What is OYA?

What is OYA anyway?

That’s a great question, and there’s a great answer (or at least I think so) that goes with it. Change is something we all go through, and it happens all the time. I made changes in my life that focused on me taking care of my overall fitness – physical, mental, professional, spiritual, and personal. So when I decided that I wanted to help other women get moving and make those changes, I wanted to name it. When you give something a name it makes it real.

That’s when I started looking around at names. Fierce Fitness kept popping into my head, but come on. Everyone was “fierce this,” and “fierce that.” It was pretty much played out. Then I started looking at what I really wanted to do. What was my objective? What was my purpose? What problem did I want to solve? I wanted to make the most of every aspect of my life. I wanted to own it. To do that I couldn’t stay still. I had to move, to change, to get moving.

Being a scholar and student of religions I decided to look up change in mythology and religion. That’s when I stumbled across Oya, the Yoruba goddess of change and transformation. I had studied the Yoruba traditions some in graduate school, so I loved the thought of incorporating that idea into my new venture somehow. Oya is seen as powerful and courageous protector. She helps people in transition, and practitioners look to her for guidance. Her power for transformation comes from her position as the goddess of storms, thunder, and lightning. The storms of life that push us toward personal growth and change.

I just loved the ideas and mythology surrounding Oya, but since there aren’t too many practitioners of the Yoruba religion in the metro Atlanta suburbs, I needed to refine things just a bit. Well, one thing led to another, including a eureka moment on a phone call with my mom. That’s when the acronyms were born. Oya – the goddess of change and transformation morphed into the acronym OYA.

In the transformation, OYA stands for Optimize Your Attitude. You cannot change for the better if your attitude isn’t there already. Belief is a powerful tool for transformation. OYA also stands for Own Your Actions. There are no excuses. To grow and transform you have to own everything you do. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the goofy. In a nutshell, then, OYA means you need to get moving. You have to make the decision to make a change.

In other words, OYA – get Off Your ASSets and get moving.