Elizabeth Wojtowicz weighed one pound five ounces when she was born three-and-a-half months premature. As an effect of her prematurity, she has grown up with cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affects her balance. She has used crutches to help her ever since she can remember.
Elizabeth’s story has evolved, and is still evolving, through the practice of yoga. She found that she needed to do something for herself: her psyche and her emotional body in particular.
She began taking private restorative yoga classes.
After three years or so of classes, including anti-gravity yoga, Elizabeth found Seane Corn’s Detox Flow workshop. Despite it being the most challenging class yet, Elizabeth also says it was the most rewarding. Elizabeth knew she was in good hands with Seane, who told her that she didn’t see Elizabeth’s crutches: She saw Elizabeth.
This was a pivotal moment for Elizabeth.
She knew then that she was a part of something bigger than herself, that there was a reason she was born early and had survived: She was meant to help people find their own gifts.
In order to do that, Elizabeth decided to become a certified yoga teacher.
Elizabeth practices the yoga of acceptance. She believes that without challenge, there is nothing. She embraces her crutches and her disability, realizing that they aren’t her. Life, for Elizabeth, “isn’t a matter of can’t; it’s a matter of yes, I will.”
She is on a mission to be inspired, and also, to inspire.
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Video shot and edited by Edward Boyce
Accompanying text by Kristin Diversi