Recently I attended a training at Omega in Rhinebeck NY called Off the Mat, Into the World, with Seane Corn, Hala Khouri and Suzanne Sterling, three of the most inspiring, amazing, trail blazing women I’ve ever studied with.  It was a workshop devoted to service in the world and conscious activism, identifying our own traumas and triggers, our own practice of being so that we can fully serve in the world consciously and with empathy.

While we did yoga every morning, the afternoons were hard core discussion, diving deep into ourselves to discover what our true passions and life purpose is.  It was the most life changing and practical training I have done. Even though I’ve been a teacher and practitioner for years, I don’t usually write much about it.  Since I took so many notes at this training and then went back and for my own understanding expanded on them later,   I thought I’d share for a change .

One of the things I love about yoga practice is that when you think about it, there really is no separation between what is done on the mat and in life. But what I practice on my mat is like a regular reminder of mindfulness, receptivity, stillness, awareness, subtlety, and presence that sets the groove and tone for where I want to be in relationship to myself, my relationships, the world.  I practice because…well, I need the practice.  It’s not easy, and sometimes it doesn’t go as well as I’d like it.  That’s reality of being human on this great planet earth, I guess.

Here are 3 of the many major themes I took away from my week.

Love comes first, change comes later. Don’t wait for things/people/situations to change before you love them.  (Or even yourself.) The energy of love is what gives the power to transform.   I once heard Rabbi Shmuel Boteach on the radio, and he said “Most people think of love as a feeling they are supposed to have, when in fact love is a verb, it’s an action.”  Its so empowering to look at it this way, isn’t it?  You can love, pro-actively, rather than waiting for something or someone to do something love-worthy.  Not that this is easy, it’s just another perspective. I love his book called “10 Conversations You Need to Have With Your Children.” It’s a must-read if you have kids.

We are spiritual beings having human experiences, not humans having spiritual experiences. If we remember that spirit is our true nature, it puts things in perspective.  We are here on the planet to learn what love is.  But in order to learn what love is, we also need to learn what love is NOT.   Our souls are trying to grow, they are begging for evolution.   It’s our ego that gets uncomfortable and thinks it sucks.    Without challenges in life, you can’t develop the wisdom to develop empathy.  And to quote the fabulous Nikki Meyers , (excuse my French, these are her words) “Sometimes you need to get through the ‘fuck you’ to get to the ‘bless you.’”

Apparently, those broken times are when transformation really happens. There was a 73 year old woman named Clementine in our group, a yoga teacher (with a beautiful yoga practice I might add), and she had been through almost everything having raised 6 kids. She said, after looking back, those times when things get tough are the best times of your life.  That’s when you come out so much stronger, and having shed parts of ourselves that we didn’t need anymore, like a snake shedding it’s old skin.    The struggle is what strengthens, like the newborn chick who would die if someone helped him hatch from his egg.  This is how we can have gratitude for our difficulties and challenges.  It’s how you can be grateful for those people or situations that are really pushing some buttons.  One of my favorite sentences I had in my notebook was, “The motherfucker was an angel!?!” (Sorry, gosh, I’m so not used to writing the F word! But that’s how they said it.)

“The issues are in the tissues,” again to quote my new friend Nikki Meyers.  Trauma lives in the body, not the mind.  Developing awareness in the body through yoga (and other mind/body modalities, like dance, movement therapy, Pilates, martial arts, breathwork)  is very healing, and unless you include the body, therapy is very limited.  Humans are really just balls of energy walking around, exchanging energy all the time.  The chakras are a good place to start looking into blocked energy.  There’s a great book that I highly recommend by Anodea Judith called “Eastern Body -Western Mind” which outlines each chakra and what energies each holds.

There’s more to come on this, but that’s all for now.  I hope this gave you something to chew on for a while!!

Be well,

Danielle