PYT(T) #best09

December 9 Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

Almost a year ago, I went to an introductory night for yoga teacher training at the Open Center – just to see. I sat there for a couple of hours letting the joy and wisdom of the program leaders wash over me. Before the evening was over, I knew I’d be jumping on board – for better or worse.

Even though the decision was made, I found myself up at the front of the room approaching Priti, one of our beautiful teachers. Before I knew it, I just blurted out: I’m scared! And without a moment’s hesitation, she embraced me. I was so overwhelmed at that moment, and so, so nurtured. I still get choked up thinking about it.

The journey to becoming a teacher has surprised me (and still surprises me!) in its simplicity, and in its challenges. I mean, frankly, there are times where I am a complete mess – as a yoga teacher and as a functioning adult. But this challenge has touched me to the core and changed the way I approach life for the better, even with the fear and the mess.

Oregon Again best#09

December 1 Trip. What was your best trip in 2009?

This year L.O. and I pulled up our roots, quit our full-time jobs and spent three weeks across the country in Oregon. I’d been to Portland once before, only for a couple of days, but I fell in love with Oregon right away.

Away from New York and into the wild, it felt like another world. Someplace to actually be able to breathe. We hiked, we lounged around and read, we went to the coast and spent the day in sweaters on the beach – probably my favorite combination of all time. Oregon was made for open skies and hot tea and being just as exhausted from activity as I was from sloth.

I came home centered and ready to set “the plan” – a more balanced lifestyle with yoga teaching and freelance advertising work – into motion.

Happiness

What’s something you know now about happiness that you didn’t know when you were 18 years old?
You get to make happiness happen. To rely on someone else to “make” you “happy” is to live in a state of illusion.

This is a beautiful, simple and powerful question and answer from The Happiness Project that I absolutely needed to hear and to share. Enjoy.

Do you overdo?

During class tonight, I noticed myself sweating up a storm. Which is great, except that I was leading class, not just taking one.

Does this mean I was over-doing? As a newer teacher, I often find myself demonstrating every transition – mostly because I get tongue-tied trying to describe them without feeling them in my body as I lead. But I wonder if I’m also struck with this need to “do” instead of just hold space for my students. I’m finding it hard to let go into just “being.”

Holding the space, creating a safe environment, is the most important part of leading a class. I want to teach a class that is all about the student, and not at all about me. And yet, I find it hard to stay still.

Is this a rookie move? Has anyone else had this experience?

Yoga & Fear

My dad sent me this essay recently, so I thought I would share. It’s reminded me to take deep breaths.

Yoga teaches you to notice how you feel and to use your breath to accept your current situation, even if it makes you uncomfortable, angry, sad, or agitated. As you learn to weather situations like these on your mat, you’ll see that as quickly as difficult emotions arise, they also change and fade away.

You’ll also be less fearful when similar feelings – whether physical or emotional – surface in your daily life. In fact, you’ll gain confidence and know that you have the fortitude to cope with the array of emotions that course through you. Developing the ability to stay with pain can ultimately diffuse panic and depression, or allow you to get to the root of the difficulty. The ability to stay with pain will eventually allow it to subside.

Lasater believes that depression arises when a person tries to deny feelings such as anger or sadness and that LEARNING TO TRULY FEEL THESE DIFFICULT EMOTIONS is what weakens them until they pass away. “We develop a lot of strategies for escaping anxiety or sadness – overeating, drinking, even exercise – because we’re a sadness-denying society,” she says. “But when you learn to sit still in yoga or meditation, you become a container for your feelings. The discipline is not to interact with them, and they will pass away. Sitting with them really is the cure.”

The release from fear is what finally precipitates the full flowering of love.

In this state you will love what you see in others, and others will love you for having been seen.

This is the softened perception of the world that yoga promotes
Yoga can help you trust in the flow of life. Suddenly, you may learn that when you connect with the deepest part of yourself, you realize that you are connected to everyone else, too.