The Present of your Presence
One of my favourite memories of being in a yoga class was when I took Cat’s class at Jivamukti London a year ago. Cat was leading a strong, amazingly instructed vinyasa, and in one of the sequences, the guy practicing next to me went fully rogue, taking whatever postures he felt like moving into, completely veering off of the class we were there to take. Cat didn’t let it go unnoticed, as I quickly understood by her “STAY PRESENT” interjection. He quickly came back to the moment and fell into the flow the rest of us were moving through.
From Unseeing to Undying
How much time throughout our lives do we spend focusing on, and occasionally agonizing over, trying to keep how we look, who we’re involved with, and where we are in our careers in a place of stability? How many minutes out of each of our lifetimes have we spent trying to avoid change, fearing that with the slightest release of what we deemed as being control, we would be moving closer and closer to some unidentified threat? As a species, and moreover, as Westerners, humans have more or less lost sight of the fact that we carry the divine within us, and it is through that connection to the omnipotent that we need to be living, always maintaining perspective on the daily dramas that habitually take over our lives, leading us into despair or into elation. Because we’ve lost sight of that fundamental touchstone, we have created massive aversions to any circumstances or series of events that bring about change.
The Phoenix From The Flame
I’ve been preparing for the workshop and lecture I’ll be giving later this year for the Luna Yoga Teacher Training on Hindu mythology and how it relates to the yoga postures, and I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t passionately loving every second of my research. I’ve been going over the myths I’m already familiar with, as well as hearing some of the more obscure ones for the first time, and I keep having these moments of realization where I can really stand back from my life and see how the path I’m on is truly my dharma…it’s unreal, intense, and satisfying, all at the same time. As I finish with one myth, I put down my books and walk away from the computer, and sit down in silence to think about what I’ve read, and how it applies to my life and my approach to life.
The Yoga of Letting Go
I have spoken in many of my classes about the body’s tendency to react to the events that we encounter in our daily lives…the seizing up of the shoulders towards the ears in moments of stress, the habit of rounding the shoulders to unconsciously protect the heart center when feeling like we’re the target of […]
Up To You
I believe that there are messengers on earth, people whose mission it is to inspire and direct others towards truth and peace, using perception and certainty as building blocks as tools of inspiration. I believe that after 35 years of trying to find my way, I came to a place where I had no choice but to step up and understand that my future was possibly rooted in that role of messenger, and 3 years later, I am certain that I have stepped into my life’s mission. It is absolutely and totally due to this path of mine that I can clearly see the infinite possibilities that exist for each and every one of us, and this is why I feel so determined to convey those possibilities to everyone within reading and/or hearing distance. What reinforces my belief that I’m on the right path is the (sometimes) overwhelming number of people I counsel, encouraging them to lift their gaze up so they can see the endless options that are available to them, options that once chosen, could lead to a better, stronger, more meaningful existence. What comes so naturally to me apparently doesn’t for everyone else, and so I feel that obligation to guide people towards their own truths with that much more conviction.
God Talk
I went for lunch last week to my favourite afternoon eatery in the city, Olive & Gourmando, a place which already felt like home and whose staff are now extended family, and sat down with Jennifer, Dawn M, and Dawn B to add the finishing touches to the Luna Yoga Teacher Training that we will […]
Cheating Ourselves?
I was scrolling through the headlines from The Huffington Post yesterday, and saw a headline that asked if watching porn lead to cheating in a relationship, and within a couple of seconds, my mind was racing…the whole concept of cheating fascinates me, and I find it’s something that we don’t discuss and analyze enough. We can cheat on our taxes, on our diets, on our spouses or mates, on exams…but in each of our own experiences, what has been worse – having someone catch us cheating, or living with our own disappointment of knowing that we allowed ourselves to be “that person”, to inhibit ourselves from living up to the ideal self that we all consider ourselves to be?
Moments of Reflection
I heard something a few months ago that has kept sneaking back into my thoughts as I continue to work with students who, in turn, are working through their own obstacles and challenges…I don’t remember where I heard it, which is so often the case when the universe offers up another grain of truth, but it was something to the tune of, “We marry at the level of our self-esteem.” So concisely expressed, with such weight and relevance to it…Obviously, what is being communicated is that we look for a mate, a partner, someone who will reflect back to us how we feel about ourselves at the time of our search. We are looking for solace and acceptance in the arms of another, someone who won’t push us or demean us into territories we’re not ready to delve into. I find this absolutely fascinating, because in most instances, I believe it to be true.
Morsels of Inspiration
Like most of the people I know, it took me decades of self-reflection and realization before I came to a place where I felt safe enough to stop playing the corporate game that I was surrounded by and do my own thing…tapping into what made me happy, what I felt was the foundation for the peaceful life that I was periodically getting fleeting glimpses of and that I knew I wanted to make more of a fixture in my day-to-day existence. Making the decision to go ahead and drop everything was obviously petrifying, but it proved to be one of the greatest moves I’ve ever made for myself…here’s why:
My Raison-D’Être
As most people are doing at this time of year, I’m finding myself reflecting on the past 12 months and everything that they have offered…remembering where my head-space was at this time last year and how I put down in black and white what my goals would be for 2010…how 2010 would be the year to see if a career in Yoga would be financially feasible, if I could still support myself and pay the mortgage while pursuing what I consider to be my mission in this life. After a year of hard work and a clear vision, I now find myself at the tail end of what will go down in my personal history book as the “Year of Firsts”.