Motivation

I'm highly movitvated right now... for some things.   I'm reaching the end of the school year, and I have about a week to go. With a month off, I plan on diving right into planning and doing all I can to prepare for the rest of my yoga journey.

The first part of the journey begins next week, when I'll do 3 days of yoga in a row with my students for their enrichment.  I'm in the midst of planning some yoga/meditation sequences.  With a little bit of art thrown in for good measure.  I think they're excited and I'm hoping that most of the hour I spend with each group will go uninterrupted because it'll be in my classroom and not on the unit.   I'm a little nervous, but I think I'll practice it a few times, and I'll be ready to go.

The next part of the journey means auditioning for the studio I currently go to.  It's a little scary.  I have such amazing respect for all the teachers who work there.  They're all wonderful people who create beautiful yoga practices.  They've all been teaching for many years, and are extremely patient, wise, and AMAZING!  So I'm a little nervous for that.  I can teach art off the top of my head, and create a complete lesson and feel like I gave a little depth and understanding.  With yoga, it just seems like so much.  What to include?  What not to include?  What's the intention?  What's the area of focus?  How do you get to the peak pose?  What about injuries?  Body types?  New students?  Well seasoned students?  Sanskrit names, english names?  Yoga yamas and niyamas? How to place the body? Alignment?  Is anyone still breathing?

Yep.  I'm a little anxious.  I'm hoping to audition after the end of school, I'll be doing a one hour vinyasa sequence, where I'll be expected to demonstrate and talk, and maybe assist.

The next step in this yoga exploration is to do yoga with my family while we're at the beach. I plan on offering some gentle yoga, sun salutation series, and maybe some other stuff.  It'll help me practice, and keep my practice up.  That should be fun.  I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. 

Then, after the beach, I'm already expected to sub for a couple of friends at the studio.  One is currently a regular teacher there, and she's the best! I love her.  So much resepect for her.  I'll be subbing for her gentle yoga class.  The other friend currently has an early morning class, she was in the same teaching program and started teaching right away!  So maybe I'll be next. 

In addition to all that, I''m going to try to spend some time assisting classes and learning more about that.  It's something I'm not quite used to.  I love assisting in svasana, but that's about all I feel comfortable doing.

With a few more substituting jobs, I hope to get a class for the fall.  Wow, where did my summer go?

In between all that, I hope to spend time trying to fine tune the Creative Connection Program, find some grant money, partner up with some local community groups.  Fingers crossed someone will feel like this is worth some time and money.

It's all good, I'll be ready for whatever comes this summer.  The only thing that I would love to have is more time.  I know I should be thankful for the time off, most people aren't lucky enough to get a month off from their jobs.  But, I gotta tell you, I need it bad. 

So happy summer to you all! I hope you have time to enjoy all the things that summer brings: long days, sunshine, warm temperatures, cool drinks, cool snacks, beach, swimming, relaxation!

wow.

I will post more, but here is the proof.

I just found this figure magnet at the National Gallery of Art, then I have my good old apple magnet from make it-bake it from the 80's (apple = teacher), and  up top is a magnet that reminds me of my grandfather (I think he was the first yogi i ever encountered..). 

Feeling good, feeling a little different today.  This has been an amazing chapter in my life, but the exploration will never stop.  I don't know what is next, but I know there will be more yoga.  It's not a word or just an exercise.   It's a way.  And there are many ways....

P.S.  This is one of my favorite yoga poses ever: Trikonasana (triangle pose)

Enter, Final weekend of yoga training

So, so much for writing about the full journey I've been on these last 6 months of yoga training, but it really has been transformative.  While I expected to have more awareness of my body and develop a more conscious mind, I wasn't expecting to be so full.  As I sit here and begin to think about what the last six months have meant to me, I begin to feel emotional, my stomach whirling around and thinking.....what is next?

Well, I know a few things that will come, more study, more practice, and more patience with myself and others.  More thinking before speaking, more connections to a path ( a path that takes many twists and turns).  More opening in the mind and body.  More acceptance.

Yoga is a life long journey.  The term yoga means "to yoke" or union, bring together. and I feel that I have done that on so many levels.  From the people I've made connections with in our little group, to the very yogic union of mind and body.  I also feel that I've made much more of a connection with what really matter when it comes down to it.  Everything...and nothing, all at the same time.

The yogic path is about accepting, showing up, and being present, but letting go and not attaching to anything.  It's been one of the great discussions we've had in our group.  How do we keep showing up sometimes when it is so hard, how do we let go of anything that we hope to be an outcome.  How do we accept things as they are without judgement?  By taking it moment to moment.  Quite literally being present, with our breath.  Focusing on what we're doing in the present.

I think that I'm getting better at that.  While I sit and type, I am fully present in this blog.  I can feel my fingers glide over the letters, and feel the texture that is each key as I press my digits into each shape.  I feel the temperature of the room, the coolness on my skin. The way my skin feels in my bathrobe, and the light that begins to fill the room from outside the windows.  The birds are chirping, but they're not so close, and the hum of the fan is letting it's presence be known from the upstairs.  Each letter I type is linked to the next, each space I leave is a void.

So what is next for me after all this training?  Well, I could say--- party!  Because there will be one, and I could say more yoga classes because I will take them.  But I also say I will become an explorer once again, thinking about how I can apply all that I learned to the real world.  Next Monday night has the potential be to be a lonely one.  No more group to keep me focused, or share a similar understanding with.  But, as we all know... we create, we sustain, then we destroy.  It's a cycle, and this program is going to come to an end.

So thank you Brahma,Vishnu, and Shiva.

One thing that I can say that I was really showing up for the practice of headstand.  We'll, it took me a few months, but I finally got there:

And now I can let that go too.