As most things tend to eventually be deemed ‘tainted by westernization’, yoga is no exception. Yogis and non-claimers to that title alike have seemingly come to a consensus that yoga has evolved from its ever-so-sacred origins into just another ‘workout’. Studio schedules are riddled with classes combining weight-lifting, cardio, Pilates and more with yoga asanas (postures). Then there is the fascination with hot yoga, which has led to many people living under the assumption that to take a Vinyasa flow class it must be done inside a room heated to 90+ degrees. People, including myself in times past, will be mildly disappointed if after, they aren’t walking out of the room dripping with sweat and muscles in full convulsions. There is no denying that somewhere along these lines the yoga that encompasses an ethical way of being, along with the asanas that we are all so familiar with, becomes seriously obsolete.
My mindset seven or so years ago walking into my local yoga studio, was not far off from what I’ve described above; I was booked for a class akin to ‘Yoga Burn’ for example, heated to 90+ degrees with every intention of leaving drenched and sore and exhausted. Not to mention the affixation with needing to be near the mirror so as to not miss a single angle of myself. Seven years ago if someone had told me that my intentions for going to yoga class were inauthentic and that I should be at yoga for more than just a workout, the chances of me continuing my practice would have been slim. Leading to an even slimmer chance of me becoming a passionate yoga teacher eager to spread knowledge of the many facets of a yoga practice. Thankfully, I did not have that experience and my yoga mindset blossomed from that of workout, to way of being. Now - don’t stop going to yoga class because you enjoy the way your body feels after. Having said that – allow your yoga practice to evolve into more than just something you do for your body. Let’s take my beloved father as an example. Even the person whom I received half of my genetic makeup from, says to me he just doesn’t get all that spiritual crap that some yoga classes offer and that it’s not for him. Instead of forcing on him all the reasons why I THINK he should pay more attention to the ‘spiritual crap’, I smile, give gratitude for the mere fact that he practices to begin with, and then I trust. I trust that when the moment is right, my father is going to start paying attention to and find meaning in the spiritual crap. Any interaction in which you are forcing your beliefs onto someone will inevitably end with them resisting. Rather than force, practice the first yama, ahimsa, and offer trust to this person. Trusting someone to navigate their path on their own is much more empowering than bearing down on them with the weight of your beliefs. If the yamas and the niyamas are something that pique your interest, run as fast as you can to author Deborah Adele, she does a fantastic job of laying these ethical precepts out in layman’s terms. The Eight-Limb path of Yoga is as follows: Yamas (moral restraints), Niyamas (observances), Asana (postures), Pranayama (breathing), Pratyahara (turning inward), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation), Samadhi (union of the Self with Object of Meditation)*. Note the third limb is the one we are all most familiar with, asana. The chances of everyone that goes to yoga classes are practicing all eight of these limbs, is small. Myself included have not yet mastered all eight as I’m sure is the case with other yoga teachers. However this lack of total mastery does not deem me unworthy of being a teaching figure in the yoga community (thankfully). Nor a student’s lack of mastery deem them unworthy to practice. If you don’t start somewhere, how are you going to get anywhere? If my yoga journey didn’t start at workout would it have evolved into instructor? I’m not sure, but we don’t get to tell people that their starting point isn’t good enough. Some people who practice yoga asana might not ever seek out information on the other limbs of yoga, and that’s okay. I went to space camp and I am never going to be an astronaut, but the requirement for space camp is not that you intend to become an astronaut. The requirement for yoga class is not that you intend to become yogi master. Approach your yoga practice with a well-rounded intention of becoming familiar with and practicing as many of the limbs as you can on and off the matt. And remember, from the revered Sri K Pattabhi Jois, “Practice and all is coming”. *credit to Rolf Gates, “Meditations from the Mat”
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This past weekend I attended a Reiki level one training. Offered at Yoga Loft studio, led by the lovely Jen Nicol. Initially what had attracted me to the training was the mere fact that it was a training of some sort, and the price made it a killer deal. You see, when I was going through my 200-hr yoga teacher training, despite the long hours, I enjoyed every minute and absorbed every bit of information that I could. Seeing as I do not have the time nor the funding to take another extensive teacher training, small ones such as this will suffice. As for previous my Reiki knowledge, it was minimal to say the least. I knew it involved healing via energy through the means of touch, and that was about it.
The training began with a true and honest testimony from facilitator, Jen. Appreciating the fact that Jen was the type of teacher that was down-to-earth and relayed her knowledge in a practical, easy to relate to way, gave her all the more credibility in my eyes. As esoteric as Reiki seems to be, Jen gave concrete personal examples of its validity. Though I would not consider myself to be very Type A, needing facts and figures in order to believe something to be true, Jen’s honesty and pure zeal for the practice, aided in my belief efforts. And then there was to be the experience that I shared at the end of class……please read on to find out. So what the Reiki is going on? If Reiki is as unfamiliar to you as it was to me prior to this weekend, allow me to offer a brief insight. Mind you much more could be said on this topic and if this post stokes your curiosity I highly encourage more education on your part. Straight from the manual, a brief quote, “Reiki is a safe, gentle, non-intrusive hands-on healing technique…based on the principal that the practitioner can channel energy into the client by means of touch, to activate the active healing process of the patient’s body and restore physical and emotional well-being.” There are three levels of a Reiki practitioner, level one, two, and three. At level three you become Reiki master and then can attune, or pass down the gift of Reiki to someone that wishes to possess the gift. Once you have a Reiki attunement you will have it for life, it will not wear off. Have I lost you yet? No? Great! Let’s keep going. Let me ask you this, have you ever met someone and were instantly drawn to them? Like lost friends whose paths have finally crossed. Or on the opposite end, met someone and try as you might to be pono, yogi, nice, there was just something about them inhibiting you from doing so? The big word here is energy. There is energy in LITERALLY everything and EVERYTHING is energy. The desk that I am working at contains energy. The cup next to me holding water, energy and more energy. The details of this are vast but I will relate this in a way that hopefully makes sense – take the desk for example – the tree that was cut down and used for lumber to build the desk contains energy from the sun, water and dirt, that energy is not lost just because the tree is cut down and then reassembled into a different form. Reincarnation anyone? Did I really lose you there? Yes? That’s okay! Just keep reading and ask questions to Google later. One more quick quote from the manual to try and offer any bit of clarity you may still be looking for; “Reiki is universally guided healing. This energy is infinite, wise, and ‘knows’ precisely what we need to relax, release stress, and activate the healing power within all of us. A beautiful characteristic of Reiki is that it has the ability to harmonize energies. Therefore, Reiki enhances anything we do.” As aforementioned, this is but a brief explanation of the subject so if this is unclear there is probably an explanation that will make sense to you on the ever growing Internet. For now, onto the mysterious and solidifying event I experienced at the training. After we got through the manual it was time to begin the attunement process. We began with a lovely grounding mediation. Lying on my yoga mat with a blanket rolled up under my knees, another across my hips for just a little more grounding, and a soft smile of anticipation across my lips, I began watching my breath and waiting for my turn. As I felt my neighbor gently tap my shoulder, the signifier that it was your turn, I slowly reawakened my body and began to glide across the room to the chair which we were instructed to sit upon. The attunement process was brief yet still beautiful. I saw bits of white and gold when Jen gently pressed onto my third eye center, six chakra location, the center of intuition and an overall sense of well-being and comfort. When the process was complete I did not float off of the chair and levitate across the room back to my mat as a small part of me would love to have done. Still yet, more magic was to come. The training had roughly ten to twelve attendees and after we all became attuned it was time to partner up and give one another a Reiki session. My partner, we will call her Kim, and I have not known each other for more than the five hours which we sat next to each other. Truthfully, I did not even get a look at her face until I had asked if she wanted to be partners. The point I am stressing here is that Kim and I were strangers at best. I went first to receive the Reiki from her. As I lay on my mat the familiar sensation of tingling numbness begins to ensue throughout my ankles and feet, as I said familiar, it is not unusual for those spots of my body to act up when in meditation in times past. What was different about this sensation however, was that it was not as bothersome as it normally ends up being. There were times during the session that Kim would have her two hands on one spot of my body and as she would move to another spot I would still feel the warmth from where she just was, a common experience as Jen would later clarify. Then as Kim reached my feet I felt for sure I would jump or jerk as a natural reaction to the numbness. Rather, when she touched the top of my foot, as if I could see it clear as day, her touch rippled out like a water drop across the rest of my foot and then all awareness of her hands on my feet floated off like a cloud in the sky. A closing prayer is said by Kim and I sit up in a foggy yet still alert, haze. Almost immediately Kim asks me if I am on my feet a lot or if I was a ballerina; a shudder down my spine quickly brings me out of my haze. On my feet a lot, yes, but a ballerina?! See the ballerina comment was not all that far off. I explained that I am on my feet to some extent, being a yoga teacher and enjoying my fair share of physical activity I use my legs and feet quite often. Then confessing things I had only up until now shared with my fiancé, I explained to Kim that I had in my childhood years had been a dancer for quite some time, ballet mostly, and that for about the past six months or so have been strangely missing my time at the dance studio. Then there was the peculiar desire that recently formulated to strike up a career as a ballet instructor to young girls. Kim and I were struck with disbelief. She then goes on to say as soon as she began to work with my feet she felt them to be very warm and heavy, and as her hands were held there an image flashed in her mind of a plush red curtain, and as it parts down the middle there is me in a full ballerina costume, tutu and all, leaping and dancing across the stage. My mouth hung open in pure amazement and awe. As I pointedly stressed, Kim and I were strangers in all sense of the word. There is no way and I mean NO WAY for her to have known anything at all of my recent longings to take up dance once again. So this, is my testimony of faith to the Reiki practice. Jen eagerly began the training off by saying the word of the day was ‘trust’; boy do I now have trust. Chances are I will not renounce my yoga teacher life and enroll myself into Juilliard. However, I will more seriously entertain the idea of adult ballet classes and pray that a studio miraculously opens in Waianae. It’s not far off to say that I am a firm believer in miracles. Nearing the end of March, 2018 it’s been roughly one year that I completed my 200-hr RYT training with HotYoga8 in Honolulu. Truthfully, becoming a yoga teacher has been as fulfilling as I expected it to be, the cloud 9 walking-on-air feeling still runs through my being after each and every class. I finally have a chance to share something that I find to be special and healing with other people with little impact on the environment. Meaning, women and men alike tout diet pills or shakes and skin care products that saved their life, while I tout breathing practices that require little more than a comfortable and quiet place to sit. To say however, that life in yoga teacher paradise is exactly that, would not be all that truthful.
The imagining what life will be like once x, y, or z happens tendency is one we all experience. My post-training imaginary world was one that consisted of me leading awe-inspiring vinyasa flows to the dopest playlists, effortlessly linking Drake and Warrior II all while giving the most profound of Dharma talks. Alas, ‘twas and ‘tis not the case. Not yet at least. In my newer days of teaching the effort was put into setting aside an hour or realistically two hours before class to get on my mat, turn on Pandora’s Glass Animals Radio and get to moving, then after scrolling through the liked songs, weaving a playlist together that flows like water in a stream. That went on for about a good two or three months. Then poor as an excuse it may be, life happened. Not in a grandeur way, but as it usually does. This needed to be taken care of and that required my attention, before I knew it I was berating myself for not putting the effort into my classes that I used to. Dear reader, if you take anything at all away from this post may it be that berating yourself over anything is simply not yogic. Fed up with guilt, I allowed myself to come to terms with the idea that it really is okay if each and every class I lead doesn’t take you from Standing Splits to Eagle to Chair seamlessly all while a mirage of lovely sounds plays from the speaker. I fiddled with Spotify until I locked down a few solid playlists and only every now and then will I take an extra thirty minutes or so to string together my own mix of songs for a class. As for coming to class with the actual movements on lock-down, I’ve been glad to discover it doesn’t always need to take me coming up with the flow for it to work. There are hundreds if not thousands of online classes to be used for inspiration or if time is really a factor, to straight up duplicate. To give credit where credit is due is synonymous with saying ‘please’ and ‘thank-you’ to me; I will always happily credit the source from which I gathered information from whether it’s the flow or a quote. What else has changed since I became glowing gradate to nearly full time teacher? Full time in the yoga realm being teaching 5-8 times a week, at my highest I had 5 classes a week. The sad truth is that your time as a student is few and far between. Between substitute teaching, yoga teaching and playing with the cat, my trips to the studio to take class and my home practice became subdued. But what are we if not students at life, so I shifted my learning arena from on my mat, to nose deep into a great yoga philosophy book or browsing articles on Yoga International. I now find a thirty minute read of a piece on the yamas to be nearly as complimentary as an hour long flow to my arsenal of yoga knowledge that I can share in my classes. The most recompensing practice of all that I’ve implemented in lieu of an hour on the mat? Mediation and breath practices. While I give myself permission to skip a quick session on the mat every now and then, I have become more firm with being sure to set aside at least ten minutes, four or five times a week (such a big chunk of time right?) for a mediation session. The benefits from quiet time seem to offer me slightly more reward then making sure I take time to do a movement only practice. Since establishing a steady meditation practice it is as though I’ve taken the back seat to the ride of life. Decisions seem to be made more clearly and without so much tedious pondering on my part, beauty in all forms, human and nature, paints its picture every day, and my appreciation for that beauty is much greater. Offering the most solace is no longer worrying when change shines its daunting face, instead, I befriend change and know that like summer changing to fall and fall to winter, it is inevitable and each season of change has its positives to offer. So as only a mere year passes in what I happily anticipate a life-long journey as yoga teacher, I can only smile and continue to find the balance between learning and assimilating. I would be remiss if I didn’t share the highlight of those 365 days – leading my first workshop on the Yamas and Niyamas. To some it may be just another cross off the accomplished teacher list, to me it was a big freaking deal. It was the first of what I hope to be many workshops but as the saying goes, you’ll never forget your first. It probably was not a beautifully strewn orchestra of knowledge that made crystal-Hawaiian-waters-clear-sense, but overall I’d say it went pretty well. One workshop attendee has come to every yoga class I’ve taught thereafter and if that as a teacher isn’t your main goal, I don’t know what is. Celebrating the smallest of wins and learning from any sort of loss is important in career and life in general. I humbly and excitedly await what another year of teaching and growing will introduce me to. |
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September 2018
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