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For greater than 20 years, several pages that I fastidiously ripped from a magazine have been amongst my most treasured possessions, the things I’d take with me if I ever needed to flee at a moment’s notice.

The pages feature supermodel Christy Turlington practicing yoga.

This was once I was in my 20s, at a time once I identified—quite adamantly—as a non-yoga person. I used to be a runner and hiker and seeker of intense experiences, but I intentionally, and quite defiantly, had nothing to do with yoga. My early impression of the practice was unitard-wearing contortionists who spoke in singsongy voices as if to 5 yr olds. People I knew who practiced yoga preached at others to show vegetarian. They talked about peace and love with an undertone of judgment. The one time I walked into the lobby of a yoga studio in my neighborhood, I took within the crystals and tarot cards and incense so intense I could barely breathe and walked straight back out. Not my vibe.

I used to be a author and newspaper editor fueled by deadline-and-espresso-exacerbated anxiety. My off hours were spent figuring out on the gym or drinking with girlfriends. I had no real interest in unitards or woo-woo.

But once I happened upon those pages in a 2002 issue of Shape magazine, it was the start of a change of perspective. The internationally recognized model appears in subdued black-and-white photos, wearing minimal make-up, slicked-back hair, and a straightforward tank and shorts. On each page were a dozen or so words expressing, in Turlington’s voice, what yoga meant to her.

Whether it was the subdued vibe of the photography, the serene expression on Turlington’s face, or the unexpectedness of a Vogue model explaining yoga principles that caught my attention, I can’t say. What I do know for certain is that her words retained my interest in that moment and for years afterward.

Once I learned what yoga actually means

In easy terms, Turlington expressed what yoga allowed her to experience. She talked about grace and openness, unity and harmony. “Being receptive to different views and perspectives allows for unlimited horizons of spiritual potential,” she wrote. Perhaps the concepts felt familiar since, like Turlington, I had studied comparative religion and eastern philosophy.

As I took within the words and ideas, I allowed myself to assume how those ideas might play out in my very own life. I could feel the space for discipline and strength and self-awareness but in addition ease and give up and community. I consumed fashion magazines as incessantly as I did caffeine, but I had never before witnessed the form of poise I saw in Turlington. I wanted that for myself.

Within the months and years that followed, I used to be drawn to those pages repeatedly. Five years later, I moved to Manhattan—right into a latest profession, latest apartment, and latest life. I desperately needed steadiness. On the publication where I used to be an editor, I observed that my colleagues who practiced yoga exuded the identical calm, confident, and self-assured vibe and attitude expressed by Turlington Burns. (She wed actor and director Ed Burns in 2003.) Not long after, I went to my first yoga class. I didn’t walk out.

That was twenty years ago and people pages—glossy and wrinkled—have remained with me through many an upheaval of my life, including moves from apartment to apartment, from city to city, from one iteration of myself to a different. Today, I still practice yoga. I also teach yoga—to runners and exhausted mothers, to cancer survivors and people trying to go away addiction behind. And now I edit and write articles about yoga at this magazine (where Turlington Burns was once an editor at large). I often find myself praying that the articles I produce land with someone the identical way hers did for me.

What Christy Turlington can teach us all about yoga

You don’t must look far to grasp how the less physical components of yoga align with Turlington Burns’ way of living. The tenets of her yoga practice—grace, openness, unity, and harmony—are mirrored within the turn her profession took a pair years after that article was published. After experiencing complications through the birth of her first daughter, she became an advocate for globally accessible maternal health care.

She didn’t just lend her famous face and name to the hassle. She earned a master’s degree in Public Health at Columbia University and, in 2010, released her directorial debut, the documentary No Woman, No Cry. The film, intended to lift awareness of the “a whole bunch of 1000’s of girls a yr” for whom pregnancy is a death sentence, chronicles the dearth of access to maternal medical care in Tanzania, Bangladesh, Guatemala, and america.

Following the discharge of the documentary, Turlington Burns founded Every Mother Counts, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating “pregnancy and childbirth secure, equitable, and respectful for each mother, in every single place.” The organization, named one in all the Top 10 Most Progressive Not-For-Profit Firms by Fast Company magazine in 2016, has provided greater than $25 million in support of maternal health programs in Latin America, South Asia, Africa, and america.

There are also quieter ways Turlington Burns reminds us what it’s to be a part of the human experience. Her Instagram page reads, quite simply, “Mother, Wife, Daughter, Sister, Advocate & Founding father of @everymomcounts. Please join me to make pregnancy & childbirth secure for each mother, in every single place.”

In an age where it’s abundantly easy to deal with oneself, we want the instance of people that not only intend to take a stance for individuals who lack a voice but who’ve actually put actions behind words.  But perhaps we first have to remind ourselves who we actually are. I don’t know who I can be without the difficult, quieting, cringe-inducing, sigh-releasing, humbling, and life-changing lessons yoga has brought me. Although I do know who I used to be before it and I’m not her. I do know who I actually have to thank for that.

On Saturday, November 12, 2022, Christy Turlington Burns’ work might be recognized by the Yoga Gives Back Foundation (YGB). Annually, the organization acknowledges a visionary who has “committed themselves to humanitarian causes” and “inspired the worldwide yoga community and beyond with their vision.” Previous recipients include Alanis Morissette, Jack Kornfield, and Mallika Chopra.

Renee Marie Schettler is a senior editor at Yoga Journal. She began studying yoga nearly 20 years ago with teachers in Recent York City who emphasized difficult oneself and finding precise alignment in a posture. She has been teaching yoga since 2017.