to substitute for others, Woolley entered fitness with an enthusiastic demeanor and a pep in her step. Weight lifting, running, and pilates filled Woolley’s day-to-day eagerness for high activity. But, wherever she needed to regroup and slow down, she returned to yoga.
“I got the message!”, Woolley laughed, making light of her career-altering injury. “It was absolutely epic that I need to figure out how to slow down.”
High-intensity training was out of the question, weight lifting was too heavy of a strain, Woolley could still teach pilates by demonstrating modifications, but, she needed a new outlet to connect her mind and body on a routine basis. Something with low intensity, welcoming to all levels, and offering opportunities to grow.
So, Woolley set upon a yoga practice.
As prenatal yoga rose to the scene almost thirty years ago, the lifelong fitness coach decided to give the low-impact and breathing-focused exercise a try while pregnant with her first son. Over the next three decades, Woolley alternated in and out of yoga practices to balance out her high-energy cardio classes and weight lifting. She instructed a yoga-pilates fusion studio class adapting yoga for a higher energy group fitness setting. But, whenever she needed to pull back and settle down, Woolley would pick up a practice.
“It's like journaling,” said Woolley about the all-encompassing and all-forgiving movements that offer mindfulness and groundedness among the frantic of everyday life.
Sunrise flows, bedtime flows, candlelight practices, hot yoga; Woolley attended local studies and online classes to keep active leaving the coaching scene. It quickly became a daily fitness routine, where, for the first time in decades, Woolley became simply the student. She fell in love with yoga all over again.
Then, the Coronavirus pandemic hit.
Studios closed.
Then, Woolley broke her ankle.
Just as fast as she had rebuilt, she was quickly pushed four steps back down.
But in the eye of obstruction, Woolley persevered.
“I have to figure out what to do,” she thought to herself. Making modifications when need-be and focusing on grounded work and flows, Woolley continued her craft.
Tucked away in her yoga sanctuary — a.k.a. her yoga mat rolled out on the floor of her dimly lit bedroom — illuminated by the soft glow of warm lights and the glow of her computer screen, as Yoga with Adriene and SarahBethYoga guided her flow. Sometimes just ten minutes, sometimes three hours, “my husband will say, ‘how long you gonna be in there tonight?’”, Woolley laughed.
After two years of ritual practices, Woolley sought for next steps to combine her gift for teaching with her continually growing passion for yoga.
After seeing an advertisement for an online certification, Woolley decided to take a leap — figuratively, considering it was still hard to stand with a broken ankle at the time. An innovative outcome of the pandemic, sending communication to the virtual space, an online certification offered Woolley an accessible alternative from traveling 200–500 hours to and from the yoga studio.
To find a trusted program that resonated with her practice interests, Woolley got to work researching a variety of online certifications. She connected with local yoga teachers and fellow instructors to find The Kaivalya Yoga Method. Resonating with the foundational physical technique of yoga, paired with the spirituality of opening the heart and mind chakras, Woolley began her dedicated journey to becoming a certified yoga teacher and Reiki healer.
By the end of 2020, Woolley began to teach again. She hosted virtual classes on zoom and throughout the community.
After a career-altering injury, Woolley found a silver lining. Rediscovering balance and purpose, she now invites community members from all walks of life to connect their bodies and mind through yoga. Welcoming new students while sitting cross-legged on her mat in her yoga sanctuary — a.k.a. Gallery 40 — dimly lit with warm lights and soft candles as original art and scupltres fill the scene, Woolley reminds them, “Learn to be still. To connect with the body. And accept where you are right now.”
