Kino MacGregor is best known for being an international yoga teacher and social media icon. But she hasn't always been helping a student steady themselves in a handstand or posting beautiful photos of intricate yoga poses from the Ashtanga series. Like many of us, she was once searching for purpose, searching for herself in world that is so easy to become lost in. MacGregor took her first yoga class when she was 19 years old, but did not begin taking concentrated or dedicated classes until she was 22 years old. I had the chance to speak with MacGregor and hear about her journey. Looking back to her life before yoga, MacGregor remembers feeling lost. "That period of my life was filled with a deep sense of searching and a deep sense of questioning 'who am I, why am I here?' and I was looking for the answers in kind of the wrong places," she says. MacGregor says that she found herself searching in endless numbers of nightclubs, parties and raves. She watched her friends go to the emergency room, be hospitalized and even go to jail. One day, the partying became enough. MacGregor had a wake-up call. "I sort of woke up and realized, ‘Kino, you're not any happier, like you're not a nicer person, you're probably bi*tchier than you used to be, what happened?’" she says, "so I had a wake-up call and saw where my life was going, and I knew I wanted to live a more peaceful life."

This decision led MacGregor to her first Ashtanga yoga class, a class that was the beginning of a lifelong dedication to yoga. "I kind of just had this moment where something I never experienced before, my inner commentary in my mind stopped, and my body was at peace. I felt comfortable in my own skin," she says, "in that moment, I knew that yoga was the answer to the questions that I was asking."

With this dedication, MacGregor has practiced Ashtanga yoga for more than 15 years, and is one of the select few to receive the certification to teach Ashtanga yoga by its founder, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Today, she has practiced through the fourth series of Ashtanga and spreads the message of yoga not only through teaching, but through social media as well.

"For me, my first and single motivation was that I want to share the message of yoga with millions of people all over the world, and then how can I be more effective at that? How can I take one step forward in that direction today? You know, what's going to be the most effective way to inspire people to practice?" MacGregor explains of the blossoming yoga community on social media.

Every month, MacGregor and her friend, Kerri Verna, host a yoga challenge on Instagram. The challenges are planned around different topics, which are planned by the two friends and are sponsored by apparel stores that are carefully selected. MacGregor believes that the challenges help to support the online yoga community by creating a non-judgmental accountability. "[The reaction isn't just] like ‘wow really cool photo’, it's like ‘oh- you did really good at today’s challenge pose. I was going to quit, but now I’m going to try.’ They support each other," she explains.

Their last challenge, HeadstandMadness2016, only lasted 10 days, but still has around 3,000 yogis participating. Unlike past challenges, where the incentive has been a prize from the sponsored apparel line, MacGregor and Verna partnered with 5Gyres, an organization whose mission is to "[combat] the global health crisis of plastic pollution." Each post will lead to a donation. "I believe that if you practice yoga, you can change your world," MacGregor says on the partnership.

By using Instagram as a hub for yoga on social media, MacGregor and Verna not only help to raise donations for charities, but also revolutionize the world of yoga by allowing those who are discouraged to try practicing in the comfort of their own home. "Sometimes the images we see in a magazine are too perfect, and then people look at their own bodies and they feel like ‘oh well, I’m not good enough.’ And then they are too intimidated to come to class," she says. By hosting the challenges, MacGregor allows those to begin their practice, to gain confidence and to believe in themselves.

"If I could say one thing to everyone it would be ‘believe in yourself, and never give up.’ Because, for me, I know that it is so hard to believe in yourself," she concludes. "Say the words: ‘I believe. I believe in me. I believe I’m worth it. I believe I'm worthy of the success that I seek. I believe I'm worthy of the love that I seek. I believe that I’m worthy of greatness. I believe that I'm a star. I believe I'm beautiful.’ [Say] that to yourself, and believe it with all your heart. [Really] let your subconscious mind heal—to let your old emotional wounds heal—and to just remove all of the change and the past, so that you can be free to rise up and shine bright and live your destiny."