I Am Maris: Portrait of a Young Yogi

A film about mental illness, the healing powers of yoga, and ultimately about self-acceptance. http://www.iammarismovie.com

Maris Degener @yogamaris  is an amazing young woman with a story that I knew needed to be told through film.

Maris is a yoga teacher, a writer, and a survivor. She’s an inspiration to her students, to the young girls she mentors, and to the thousands who follow her on-line. And she’s only 17.

After battling anxiety and depression for most of her young life, Maris Degener was hospitalized for life-threatening anorexia nervosa. As she says herself, “The hospital kept me alive. But only in my body.” She did not truly start to heal until she discovered yoga. “Slowly I fell in love with my cells again. I fell in love with the way movement felt in my body… the breath…I suddenly wanted nothing more than to feel what feeling alive felt like. I was 15 and I was born. “

Everything after “I Am” creates. This film, unlike other films that focus on the horrors of eating disorders and mental illness, focuses on everything that comes with RECOVERY. Through one young women’s struggle and victory, we see ALL THAT WE ARE despite, BEYOND  — even positively because of — OUR OWN IMPERFECTIONS.

 

To follow the film’s development at http://www.iammarismovie.com or on Facebook go to @IamMarisMovie.

If you’d like to know more about Maris, check out her blog: https://yogamaris.net/