The year was 2003. At that time I was 13 years old. One fine day my father announced: “We are going to live in Rio de Janeiro!”. My parents always had a thing for Rio, so they've always traveled to Cidade Maravilhosa since the late 70's.
At first I liked the idea, because, in addition to loving spending my holidays there, both in the capital and in the Lagos Region or on the Costa Verde, I didn't know what it was at the time, but now I understand. I didn't like the version that I had known of São Paulo at that time (today everything is resolved and I love SP). The pre-teen phase is not easy for anyone. For a girl with curly hair and a lot of mixtures, at that time there was no term “bullying” to back me up. This phase, by the way, was one of total introspection.
The idea of ​​living where I vacationed was out of this world. Without my parents knowing, because I didn't tell anyone about the things that happened to me at school or in the condominium, moving in helped me in many ways!
Gradually, I met new people and made friends. But very slowly, because I was very closed. Over the years, I became more and more integrated with the capital of Rio de Janeiro. I became an extroverted person with a crazy laugh, but very spontaneous (even too much). I got to know a place that, after all, was sun, sea and smiles 0800. People didn't judge me by my appearance; they accepted me the way I was. How beautiful, it was everything I wanted!
You know when they say that bathing in the sea has the power to heal us? It really does! Every dive, a flash.
Basic things did me great. Watch the sunset on the Arpoador stone, watch a chorinho in Praça General Glicério, chat on the Urca wall, watch the sunrise at Praia do Recreio, have a coffee reading other people's books at Livraria da Travessa or have a beautiful cow in Prainha just because I thought I could surf without starting lessons. Everything was good, even when the levels weren't so good.
That city gave me the courage to do things I never imagined could be done, like a 4-day crossing in Joatinga (Paraty), climbing on the cliffs of Pão de Açúcar, abseiling on Tartaruga beach and moderate 5-hour trails in the region mountain. It had completely sunk in: the moments in nature were always the ones that made me most alive! I recommend that everyone venture out as little as they can and as much as possible!
It was in Rio de Janeiro, by the way, that I began to gradually walk the paths of self-knowledge. I started taking yoga classes at the gym that was next to my college in 2007. Despite being a different class, as it was more focused on physical activity itself, I liked to practice something that was doing me good inside and out. outside. When the gym closed, I signed up for another activity, closer to home.
I found yoga again in 2012. I took classes at Instituto HermĂłgenes, with Professor JoĂŁo Batista, an enlightened being in the body of an 84-year-old sage. Those moments of practice took me to a place of peace. I had found a complementary therapy that could help me in everyday life. Yoga came into my life not just as a physical practice, but as a spiritual and devotional one. He helped me to end cycles that didn't allow me to evolve, to start others with more meaning.
In 2015, when I allowed myself to start training in hatha yoga, my goal was to bring people what I had been looking for without knowing: a new opportunity to live well and make conscious choices. And since then, there have been many lessons learned and many other new formations, which allow me to walk more lightly and contribute in some way to the well-being of others. And it all started there… In Rio.
I would very much like RJ to be, 24 hours a day, the way I reported, but unfortunately it is not so. I only wrote what was good, because that is how I would like to remember the city that embraced and welcomed me so much. After all, there were 15 years of fraternal love between me and Rio.
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Obviously I miss that Rio that no longer exists. Those who know know and feel.
My gratitude will always be huge for the wonderful people I met, for the little pieces of paradise on Earth and for so many lessons learned.
Thanks, Rio!
