So, its been being drawn to my attention a lot lately the fact that yoga is an area in which not much is said about homosexuality, me being a homosexual and having addressed this a lot lately I've felt led to type some words on it.
In the Kundalini Yoga Yahoo group there has been a discussion lately about gay marriage and how the 3HO feels about it, how Yogi Bhajan felt about it, etc. I am reading his book The Mind; Its Projections and Multiple Facets, right now and in it I would feel obliged to point out that he is not trying to get us to comply with any Sikh rules or any rules involving what anyone else thinks at all. He is trying to get us to do his exercises, use the meditations he has taught us to simply come to ourselves and the Guru that is within and form our own patterns of thought of things. Not to worry about what anyone else thinks at all, but to formulate our own lines of thought around any and every subject that comes up in our lives. I know in America we are mostly taught to be followers and consumers, told on a daily basis what to buy, what to wear, what to eat, what to think, what not to think, etc and it would seem that the teachings he is laying down or was laying down before leaving his body were to liberate us from those trains of thought, to liberate us to create our own ideas of things and even then to liberate ourselves from those self-created trains of thought eventually. Constantly evolving and growing, preparing us for the onset of the Aquarian age.
When I first began with Ashtanga and went to Boulder to study with K. Pattabhi Jois for a week I wondered at this. There seemed to be many gay men there, and a few lesbians, but that subject was never brought up, not once. So I was asking about it and was responded to about how India looks at homosexuality as a whole, so why ask about something that his general upbringing had made him prejudiced against? Certainly I guess, but then the guy talking expounded a bit, saying how it really made no difference what Guruji thought because yoga was about your union with your divine self, not his union with his divine self, and so what really mattered was how I felt about it, right? Duh!
So then on to Anusara, they being Tantrically rooted were more accepting and would talk about it and basically told me the same thing--why does it matter what we think, what do you think? Its all about your connection to the divine, not mine! Duh!
So all of these paths of yoga, different, yet leading to the same goal have said the same thing, to my heart anyway, not necessarily straight from each teachers mouth but from the teachings to the openness of my mind and the connection I've created for myself to the universe, it only matters what I think. Because I create my reality right? You don't, nor you, nor you, just me and my mind create it.
So next week my gay friend who is also a yogi comes to town to teach some workshops on building ones inner fire through a yoga practice, burning the learning into oneself through the physicality of it all. It will be great to have him (check out his blog at www.yogiinthecity.blogspot.com) and have fellowship with another being trying to use yoga to create a better life and connection for himself. Also having met another gay yogi in St Louis recently I've found it nice to be able discuss yogic ideas and trains of thought with other gay men. My roommates as well, they are on their own path but are the kind of people who love to discuss this stuff too. It is nice to have that, something I've wanted for many years, gay people in my life who in it for more than just the partying, smoky bar, hook up lifestyle.
I've been wanting more for a while and put it out there long enough that now I'm open to it and drawing those like minded individuals to my life, and saying to the universe thanks for leading me to these teachings just so I could become okay with myself feeling how I feel, diving deeper into me and not worrying about what anyone else thinks of me. It only matters what I think of me and ultimately that doesnt' even matter, because the soul that uses this body for learning and teaching and growing, is already a piece of the greater soul out there and is okay with whatever comes out of me, because it is divine in and of itself.
So lets be gay, straight, bisexual, whatever we may be, just be the best, fullest, happiest, most loving versions of ourselves we can be and walk down the street with our heads held high, even as our beards get bigger and bigger (speaking of myself there! lol) and hair gets longer and longer and let the brightness that is our souls shine out through our skin, through our bright eyes and inspire others to want that same connection we have, to look to their own hearts to find it and become it.
Lets defy everything we're taught and be happy and peaceful and full of life and go forth into the world and Be Yoga!
Sat Nam, Sat Inder Singh
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
White Tantric Yoga
So I've attended my first White Tantric Yoga, from the kundalini yoga tradition as taught by Yogi Bhajan. It was about 9 hours of kundalini partner work that is usually very physically intense and mentally intense, but this one was less physically intense for me and more mental work.
I was partnered with a lovely lady named Gloria and we've since become fast friends. It was an experience like no other for sure. It was great that the facilitator, Satsimran Kaur Khalsa, was an irreverent, down to earth yogini who just happened to be the one who worked with Yogi Bhajan to create these White Tantrics for us, so it was very cool to be in her presence.
There were a couple others with us from St Louis and so it was a little community builder. Its as if once you've gone through one you and the people you're with are bonded more deeply, I guess because of the intensity of the situation. And I'm sure because of the kundalini yogis surrounding you. They are all just the most peaceful, down to earth, loving and helpful folks you could want to meet.
I have been glowing ever since, other than coming down a bit yesterday. Feeling a bit more angry and uptight, but it went away as soon as I relaxed around it and let it go. After Hugh (my roommate) and I went through the Surya Kriya this morning I felt just as awesome as I had since Saturday.
Not much else to say, since I haven't processed all of whats going on in my body and mind yet. It was powerful and the energy of it still courses through me, and just makes me happy and peaceful and not wanting to think so much, so when something comes to me I'll be blogging again!
Sat Nam, Sat Inder Singh
I was partnered with a lovely lady named Gloria and we've since become fast friends. It was an experience like no other for sure. It was great that the facilitator, Satsimran Kaur Khalsa, was an irreverent, down to earth yogini who just happened to be the one who worked with Yogi Bhajan to create these White Tantrics for us, so it was very cool to be in her presence.
There were a couple others with us from St Louis and so it was a little community builder. Its as if once you've gone through one you and the people you're with are bonded more deeply, I guess because of the intensity of the situation. And I'm sure because of the kundalini yogis surrounding you. They are all just the most peaceful, down to earth, loving and helpful folks you could want to meet.
I have been glowing ever since, other than coming down a bit yesterday. Feeling a bit more angry and uptight, but it went away as soon as I relaxed around it and let it go. After Hugh (my roommate) and I went through the Surya Kriya this morning I felt just as awesome as I had since Saturday.
Not much else to say, since I haven't processed all of whats going on in my body and mind yet. It was powerful and the energy of it still courses through me, and just makes me happy and peaceful and not wanting to think so much, so when something comes to me I'll be blogging again!
Sat Nam, Sat Inder Singh
Saturday, March 21, 2009
See the pot, not the paint
The above is a quote I shortened to this succinct statement. The full synopsis was written by Douglas Brooks in his Tantric interpretation of the Bhagavad Ghita. I'm not going to type out the complete quote because I think the shortened statement says it all.
The idea being that a pot is always the same pot it was even when you paint it blue. The blue is irrelevant because its the same clay pot underneath it. Meaning we are all the same underneath. Looking at it from a physical perspective we're all red blood, muscle tissue, veins, nerves and bones, no matter what color or how hairy or smooth or whatever the packaging looks like. I like to see it from a more metaphysical perspective, we're all casing for a soul. A soul, being a small piece of the larger divine, is always there floating around and commiserating with other souls until they decide to come into a body, then they are all just this physical ick and goo housing the soul. The soul being the animating factor to the physical body.
Since we're all the same, really, literally and figuratively why can't we all just get along. Yogi Bhajan is quoted as saying "if you can't see god in all, you can't see god at all." Sounds true to me, but it also sounds like a life of constant work. Most think of it as once you get enlightened or "get it," get the divine connection to our physicality, then the work is done. Not so, the work is never done as long as you are physical.
I imagine its why some yogis are known for just deciding their time is up and sitting down and leaving the body, which then passes on once it is no longer needed as housing for the spirit. They felt their message was spread as well as could be or they had taught as many as could hear them and they were no longer of use, so they left to continue their work in a non-physical form.
I like the idea of that. I have felt many times that I was uninspired at the time and how to get reinspired so that I could feel it necessary to keep teaching. Partly this is why I have sought out the teaching within the Kundalini Yoga tradition as taught by Yogi Bhajan. They connect me more to my spirit than any other thing I've ever found. Anusara comes close, but Anusara still feels too physically oriented to me. The philosophic teachings I've learned from John Friend, or Desiree or Douglas Brooks are amazing and I love and embrace them as my own but the breathwork and physical movements taught to me by thru my Kundalini practices complete make me know there is a spirit living in me and it is vital and wants to spread love and peace and joy, like nothing I've ever wanted before.
When you can feel as fucking awesome as I've been feeling lately, from a few moments of action and breath and from observing thought patterns and not allowing them to reach into that dark place they once felt so at home in, then you want to share it. Share it with anyone who will listen or try it or anyone who asks.
It also makes me want to embrace all forms of spiritual practice, whether I agree they feel spiritual or not, someone does and thats okay. Their connection is their connection and mine is mine, if they come to me for advice on how to connect I can show them my ideas of it, otherwise they follow their own path. Which is a new idea for me, once thinking the only way to find that yoking, or yoga, is the way I thought. So it may be a work in progress but it is one I'm now letting in. Let go and let god they say, right? lol
May the longtime sun shine upon you, all love surround you and the pure light within you guide your way on. Sat Nam!!!
The idea being that a pot is always the same pot it was even when you paint it blue. The blue is irrelevant because its the same clay pot underneath it. Meaning we are all the same underneath. Looking at it from a physical perspective we're all red blood, muscle tissue, veins, nerves and bones, no matter what color or how hairy or smooth or whatever the packaging looks like. I like to see it from a more metaphysical perspective, we're all casing for a soul. A soul, being a small piece of the larger divine, is always there floating around and commiserating with other souls until they decide to come into a body, then they are all just this physical ick and goo housing the soul. The soul being the animating factor to the physical body.
Since we're all the same, really, literally and figuratively why can't we all just get along. Yogi Bhajan is quoted as saying "if you can't see god in all, you can't see god at all." Sounds true to me, but it also sounds like a life of constant work. Most think of it as once you get enlightened or "get it," get the divine connection to our physicality, then the work is done. Not so, the work is never done as long as you are physical.
I imagine its why some yogis are known for just deciding their time is up and sitting down and leaving the body, which then passes on once it is no longer needed as housing for the spirit. They felt their message was spread as well as could be or they had taught as many as could hear them and they were no longer of use, so they left to continue their work in a non-physical form.
I like the idea of that. I have felt many times that I was uninspired at the time and how to get reinspired so that I could feel it necessary to keep teaching. Partly this is why I have sought out the teaching within the Kundalini Yoga tradition as taught by Yogi Bhajan. They connect me more to my spirit than any other thing I've ever found. Anusara comes close, but Anusara still feels too physically oriented to me. The philosophic teachings I've learned from John Friend, or Desiree or Douglas Brooks are amazing and I love and embrace them as my own but the breathwork and physical movements taught to me by thru my Kundalini practices complete make me know there is a spirit living in me and it is vital and wants to spread love and peace and joy, like nothing I've ever wanted before.
When you can feel as fucking awesome as I've been feeling lately, from a few moments of action and breath and from observing thought patterns and not allowing them to reach into that dark place they once felt so at home in, then you want to share it. Share it with anyone who will listen or try it or anyone who asks.
It also makes me want to embrace all forms of spiritual practice, whether I agree they feel spiritual or not, someone does and thats okay. Their connection is their connection and mine is mine, if they come to me for advice on how to connect I can show them my ideas of it, otherwise they follow their own path. Which is a new idea for me, once thinking the only way to find that yoking, or yoga, is the way I thought. So it may be a work in progress but it is one I'm now letting in. Let go and let god they say, right? lol
May the longtime sun shine upon you, all love surround you and the pure light within you guide your way on. Sat Nam!!!
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
chakras . . .
So, I'm having lots of trouble around my throat chakra. My sinuses have been draining intensely for over a week, but mostly manifesting in my throat, causing my voice to be hoarse, froggy or completely gone! (Some would not think this a bad think, lol).
So, I've done lots of kundalini, which has freed up my sinuses, cleared out and cloggy nose stuff. I've done some asana, which I do with ujjayi breath and that clears me out a lot too, maybe moreso than the shallow nostril breathing used in kundalini. And I've looked into myself a lot to see why on earth I may be manifesting this.
Kundalini yoga looks at the arms as an extension of the heart chakra and we've done lots of arms in class lately, and consequentely my heart has opened up a lot, but its tightened my shoulders, traps mostly and created a lot of heat in that area, and the throat stuff. SO that bumps into the throat chakra, which is looked on (when there is a problem in that area) as being someone not connecting their heart chakra to their throat chakra, thereby not speaking from their heart or not speaking their truth. I do think I am guilty of this. Most wouldn't believe it because I'm so bluntly honest most of the time, but that blunt honesty can also be a defense mechanism!
So my truth is changing and I'm not knowing where it is right now, so it seems hard to connect to that and speak it, you know? So I'm embracing the not knowing, the not having my finger completely on what destination to which I'm headed. Or at least I'm trying to embrace that! lol.
Abraham, whose teachings I've been completely working into my life (www.abraham-hicks.com) says that every cell in our body is a chakra. The heavy level of cells it takes to make up a gland in our systems just makes those areas more intense and heavy energetically, and therefor the Eastern focus on those areas. So maybe I need to not focus so much on just the throat or thyroid and parathyroid glands, maybe I just need to focus on liberating each cell, on its own and think of the space between them, which when you look at cells from a quantum perspective there are millions of miles between each one, even in the clustered areas such as our glands and organs. Think of it freeing up on a subatomic level, make each and every cell feel the energy travelling through it and around it.
Kundalini yoga works on your body on a cellular level, changing it as you pass thru a tough challenge, works on your third chakra (solar plexus), your commitment or willpower chakra. Strengthens it and opens it up. That area used to be my biggest problem and as I stick with it, I'm moving past it as a problem and thru the Anusara and kundalini yogas have opened up my heart chakra and now have moved up to the throat. And through figuring my truth out will also move past that area and free up everything and make myself a conduit for truth and energy in all its forms, and hopefully be able to use that to help all my students do the same for themselves.
I've done one kundalini class this morning and I think I'll go to the other one tonight at 5:30, in hopes that I am digging deeper into my issues and freeing them up via physical bodywork and energetic work and letting go of them. Letting go really is the key! When I was on Maui in 2002 studying ashtanga with one of the first Americans to learn the system from Guruji, K. Pattabhi Jois; Nancy Gilgoff, a girl staying with her, Betsy I believe, said to me just let go and love--thats all you need to know, just let go and let love come thru. Letting go, quit holding on to anything, to whatever we cling to to trick ourselves into believing makes us feel better, really is the key to freedom. Freedom in our bodies, freedom in our lives, freedom in our minds, freedom in our relationships, to others, to god, to the world, to whatever. Let go and let god as they say . . .
Sat Nam
So, I've done lots of kundalini, which has freed up my sinuses, cleared out and cloggy nose stuff. I've done some asana, which I do with ujjayi breath and that clears me out a lot too, maybe moreso than the shallow nostril breathing used in kundalini. And I've looked into myself a lot to see why on earth I may be manifesting this.
Kundalini yoga looks at the arms as an extension of the heart chakra and we've done lots of arms in class lately, and consequentely my heart has opened up a lot, but its tightened my shoulders, traps mostly and created a lot of heat in that area, and the throat stuff. SO that bumps into the throat chakra, which is looked on (when there is a problem in that area) as being someone not connecting their heart chakra to their throat chakra, thereby not speaking from their heart or not speaking their truth. I do think I am guilty of this. Most wouldn't believe it because I'm so bluntly honest most of the time, but that blunt honesty can also be a defense mechanism!
So my truth is changing and I'm not knowing where it is right now, so it seems hard to connect to that and speak it, you know? So I'm embracing the not knowing, the not having my finger completely on what destination to which I'm headed. Or at least I'm trying to embrace that! lol.
Abraham, whose teachings I've been completely working into my life (www.abraham-hicks.com) says that every cell in our body is a chakra. The heavy level of cells it takes to make up a gland in our systems just makes those areas more intense and heavy energetically, and therefor the Eastern focus on those areas. So maybe I need to not focus so much on just the throat or thyroid and parathyroid glands, maybe I just need to focus on liberating each cell, on its own and think of the space between them, which when you look at cells from a quantum perspective there are millions of miles between each one, even in the clustered areas such as our glands and organs. Think of it freeing up on a subatomic level, make each and every cell feel the energy travelling through it and around it.
Kundalini yoga works on your body on a cellular level, changing it as you pass thru a tough challenge, works on your third chakra (solar plexus), your commitment or willpower chakra. Strengthens it and opens it up. That area used to be my biggest problem and as I stick with it, I'm moving past it as a problem and thru the Anusara and kundalini yogas have opened up my heart chakra and now have moved up to the throat. And through figuring my truth out will also move past that area and free up everything and make myself a conduit for truth and energy in all its forms, and hopefully be able to use that to help all my students do the same for themselves.
I've done one kundalini class this morning and I think I'll go to the other one tonight at 5:30, in hopes that I am digging deeper into my issues and freeing them up via physical bodywork and energetic work and letting go of them. Letting go really is the key! When I was on Maui in 2002 studying ashtanga with one of the first Americans to learn the system from Guruji, K. Pattabhi Jois; Nancy Gilgoff, a girl staying with her, Betsy I believe, said to me just let go and love--thats all you need to know, just let go and let love come thru. Letting go, quit holding on to anything, to whatever we cling to to trick ourselves into believing makes us feel better, really is the key to freedom. Freedom in our bodies, freedom in our lives, freedom in our minds, freedom in our relationships, to others, to god, to the world, to whatever. Let go and let god as they say . . .
Sat Nam
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Desiree Rumbaugh
The above mentioned is my Anusara teacher, my main Anusara teacher anyway. She is an amazing individual who has taught me how to figure myself out more than anyone else thus far.
She was in town this weekend and I got to spend the whole time learning more from her, discussing things at lunch and during class, demonstrating things for her in class and I feel inspired and completed, but also worn out. She is a tough one and you work hard in her classes to line up your body so that the spirit/energy, whichever or whatever you like to call it, can flow through the body with more ease.
The one thing I notice is that it builds up a lot of energy around my second chakra, the sexual center, which is fine and dandy but I am also doing a 40 day commitment to celibacy, no masturbation, nothing. That is for personal reasons, best explained at another time.
That said I don't need a lot of energy built up right there right now so I woke up this morning did my kundalini 11 minute 1000 day meditation then proceeded to do a kriya that is to balance the energy of the lower chakras with the upper chakras. So far, so good. It feels like its working and I feel better than I have in a long time!
I believe the Anusara has helped me learn how to open up my heart and let the energy and love both in and out, but the Kundalini is helping me to arrange the energy in my body where its most needed and when its most needed there. They are complimentary to one another for me and my life at this time. That may change but for now they are amazingly changing me for the better. I feel more love and am feeling that I am able to allow more love in, to receive it. Receiving it has always been a problem for me but hopefully not for much longer!
THIS is the year of change for me, I am embracing this as my life and using the tools that I've learned over the past 9 years to finally open myself up, my heart and my life. To experience everything more fully and more fully being to bring love into it and not just to emit the love but to also receive it from whomever is giving it.
If the age of Aquarius is truly in bloom and dawning at this very time and its all about love and releasing the habits or holdings on maybe(?) from the Piscean era, which was the me era, all about us, selfishness, to a selfless and loving existence count me in! I'm ready for it and am finally using the tools I've learned over the years to change and open up.
Sat Nam!
She was in town this weekend and I got to spend the whole time learning more from her, discussing things at lunch and during class, demonstrating things for her in class and I feel inspired and completed, but also worn out. She is a tough one and you work hard in her classes to line up your body so that the spirit/energy, whichever or whatever you like to call it, can flow through the body with more ease.
The one thing I notice is that it builds up a lot of energy around my second chakra, the sexual center, which is fine and dandy but I am also doing a 40 day commitment to celibacy, no masturbation, nothing. That is for personal reasons, best explained at another time.
That said I don't need a lot of energy built up right there right now so I woke up this morning did my kundalini 11 minute 1000 day meditation then proceeded to do a kriya that is to balance the energy of the lower chakras with the upper chakras. So far, so good. It feels like its working and I feel better than I have in a long time!
I believe the Anusara has helped me learn how to open up my heart and let the energy and love both in and out, but the Kundalini is helping me to arrange the energy in my body where its most needed and when its most needed there. They are complimentary to one another for me and my life at this time. That may change but for now they are amazingly changing me for the better. I feel more love and am feeling that I am able to allow more love in, to receive it. Receiving it has always been a problem for me but hopefully not for much longer!
THIS is the year of change for me, I am embracing this as my life and using the tools that I've learned over the past 9 years to finally open myself up, my heart and my life. To experience everything more fully and more fully being to bring love into it and not just to emit the love but to also receive it from whomever is giving it.
If the age of Aquarius is truly in bloom and dawning at this very time and its all about love and releasing the habits or holdings on maybe(?) from the Piscean era, which was the me era, all about us, selfishness, to a selfless and loving existence count me in! I'm ready for it and am finally using the tools I've learned over the years to change and open up.
Sat Nam!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
This year
So, I kept having feelings that this year would be a big deal. Just in the since that the manifestations and energy in my life are finally lining up and going to make my teaching more lucrative and send me on a life adventure that I can only imagine, right now anyway. I also keep feeling this is finally the year I'm going to move, don't know why, but everything is pointing that direction.
So I began my kundalini practice more regularly again and decided to ask for a spiritual name from the 3HO organization which is the hub of the kundalini yoga experienced in this country and they, going off my astrology and the path I lead in life granted me the name Sat Inder Singh. Sat meaning truth, Inder meaning divine consciousness and Singh (which all males get) meaning lion of god. So I'm the lion of god who lives in truth and divine consciousness. WOW, now thats a name right?
But the most interesting thing happened to me as I slept that night, the name swirling around in my consciousness, and I awoke with a purpose in life--to commit myself to living up to the expectations of that name. I want to deserve to be called that! So now I find myself planning deeper things, workshops, messages for a class, working towards feeling as if I've earned that name.
And I feel lighter and more connected to source than ever before. I feel more driven to practice, not just asana or kundalini at a set time of day, but all day long--doing the exact thing Ghandi is known for stating, being the change I wish to see in the world.
I'm amazed at how I feel inside, its most uncanny, especially for someone who sits in such a negative space normally. The yoga has finally begun to work its magic and the catalyst was a name telling me how powerful I am, things I thought I already knew about myself, but maybe I needed the little push to believe it. Its just amazing.
I fall more and more in love with life and the way it works as I get to understand it more and more each day. I fall more and more in love with people all around me as I see them more and more to be the manifestations of the divine that they really are. I see more and more and I do create my own reality and when I'm in that dumpy place I can get so easily that the money isn't there, the opportunities aren't there, hell the life isn't there! So I'm chosing to live my life so fully and intentionally that I'll never be able to head that direction again!
Sat Nam, Keith
So I began my kundalini practice more regularly again and decided to ask for a spiritual name from the 3HO organization which is the hub of the kundalini yoga experienced in this country and they, going off my astrology and the path I lead in life granted me the name Sat Inder Singh. Sat meaning truth, Inder meaning divine consciousness and Singh (which all males get) meaning lion of god. So I'm the lion of god who lives in truth and divine consciousness. WOW, now thats a name right?
But the most interesting thing happened to me as I slept that night, the name swirling around in my consciousness, and I awoke with a purpose in life--to commit myself to living up to the expectations of that name. I want to deserve to be called that! So now I find myself planning deeper things, workshops, messages for a class, working towards feeling as if I've earned that name.
And I feel lighter and more connected to source than ever before. I feel more driven to practice, not just asana or kundalini at a set time of day, but all day long--doing the exact thing Ghandi is known for stating, being the change I wish to see in the world.
I'm amazed at how I feel inside, its most uncanny, especially for someone who sits in such a negative space normally. The yoga has finally begun to work its magic and the catalyst was a name telling me how powerful I am, things I thought I already knew about myself, but maybe I needed the little push to believe it. Its just amazing.
I fall more and more in love with life and the way it works as I get to understand it more and more each day. I fall more and more in love with people all around me as I see them more and more to be the manifestations of the divine that they really are. I see more and more and I do create my own reality and when I'm in that dumpy place I can get so easily that the money isn't there, the opportunities aren't there, hell the life isn't there! So I'm chosing to live my life so fully and intentionally that I'll never be able to head that direction again!
Sat Nam, Keith
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Change/evolution
Well, finally I'm back to writing again, hopefully regularly this time and after just watching inaugeration address and the following speeches I chose to call this entry change.
We all change, everything evolves. Human, beast, rock, river, air, absolutely everything moves forward. But how well do we embrace that growth? How often do we hold on so tightly to the past, even get attached to it in an unhealthy way? I think most of us do it most of the time.
I fancy myself someone who embraces change and growth and yet I've allowed an attachment to persist so much so that it was to my detriment. Trust me, there is probably more than this one thing but this one thing is what inspired me to write today.
I began, as most people know, my yoga career with ashtanga. Practiced it 6-7 days a week, sometimes twice a day and even taught only it for many years. It was my life and I loved it and loved sharing it with others, until ... I got invited to teach a power vinyasa class. This idea threw me for a loop, do I do the same sequencing? do I do this... or that? What the hell do I do?
So I just went in and got quiet inside and let the class come out of my mouth, never knowing the next move and when I got caught up and thought in the middle of the class I got lost and had to let go again and let it flow out of me and it was awesome!
That one event is what changed my idea that ashtanga was the end all be all of my existence. Now I kept practicing it another 4 years, up until last July, but my mind opened to other possibilities which led me to a weekend workshop with Mitchel Bleier in which I was introduced to Anusara. What an eye opening that was for me? You mean I can open up my body with these alignments and I dont' have to hurt anymore?!? What?!?
So that started a process and as of last July, after attending a workshop at Kripalu Yoga Center with Desiree Rumbaugh I have not practicing the ashtanga sequencing with its fast pacedness and have embraced a bigger teaching. I still teach vinyasa (flow between postures), I just do it now with alignment pointers throughout and stopping periodically to workshop a pose and how to do it, get it to where everyone can attempt it.
The thing I mentioned earlier was that I still had one ashtanga class left, in Collinsville, at the same place I taught my first class. They loved it so I held onto it, but as my passion for it waned they could tell and slowly attendance dropped off and eventually completely failed most of the time. So I came to a decision last week to let go of it, and now the river of life is flowing through me again and pushing me forward and bringing me more opportunities and students. It was like that one rock left from my past blocked the flow of the whole goddamn river!
I feel so inspired to teach, every time I teach now and feel love and acceptance from students towards my teachings and even though I have two more weeks to teach that class, the old students have contacted me and are coming back to attend the class one or two last times just for posterities sake.
Its cool to observe this happening and feel it happening. Opening my life up to the change and to the new things that can be coming my way, opening my mind up to that change, embracing the new direction and letting go to follow it happily. It reminds me of the teachings of Abraham, from Esther Hicks, you have to make peace with where you are and then allow the things you want in. They call it the Art of Allowing, and if you put out there what you want but hold onto it so tightly it will never have the space to get to you, but if you put it out there and then step out of the way and live your life as if its already yours then it will become yours, does become yours.
I foresee great things for myself, and for those all around me and hope I can inspire others to embrace the letting go and allowing the good into their lives. Including anyone who reads this!!!
Namaste,
Keith
We all change, everything evolves. Human, beast, rock, river, air, absolutely everything moves forward. But how well do we embrace that growth? How often do we hold on so tightly to the past, even get attached to it in an unhealthy way? I think most of us do it most of the time.
I fancy myself someone who embraces change and growth and yet I've allowed an attachment to persist so much so that it was to my detriment. Trust me, there is probably more than this one thing but this one thing is what inspired me to write today.
I began, as most people know, my yoga career with ashtanga. Practiced it 6-7 days a week, sometimes twice a day and even taught only it for many years. It was my life and I loved it and loved sharing it with others, until ... I got invited to teach a power vinyasa class. This idea threw me for a loop, do I do the same sequencing? do I do this... or that? What the hell do I do?
So I just went in and got quiet inside and let the class come out of my mouth, never knowing the next move and when I got caught up and thought in the middle of the class I got lost and had to let go again and let it flow out of me and it was awesome!
That one event is what changed my idea that ashtanga was the end all be all of my existence. Now I kept practicing it another 4 years, up until last July, but my mind opened to other possibilities which led me to a weekend workshop with Mitchel Bleier in which I was introduced to Anusara. What an eye opening that was for me? You mean I can open up my body with these alignments and I dont' have to hurt anymore?!? What?!?
So that started a process and as of last July, after attending a workshop at Kripalu Yoga Center with Desiree Rumbaugh I have not practicing the ashtanga sequencing with its fast pacedness and have embraced a bigger teaching. I still teach vinyasa (flow between postures), I just do it now with alignment pointers throughout and stopping periodically to workshop a pose and how to do it, get it to where everyone can attempt it.
The thing I mentioned earlier was that I still had one ashtanga class left, in Collinsville, at the same place I taught my first class. They loved it so I held onto it, but as my passion for it waned they could tell and slowly attendance dropped off and eventually completely failed most of the time. So I came to a decision last week to let go of it, and now the river of life is flowing through me again and pushing me forward and bringing me more opportunities and students. It was like that one rock left from my past blocked the flow of the whole goddamn river!
I feel so inspired to teach, every time I teach now and feel love and acceptance from students towards my teachings and even though I have two more weeks to teach that class, the old students have contacted me and are coming back to attend the class one or two last times just for posterities sake.
Its cool to observe this happening and feel it happening. Opening my life up to the change and to the new things that can be coming my way, opening my mind up to that change, embracing the new direction and letting go to follow it happily. It reminds me of the teachings of Abraham, from Esther Hicks, you have to make peace with where you are and then allow the things you want in. They call it the Art of Allowing, and if you put out there what you want but hold onto it so tightly it will never have the space to get to you, but if you put it out there and then step out of the way and live your life as if its already yours then it will become yours, does become yours.
I foresee great things for myself, and for those all around me and hope I can inspire others to embrace the letting go and allowing the good into their lives. Including anyone who reads this!!!
Namaste,
Keith
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