Thursday, August 17, 2017

This Marvelous Gift Part III - the final chapter.


July 18, 2013. 

The last blog post. Its been over four years since the Mat last traveled (on the Internet). 

I had recently taught my first ever yoga teacher training, and was in the process of advancing my own knowledge. Even though I was pretty confident in my offering, I still wasn't sure who I was as a teacher (I promise to Instagram the exact pose I'm in when I have this moment of revelation). Since then I've led nine yoga teacher trainings, and completed two advanced trainings of my own. Teachers I've trained have their own following, lead their own trainings, and have opened their own studios. When I see how beloved they are, and how respected they are, and what great teachers they've become, it fills me with pride. I actually have the little sprouts of a teaching tree!! 


During this time I've also completed two courses in Thai Bodywork, the beginning stages of Thai Folk Healing. This is a practice that I was introduced to back in 2007, and through the years (and acro yoga) I found my way back. This practice is more than just a complement. It's has awakened a new desire share Spirit in a different way. Teaching yoga asana has taught me that people need to heal their bodies, as we much as they need to learn to use them with grace. Learning Thai bodywork has given me the tools to help facilitate that healing. It has also taught me to actively use Metta, which is a Buddhist principle meaning loving kindness. This type of active kindness is referenced in the Yoga Sutras as well described as the virtue "maitri" or friendliness. It is even said that by cultivating friendliness and compassion one attains the power to transmit friendliness and compassion. And so I openly wish you well. 

Personally it's been four years of change, triumph, success, failure, growth, experience, love and lost love. The interesting thing about being human is the being human part, because everyday is an adventure!! I really feel like I've done a good job of healing myself, and the relationships that needed healing. I have a lot of work to do on that one, but it's work I'm ready for. This practice has prepared me. 

Enough time has passed for me to have traveled to the other side of the world twice, then lose the right to do so. Pay your bills, debt karma may not have been mentioned in any of the classics of yoga philosophy, but that shit is real!! It will come back to get you. Don't worry Panama, I'll get there soon. #redfrogbeach

Enough time has gone by to gain faith in humanity, lose it, regain it only to lose it again (#trump). I realized some time ago that we all have a voice, and it's complete up to us to use our voices to send messages of peace and positivity whenever the opportunity arises. We also must use our voice and influence to push toward a more unified and collectively sustained existence on our beautiful planet. There is far to much at stake to allow our world to dissolve into chaos fueled by greed and hate. We have to champion our own causes, be heroic in our communities, and be monuments of humanity. We have to act more as stewards and less like "rulers". 

This realization, and the shaping of myself to be able to come to this realization could not have been possible without the practice and discipline of yoga. Throughout everything I've seen and been through, the places I've gone and the beautiful people I've met along the way, the common thread has always been this practice. Since I made up mind to attend my first YTT back in 2002, all of my best life experiences have involved or somehow been influenced by - yoga. 

<In writing this I realized that one of my children was born during this time, but I also quickly realized that he too was the result of yogic connection. Yoga created a life>

So when I have been trying to describe a "gift" it's difficult. It's not a tangible gift, though there have been definite tangible things. And please don't think it's my gift, as if I have some paranormal yoga teaching ability. It's not the things that yoga has done for me, thought I've joked that yoga saved my life. It was never that serious. But maybe, just maybe, maybe yoga GAVE me life. A purpose and and outlet. A methodology that enables me to navigate this realm of infinite human potential, and allows me to live my life to the fullest. The practice is the gift. I only have to keep going to this everlasting spring to stay replenished. It will never go away, and even when I forget it is always there to remind me. 
 Jah Bless

Much gratitude to the practice of yoga, my teachers, my students (who are also my teachers), any one who has ever attended class, and especially anyone who has ever taken the time to read any of my blogs. I never knew what I was really getting into when I started this, and I never finished it properly. This is as good a time as any I think. My original mat, the Traveling Mat, my old trusty mat that traveled coast to coast, and was the platform for thousands of hours of teaching and practice, has been lost for a while now. Misplaced in the shuffle of life I guess...

....and so with the mat gone let this blog, this public exercise in private introspection also come to a close. It's been a good ride, but always forward, forward always. There is something new on the horizon. A new expression to be shared perhaps??? Only time will tell. 

Peace. Out. 


{check out mahavirarva.com if you can't wait for time to tell. A new, as yet unnamed journal will be available soon - bless}