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Mysterious Remedy, Powerful Role By Laura Mills

Too many times I’ve attended a yoga class and exited feeling I received just what I needed. Yes, when in the mood for a yogic “butt kicking” I’ve purposely chosen a class that would especially challenge me, or when craving an easeful flow I’ve found a restorative or beginners’ class. But even when I’ve gone to a class without any idea of what I needed, most of the time I’ve still left with humility and gratitude, feeling as if the teacher had tailored the class to me.    

When training to teach yoga, short of paying attention to weather, time of year, and events in the news, or else asking students before class, I didn’t learn any mystical secret for determining students’ practice needs. Yet after nearly every class—regardless of day, time or level—at least one student tells me, “That was great, just what I needed today,” or something like that. My amazement never fails; somehow, whatever I plan for a particular class finds at least one person in the right place at the right time. I don’t understand and can’t explain how it happens, but the fact that it does happen assures me I don’t need to understand something in order to experience positivity in it.   

And, it humbles me to know I help make such positivity possible for others.    

Oh, I knew of yoga’s ability to humble long before I started teaching. Time and again I’ve struggled in my own practice, tiring long before the ends of classes, sweating through head- and handstand preparations and other—to me—scary asana work, struggling through a hamstring injury. The further my practice developed the more help I realized I needed. I asked more questions, accepted more instruction, and with my teachers’ guidance eventually discovered a yoga practice all my own. 

But now, as a teacher myself, my humility exists in a whole new dimension. When I look out into the studio before class I see students whom I know are working through physical pain or emotional turmoil or both, and many of whom are daily building deeper practices and incorporating yoga further into their lives. I can’t help but feel tremendous respect for my students, choosing yoga as their means of healing and enrichment, putting their trust into something so powerful and mysterious. And I can’t help but feel small and even a bit scared by the knowledge that, if my own experience as a student indicates anything, as their practices deepen students look to me more and more as their guide. Yes, I’ve trained 200+ hours to teach yoga, but I’m still a student myself, still feel I need yoga for my own ongoing healing and enrichment, still haven’t approached understanding what yoga is and can be in my life’s big picture. Yet in the classes I teach, when I see a student close his or her eyes during meditation, smile during Surya Namaskar, or cry in Savasana, I realize that somehow what I’ve planned for that day is doing just what it’s supposed to do….

No yoga teacher should underestimate his or her impact on students. We consciously write classes to the best of our ability, but somehow a deeper guidance takes place that leads individual, unique students into individual, unique practices where they find whatever they need at a particular moment. This is why all of us have chosen yoga, I think; we can’t explain exactly how it works, but it works, and this ultimately brings comfort and peace to teachers and students alike because it confirms our membership in something greater than ourselves. The contentment I see when I look out into the studio during Savasana confirms this for me, every class…and reaffirms what a tremendous privilege, what an incredible experience, what an utter joy it is to teach.   

May 28, 2009:

 

Dear Friends in the Flow,

 

Have you ever thought about it?  I have. 

Will practicing Yoga make you rich?

 

And if yoga as is written in ancient texts shows us how “Living from your authentic truth releases your vital energy in the world so you are the fertile expression of yourSelf - not an illusion - which has no real energy to grow.”

 

Well then will HAPPINESS MAKE YOU RICH?

Think about it if you are happier then you are more creative and productive at work, at home, in life.  And the feedback loop works pretty well here, there is a causal relationship between how happy we are at home with how we perform in our work place.  And if something is out of sync we get in our own way. Spiritual practice teaches us that Life is always evolving in the direction of happiness if we can learn how to stop sabotaging ourselves.  Yoga provides us that opportunity to REBOOT.  We get on the mat to cleanse the mind so we can see more clearly and be the most fertile expression of ourselves in the world.  Through this practice energy slumps or stuckness or stagnation is cleared and the flow of more creative loving energy expands.  When we are our happiest our energy flows and abundance in the form of currency, love, and peace increase. 

 

So tonight surround yourself with positive vibration, meet other friends in the flow and as John de Kadt from his CD “This Rhythm is Not Mine” sings “Feet fingers tapping toes...move your bones where the rhythm goes...dance your dreams...discover what your body knows"  Join me this evening at 7:30pm Level 1, let’s all Get Rich in Love and Life!  Yours with blessings, Silvia

 

 

  

AUGUST 14TH, 2008:  This morning when I was pulling out of the driveway the mailbox door was open.  I had in my bag next to me my Netflix to return (which I usually hold on to for an extra 2 weeks). But today I stopped the car.  I read this as the sign it was – to return my Netflix so I can get more movies.  Profound!  Well maybe not world changing but you get the point.  Everything in our path is there with great purpose all we have to do is open our minds and hearts.  At the same time it is important not to get caught up in the pitfall of asking why, after why, after why.  Who are we to think we should understand the bigger reasons behind why things happen?  Maybe we just need have faith.  Once I surrendered to moving beyond the sudden death of my Father at the age of 59 years old to trusting the universe again my life got softer, I got softer.  So today I wish you your own best strength, don’t lose trust even when you’ve been deeply hurt. Keep the faith and it will all be as it should be.  Trust life, love life, love yourself….Silvia 

TODAY’S INSPIRATION - Here is a quote from Unmistakable Touch of Grace by Cheryl Richardson

Every event we experience and every person we meet has intentionally been put in our path to help raise our level of consciousness.  When we awaken to this fundamental truth, life becomes a true adventure, a spiritual adventure.  The person who smiles at you while you are walking down the street is no longer a stranger. The phone call from an old friend who crossed your mind is no longer a surprise.  The failed relationship that left you broken hearted is no longer a source of bitterness and pain.  Instead it’s seen as a blessing in disguise, a gift that makes you stronger, more conscious, and ultimately, more alive.