Before Yoga, After Yoga

I generally think of my life and my Self in two eras or phases: Before Yoga and After Yoga. They starkly contrast one another. For this, I am grateful.

Yoga Journal Conference 2011: Seane Corn - Each Moment Conspires to Reveal The Higher Self

On Sunday, I took a workshop with Seane Corn "Everyday Miracles" at the Yoga Journal Conference NYC. I thoroughly enjoyed her discussion on how symbolic each moment, each encounter, each event, and each relationship is to our spiritual growth. Everything in your life, Seane said, you've chosen. I have heard this before from my teacher Mokshapriya, and have come to believe in it. We choose -- most of the time unconsciously -- the conditions and circumstances of our lives in order to gain insight, to learn about ourselves, and ultimately, to improve ourselves. The instances that are you most challenged by, in fact, are the greatest occasions for learning. This is especially applicable to the people in your family... because they are best at pushing your buttons and you cannot easily get away from them. They are there to do just that, to irritate you, to challenge you, to make you change. They will not stop testing you and behaving in the way that they do until you come to realize this and learn from it. Once you do learn from it, you can feel liberated knowing that they probably will stop pressing you or the conflict you were once stressed by will magically disappear.

To put it simply, each and every moment conspires to reveal the higher self to you. This is why when you are in a rush, you are frantic, impatient, unmindful, and in a panic because you are running late and just need to get to where you are going, you will almost always end up stuck behind the slowest-moving vehicle on the road, you are unfailingly detoured and delayed further, because that is the way the universe works. The universe will smack you down when you are living from a place of ego and attachment and will test you to try and set you straight, teach you patience, love, compassion, acceptance, and nonattachment. 

So the next time you find yourself in a dilemma, profoundly irritated by someone right in front of you, ask yourself what it is they are mirroring to you about yourself. What is it that they are trying to reveal to you for you to work upon? Open yourself up to this, be willing to explore these questions, and in fact, embrace these questions because we are so lucky to be in the position to ask them.

Yoga Journal Conference New York 2011

I have so much to say about this. First of all, I am still in the thick of it. I have another day to witness.

Perhaps the most beautiful is the way it has unfolded in front of me thus far. Centuries and centuries of knowledge and wisdom and love and light sparkles all around the hotel like neon glitter. You can hear, feel, and see this energy all around, through walls, through ceilings, and through floors. It feels like there are little outbursts and uproars of Oms all along 6th Avenue, but realistically it is only confined to the walls of the Hilton: the walls we have chosen, the walls we push up against, the walls we kick up against, the walls we rest against, the walls that separate us, or the walls that unite us...

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.