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Be prepared: Every session: Bring your Manual, Geetaa, Illustrated Anatomy, pen
Dress for Aasana practice
Living Commitment: Be ahead of Time
Lateness: Blaming,
Complaining and Explaining
Sickness, Cleansing
Yoga Buddies: Relationship
1) Bring your Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training Manual Bring your Manual, Geetaa, Illustrated Anatomy, pen to every session (with a light and joyous heart.) Bring other books as needed.
2) Dress for aasana practice every session (with enthusiasm and joy.) Bring a towel, water, small digestible snack.
3) Living Commitment: Be Ahead of Time. We are all doing this together. Being ahead of time is a way to stay in the present, to honor ourselves and our intention. If you are going to be a teacher, to teach yoga, you have to be way ahead of time, to set up the room, vacuum, clean, fix any mess that might unexpectedly show up, get the music ready and most importantly prepare yourself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
Don’t time your life to show up exactly when something starts. If you walk in at the precise moment when things start in life, you are not really there yet.
Inevitably, problems will happen along the way in life. Your car will break down, traffic accidents, meteorites might fall on your head. Go early. Be relaxed.
Come 5 to 15 minutes early. Get your seat. Go over your notes and readings. Hang over your legs. Legs on the wall if you are tired. Maybe you can help set up the room with Tom. You won’t be bored. A yogi always has plenty of things to focus on: breath, alignments, bandhas, third eye, soft palate. Be prepared.
(From the “Forum”) Shadow side: Being chronically late is a way of withholding energy in your life. It might indicate a Passive Aggressive pattern operating at an unconscious level. Being chronically late is a way of quite bluntly saying: “ F--- you. (yogically appropriate use of the f word.) Your time doesn’t matter. I want you to hurry up and wait for me. I am not really apart of this process. I am separating myself from all of you. I am not really putting all of myself into this. I am withholding a piece of me from the group. I am stuck in a belief that I am limited and I don’t’ have enough energy to be totally involved.”
4) Lateness:
One of the most powerful maxims in life:
“Don’t blame, complain or explain.”
These are passive leaks at trying to maintain one’s self image. Blaming, complaining and explaining are parasites on your life’s energy and well being
If you are late, excuse yourself for being late, without giving a reason !!! “I am late. It won’t happen again.” That is all there is to say. This is the most powerful thing to say. It might in reality happen again, but what you say is: “It won’t happen again! I have no excuse. I have no reason. My commitment is to be ahead of time, so that I can stay in the present” Saying this is a powerful statement about living your commitment.
“Breakdown” of your commitment will happen. But the point is to not protect yourself image ahead of time by being scared of breakdown. What we are talking about is living powerfully. Getting into excuses about the breakdown, destroys your commitment, your ability to manage life and take it in a direction that you decide. Breakdown will happen. Don’t breakdown when breakdown happens. When you start living your life without resorting to excuses, reasons or complaints, you take a quantum leap into becoming the creator of your experience. Instead live your commitment. Go back to your commitment.
“ I will be ahead of time.”
Please don’t get into excuses and reasons: ” I am tired, overworked, overwhelmed, that’s why I am late.” You could be tired, overwhelmed and overworked, but show up ahead of time anyway! Blaming, complaining and explaining are squirrelly face saving gestures.
Blaming, complaining and explaining are some of the biggest wastes of energy in your life. They are parasites on your health.
Commitment is the way to actively create your life. Without commitment, you wind up passively reacting to life. Blaming, complaining and explaining destroy your commitment and your ability to create a thoughtful purposeful life. Without commitment, you become a fish flapping on the dock..
4) Sickness: “Cleansing.”
96% of the time, if you are sick, show up anyway, Don’t predict what your experience that day is going to be when you are sick. Show up anyway.
Cleansing, being sick is just another posture, and it can be a very powerful one spiritually. You can sit out on the side during aasana practice remaining as attentive as possible. Some of the deepest yoga classes I have ever taken and lead have been when I was deeply under the weather.
I have sat in a chair and lead yoga classes, when my physical body was broken. If I might be contagious, I stay put in the front of the room, and give no assists.
If you are really sick or contagious sick, Try this as an experiment:
Sit on the sides of the room during the sessions. Many students in the past who have courageously done this experiment are later very glad they did. It is a huge lesson about being present even when you are not at your best. The intention in yoga is to be as present as possible no matter what posture you are in. Perfection is not required. You don’t have to look great or as if you have it all together. It is okay to look and feel like a mess in these circumstances. Use lots of tissues. You absolutely will get more out of it, sitting on the side, dealing with whatever you are dealing with, hearing maybe only 10 % of the conversation and not being energetically and intellectually being left out.
Of course, 4% of the time, this is not possible. These cases are rarer than most people believe.
4) The Yoga of Relationship: Seeing the Divine in Each other
Set up a phone date with your Yoga Buddy. It is best if it is the same time every week. Call your yoga buddy at least once between weekends. Some have done lunches together or walks in the park.
You might love your yoga buddy and be best friends for life. You might not like each other. Liking and disliking doesn’t matter. You are especially lucky if you don’t like your yoga buddy, because this will give you the greatest seeing into your own stuff as well as the other.
Establish relationship. Reach out and make connection. Understand the other person. Listen. You will be serving them as well as serving yourself.
Things you might talk about: Go over exam questions, questions about practice, postures, Richard Freeman reading.
Help each other.
Of course, never use these sessions to gossip about Tom or any one else. :)
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