By Osvaldo Tenorio Barajas
Before I began my yoga practice, I was already training for cycling and running marathons. I felt complete during my training sessions, especially being connected with nature. But everything shifted when my mother passed in December 2020. She had always encouraged me to explore spiritual practices, and in her absence, I felt compelled to begin my yogi journey through Kriya Yoga.
As soon as I started, the breathing techniques transformed me. In cycling, I learned how to lower my heart rate to its minimum, even in the most intense sessions. Normally, training pushes the heart to its peak. But yoga showed me that there’ s balance. You can raise the heart rate to its highest and also bring it down to stillness. I became comfortable even in discomfort, able to remove my consciousness from pain and focus inward.
On the bike, the mind-body connection is everything. During long marathons, 60, 80, or 100 kilometers( up to 62 miles) the body tires first, then the mind. What’ s left is spirit. In those moments of struggle, when you ask for strength beyond yourself, you realize something greater is carrying you. The divine within you keeps you moving when human energy runs out. That search for the eternal is what drives both cycling and yoga.
My parents were my first teachers: my father instilling discipline through sport, my mother planting the seed of higher searching. I first touched yoga at 15, but it took years of living, struggling, and cycling to bring me back. Today, my yoga practice even outweighs cycling. Hours on the mat lowering my breath and calming my mind have become the foundation of my discipline. Cycling taught me endurance, but yoga gave me presence. Together, they’ ve made me whole. When we go inward, we touch the light within. That light gives us the strength to rise again and again, on trails, in life, and in spirit.
BIO: Osvaldo Tenorio Barajas is a competitive cyclist, Yogi and hospitality professional who resides in Guadalajara, Mexico.
FLEXZONELIFE. COM 29