Calen Macdonald

Being exceptionally tall, the world has rarely felt hospitable to my body. Material reality—including buildings, vehicles, and clothes—isn’t built with me in mind and accommodating an ill-fitting world has taken a long-term toll. I didn’t attend my first yoga class as a way of working on these issues—I attended my first class because I wanted to hang out with the friend who invited me—but it was immediately apparent yoga could help me begin to take serious these lifelong struggles. I practice yoga not only to reduce pain, but to cultivate pleasure, curiosity, and ease.

Early on, practice heightened my awareness of discomfort rather than relieving it, which was challenging and at times discouraging. Over time, however, that awareness became a resource. By learning to notice my habits of movement, tension, and compensation, I’ve been able to gently counteract them and develop healthier, more sustainable patterns. Yoga has helped me repair my relationship to my body—transforming it from something to manage or endure into something I can listen to and sometimes even enjoy.

I like working at Mighty because it’s a community entirely unlike those I move through elsewhere in life. For example, I’m four years into a PhD program which often insists I prioritize the mind and subordinate it to the body. Building relationships across Mighty and the other communities I inhabit has strengthened both.