With Passion & Compassion

The other day I unexpectedly had a friend show up to one of my classes. Because I've known this friend for a long time and personally know of specific physical and emotional troubles, it strongly influenced how I led the class and what I was inspired to share with the class on an emotional or spiritual level. I became even more passionate about my teaching about was instilled with a deeper kind of compassion that we generally reserve only for those we know well.

It made me think, why don't I teach with that kind of passion and compassion each and every class I lead? Why don't we all do our jobs and our duties -- whether professional, familial, or personal -- with the same kind of fervor and kindness that can manifest seemingly in only special circumstances? We can do that, and it motivated me to make the conscious effort to treat every person, every student, every stranger with the same kind of care and love and inspiration that seems to arise naturally with someone we have stronger bonds with.

When Everything Feels Out of Place... trust that it's not

When sh*t is feeling out of place, when things are not working out as you expected them to, when you're having "one of those days"... these are the times, you must surrender. Surrender to trust. Surrender to faith. Surrender to knowing, that there is a divine order, a universal law, a grander scheme, a bigger picture.

You ARE on the right path, even if the terrain is rocky and the coast is not that clear. Even when things are unfamiliar, sometimes foggy, sometimes slippery dark, sometimes lonely... Ever notice how when you are not on the right path the Universe tends to smack you down? It's just what happens. If this moment, this perfect beautiful moment, weren't totally right for you, it just wouldn't be. It's that simple. The circumstances of your current situation are correct, otherwise this situation, these circumstances, these conditions, would not have presented themselves to you.

So the next time you're not really sure, you're feeling a little doubtful (or a lot doubtful), see that, acknowledge that, maybe even embrace that. Bow down to it. Be humbled and be serene, and then just let it go. Because you must trust, you must have faith, you must believe wholeheartedly in the good and the underlying order and reasoning and logic behind the smallest of things. When you believe, when you have faith and you have conviction, things change for you... in the most perfect of ways.

Mandala: Motion, Movement, Effort, and Energy That Comes Full-Circle

A mandala is essentially a circle, or a sacred space with a center. Mandalas are traditionally used for meditation and practice because they are calming to the nervous system since they are symmetrical and cyclical. Try to think of a situation or an instance in your life in which you feel you have come "full circle," so to speak. While we commonly set goals as an intention for our yoga practice, we too seldom honor and celebrate the goals we've set and have already achieved. When you practice, try to think of an accomplishment you have made. Try to think of what you have completed, what you have done, rather than what may have been left undone or incomplete at this juncture. Think of something that you thought you would never overcome or pull yourself through, and you did! Try to carry that closure, that resolved attitude and perspective into whatever challenge or obstacle you may currently be facing.

Where you may be doubt, fear, uncertainty, insecurity, and worry, start to replace that with courage, confidence, strength, stability, and faith. Start to cultivate what is scarce and harvest what is abundant and established; rejoice, embrace, and celebrate what you have and this boundless beauty will infiltrate what you may not have or what may not have conquered... yet.

"What makes you come alive": Your Dharma, Your Bliss

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." --Howard Thurman

I shared this quote with my classes a number of weeks ago. One of my students later told me that this quote really resonated with them. Me too. Which is why I shared it.

Absolutely what the world needs is for people to begin living in a way that is consistent with what makes them free, what makes them blissful. What makes you come alive is your Dharma, your duty and your eternal truth. Your Dharma is not duty in a strict disciplinary sense of responsibility, but it is what you want to do because it is what feels right, it is what feels natural, it is what frees you.

My teacher Mokshapriya taught me that creative projects are essentially the most efficient and easiest ways to reach your "Vigyanamaya Kosh," or your Intellect body... the body full of wisdom and higher knowledge. This is the fourth of the five bodies of man. The first being Anamaya Kosh (Physical), the second Pranamaya Kosh (Astral), the third Manomaya Kosh (Mental), and the fifth being Anandamaya Kosh (Bliss). Creativity of any kind of going to lead you to your higher self. Creativity does not have to artistic; many people seem to believe it does. You can be creative by being resourceful in how you use mundane materials; you can be creative in how you communicate with people; you can be creative in scheduling and maximizing your time and agenda. If your job does not serve as a creative outlet, you can find something outside of your career that will make you feel alive.

Aside from practicing and teaching yoga, I love words. I love speaking them, reading them, and writing them. I studied English Language & Literature as well as Writing and Philosophy in college because it inspired me. Hearing other people who are passionated about words, about poetry, about writing, is just as inspirational.

We want to follow our bliss and do what makes us come alive because it inspires other people to do it as well. And when everybody is doing that, everybody is very happy.

Aparigraha, non-accumulation and balance, in Miami, FL

The other weekend I had the opportunity to attend a couple of workshops with Greg Nardi, at the Miami Life Center, in Miami, FL -- a major hub for pop culture, media, and entertainment; a city notorious for finance, commerce, business, and shopping.

The surge of people pulsing through that city that March 11th weekend, I soon learned, could be attributed to: (1) South Beach's mass appeal for a spring break location, and (2) the Winter Music Conference, an annual event that is apparently enormously popular and successful.

As I wandered down Collins Ave. -- "shopping district" -- passed shops like Armani Exchange, Club Monaco, Sephora, Polo Sport Ralph Lauren, and so on, simultaneously absorbing the teeming masses seeming positively smitten by all of the stuff that this city had to offer, I began contemplating the irony of practicing yoga in a culture so heavily influenced by media, and incidentally by superficiality (the newest iPhone, uPhone, or whatever) and appearance (the tans, white teeth, bleach blonde hair, beach bodies, string bikinis). I could not help but wonder about the fifth of the five yamas (or personal codes of conduct), the first limb of Ashtanga Yoga: aparigraha, or non-accumulation, non-possessiveness, non-greed. Yes, in a city thriving off of materialism, how does one balance a life of yoga, a life of mindful living and mindful possession, a life of selflessness, a life of seeking out and acquiring only what one needs and nothing more, a life of moderation and control...?

This, I think, is the ultimate challenge. To practice a yoga within a world that advertises distractions on every billboard, on every homepage, on every front cover of every magazine on every street corner; a society that presents and produces the urge and the potential to indulge at every whim. This is the real yoga.

So as I took it one step, one Ujjayi breath, at a time, towards the Miami Life Center, I tell myself, that yes, while I can be indulgent and can really enjoy my Starbucks chai teas when I have them, that we must recognize the emptiness in addictions, in accumulation, in consumerism. As I arrive at this safe haven, this quiet, still, and peaceful place, of the Miami Life Center, I see that this is the work: To enjoy what you have when you have it, but to be okay without it as well; to abolish the idea that we need things that we simply do not (i.e. that other purse, when the one(s) we have is/are perfectly usable)...

Karma Yoga: Giving & Nonattachment

Karma Yoga is the yoga of action, the work of doing good for the sake of good, not doing good for the sake of receiving good. We give just to give, not to get in return. (If we have this mentality, we will, indeed, get everything that we need. We will be taken care of.) This is non-attachment. We must resist the natural inclination towards resentment when we feel we are giving more than we are getting in return. We perform the actions we do because it is what we can do, it is what we want to do, it is our very best work and we believe in what we are doing. We do not perform these actions merely for the end-product, for the results they yield.

It is simple. If we are in the position to, we take care of others. Many people are not in the position to, for a wide array of reasons: physical handicap to mental immaturity to socioeconomic situation to geographic location. If we have, we must share. This becomes our dharma, our duty. If we have been granted the gift or the fortune to live comfortably and have the resources to care for ourselves, we then care for others. And what I mean by "live comfortably" is very relative. There are those who live in comfort so lavish and so extreme, that it is borderline perverse to even consider not sharing this with others. Then there are those who live in a general kind of comfort. I would include myself in this category. To have a comfortable life does not mean you are never challenged nor periodically worry over where you will get the money to pay for something. To have a comfortable life may mean that your actual life, your health, your wellbeing, is not being threatened or jeopardized on a regular basis.

Even during an "economic meltdown," many of us, as Americans, are some of the wealthiest, luckiest, and most liberated individuals on the planet and we have a duty to serve others. It does not have to be someone on the other side of the world to count. There are plenty in this country who need. There are plenty of people in your own community who need. There are people in your own family who need--in different ways. Begin to consider these ways. It is not just financial, it is not just physical. It is mental, emotional, and spiritual.

Duality Thinking

The other week a friend sent me this wonderful quote from Breakpoint and Beyond by George Land and Beth Jarman...

"Every human being is both child and adult, both masculine and feminine, both sensible and crazy, both illogical and logical. The idea of both... and is critical to make the successful crossing to a new worldview. The fully evolved human being is both playful and serious, both poet and engineer. The notion of either... or, of dichotomies, of duality thinking cuts us off from our full wave of potential and ultimately from our full creativity."
 
I shared this quote with my yoga classes, because it happened to find me at a particularly trying and applicable time. One of those times in life you feel too much of something and not enough of something else. Too passive, not assertive enough. Too serious, not playful enough. Too sensitive, not sensible enough. Too judgmental. Too distracted. Too impatient. Too impassioned.

This quote reminded me of what we all too often forget. We are everything. Together, as a species, we are a perfect mix, the sweetest combination, of loud and quiet, of rational and irrational, of silly and pensive, of confident and curious, of joyful and sorrowful. There will, indeed, periodically be imbalances, fluctuations,  cycles, and changes (like everything in nature). Yes, some of these characteristics will be more dominant in some people than in others. This is what makes us unique. But no, this does not mean you are stuck that way, that you are powerless. What I've reminded myself and my students, is that if there is something that you feel is out of balance about yourself, something you don't quite like, you should feel really good and free knowing that you have the power to change that. Let that liberate you. Know that you have the capacity to adjust what needs to be adjusted, just as we adjust physically on the yoga mat, we adjust mentally or emotionally, our perspective, our attitude, our approach, our worldview. This is what leads us to our "full wave of potential." Allow yourself to indulge in what you love about yourself and what may be present in excess, and allow yourself to balance out or practice discipline in what may be lacking. Discipline is liberation as well, not limitation, like so many of us are taught to believe. Once you have a degree of control over your own being, your creativity and potential is limitless.